The winners of the UKLA Book Awards 2024 were announced on Friday 5th July at the UKLA’s International Conference in Brighton. Celebrating exceptional children’s books that have a powerful impact both in the classroom and on individual readers, the UKLA Book Awards are the only national children’s book awards that are judged entirely by teachers.

Commenting on this year’s awards, Chair of Judges Chris Lockwood said, ‘Once again, the range and quality of the books submitted for our award were of the highest standard. There are many talented and creative writers, illustrators and translators bringing forward exciting and stimulating works for children and young people. Publishers should be congratulated on their efforts to identify, nurture and support creators working in this area. Our range of teacher judges this year needed all their skill, knowledge and insight to select the texts to go forward to the shortlists, and the final panel, which chose the winning books, should be proud and delighted with the outcomes.’

Congratulations to all the winning authors and illustrators!

Fiction and Poetry 3-6+: Winner

The Hare-Shaped Hole by John Dougherty, illustrated by Thomas Docherty (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books). The judges praised this moving book’s ‘gentle, expressive illustrations’ and felt it would give children of all ages the ‘vocabulary to talk about loss’ in all its forms.

Fiction and Poetry 7-10+: Winner

Wildsmith: Into the Dark Forest by Liz Flanagan, illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton (UCLan Publishing). The judges felt this ‘brilliantly written age-appropriate text’ with its ‘anime like’ illustrations was the ‘perfect first chapter book’, providing ‘pure reading for pleasure’. It marks the first win for indie publisher UCLan- a university-based publishing house that involves students from the University of Central Lancashire at every stage of the publishing process.

Fiction and Poetry 11-14+: Winner

Crossing the Line by debut author Tia Fisher (Hot Key Books). Based on the real experiences of a friend’s son, this ‘original and clever’ verse novel explores the complex and dangerous world of county lines drug dealing. Crossing the Line was also shortlisted for this year’s Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing and won the Shadower’s Choice Medal.

Information Books 3-14+: Winner

The Boy Who Didn’t Want to Die by Peter Lantos (Scholastic). Lantos, the oldest-ever recipient of this award at 85 yrs old, has written a direct account of his experience of surviving the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. While a difficult subject, the judges felt this groundbreaking text was ‘not about death, but about survival’ and that the ‘simple, direct and truthful’ style was entirely appropriate for its audience.

Giving classroom practitioners the opportunity to read and discuss new, high quality children’s books is an important part of the UKLA Book Awards. Overall, 84 teacher judges were involved in the judging process, with a final panel of twelve being nominated to choose the winners from this year’s shortlists.

Commenting on the experience of being a judge, Florella Scozzafava said: ‘Being on the UKLA teacher judging panel has helped me expand my reading habits and, with the support of other teacher judges, step out of my comfort zone. Hearing different interpretations on texts has helped me think more critically about what roles particular texts serve and this has made me even more deliberate in my book-buying decision making for school. I’ve come away from every meeting buzzing with ideas of how to use texts and inspired by colleagues across the country who work so hard to promote the love of reading.’

Find out more about becoming a judge for the 2025 UKLA Book Awards.