Young Quills shortlist 2024
HA annual awards for best historical fiction for young people
It is here! We are delighted to announce the shortlist for 2024 Young Quills Awards for Historical Fiction. You can read reviews of all this year's entries here.
For readers aged 5-8 years
Title |
Author |
Publisher |
Moving the Millers' Minnie Moore Mine Mansion |
Dave Eggers (illus Júlia Sardà) |
Walker |
The Most Famous Rhinoceros |
Dianne Hofmeyr (illus Simona Mulazzani) |
Otter-Barry Books |
For readers aged 8–11 years
Title |
Author |
Publisher |
Stone Arrows |
Elizabeth Barber |
The Book Guild |
Operation Banana |
Tony Bradman |
Barrington Stoke |
Code Name Kingfisher |
Liz Kessler |
Simon & Schuster |
Blackbeard's Treasure |
Iszi Lawrence |
Bloomsbury Education |
Fablehouse |
E. L. Norry |
Bloomsbury |
A Different Kind of Freedom: A Romani Story |
Richard O'Neill |
Scholastic |
Vita and the Gladiator |
Ally Sherrick |
Chicken House |
The Storm and the Minotaur |
Lucy Strange |
Barrington Stoke |
For readers aged 11-13 years
Title |
Author |
Publisher |
The Song Walker |
Zillah Bethell |
Usborne |
The Stolen Songbird |
Judith Eagle |
Faber |
Rivet Boy |
Barbara Henderson |
Cranachan |
Where the River Takes Us |
Lesley Parr |
Bloomsbury |
The Diary of Sarah Forbes Bonetta: A Novel |
Victoria Princewill |
Scholastic |
Wolf Road |
Alice Roberts |
Simon & Schuster |
Through Water and Fire |
Matt Wainwright |
Wakeman Trust |
For readers aged 14+ years
Title |
Author |
Publisher |
How Far We've Come |
Joyce Efia Harmer |
Simon & Schuster |
The Wolf-Girl, the Greeks and the Gods |
Tom Holland |
Walker |
Betrothal and Betrayal: The Empress Irini Series - Book 1 |
Janet McGiffin |
Scotland Street Press |
The Wall Between Us |
Dan Smith |
Chicken House |
Stateless |
Elizabeth Wein |
Bloomsbury |
The first stage of the Young Quills process is to send the books accepted onto the longlist to schools to be reviewed by children. That means that every single book has been reviewed several times – those reviews then create the foundation for the shortlisting process.
We then publish a couple of reviews for every book on the longlist and a few more for those on the shortlist. It is exciting to publish the reviews of all the books as something positive was said about every single one of them and they all have been able to excite and intrigue young readers.
At the HA we have strict criteria for the Young Quills and historical fiction, which sometimes results in entertaining books not quite making the shortlist (if they don’t cover enough of the history for example). Nonetheless, we want to celebrate all those professional authors who dedicate their time to opening up the world of the past and the present to young people. Every one of those who reviewed the books has got something out of the reading and the reviewing process – thank you.
The shortlisted books are now with the final judging panel and we will announce the winners in July.