Young Quills 2024 – the longlist
HA annual awards for best historical fiction for young people
Published: 6th March 2024
Each year, the Historical Association runs ‘Young Quills’, a competition for published historical fiction for children and young adults (14+). The Young Quills books for each year must be published for the first time in English in the year preceding the competition – so 2023 for this year’s selection.
Our aim is to seek out books which:
- Are a ‘good read’, engaging the imagination of the young reader.
- Have good historical content and factual information.
- Have history as a component of the story, not just a convenient backdrop or setting.
- Inspire young readers to find out more about that historical period or people.
Divided by age suitability the books are given to schools on the condition that the children and young people there write a review of the book following our criteria. Those reviews are used as the basis for us to create the shortlist from which the winners are selected.
The longlist for this 2024 is:
For readers aged 5-8 years
Title |
Author |
Publisher |
Wangari's Trees | Nadine Cowan | Collins Big Cat |
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 |
Ijapas Comic Club: Why the Tortoise is Bald | Paula B. Sofowora | Ijapa Books |
Tales of Ijapa the Tortoise | Paula B. Sofowora | Ijapa Books |
For readers aged 8-11 years
Title |
Author |
Publisher |
Rosie Raja: Mission to Cairo | Sufiya Ahmed | Bloomsbury Education |
Stone Arrows | Elizabeth Barber | The Book Guild |
The Disappearing Diamond | Glen Blackwell | Zoetrope Books |
Operation Banana | Tony Bradman | Barrington Stoke |
Deep Sea Diver | Nadine Cowan | Collins Big Cat |
Secrets at number 6 | Jemma Hatt | Elmside Publishing |
Secrets at number 7 | Jemma Hatt | Elmside Publishing |
Peril on the Atlantic | AM Howell | Usborne |
Scareground | Angela Kecojevic | Neem Tree Press |
Code Name Kingfisher | Liz Kessler | Simon & Schuster |
Blackbeard's Treasure | Iszi Lawrence | Bloomsbury Education |
Time Machine Next Door: Explorers and Milkshakes | Iszi Lawrence | Bloomsbury Education |
Evie and Rhino | Neridah McMullin (illus Astred Hicks) | Walker |
Cosima Unfortunate Steals a Star | Laura Noakes, (Illus Flavia Sorrentino) | Harper Collins |
Fablehouse | E. L. Norry | Bloomsbury |
A Different Kind of Freedom: A Romani Story |
Richard O'Neill | Scholastic |
Finding Treasure Island | Robin Scott-Elliot | Cranachan |
Vita and the Gladiator | Ally Sherrick | Chicken House |
The Storm and the Minotaur | Lucy Strange | Barrington Stoke |
I Spy: a Bletchley Park Mystery | Rhian Tracey | Piccadilly Press |
Portraits and Poison (The Lizzie & Belle Mysteries) |
J.T. Williams (illus Simone Douglas) | Farshore |
The Grinning Throat | Kate Wiseman | ZunTold books |
For readers aged 11-13 years
Title |
Author |
Publisher |
City of Stolen Magic | Nazneed Ahmed Pathak | Puffin |
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 |
Enola Holmes & the Black Barouche | Nancy Springer | Hot Key Books |
Her Majesty's League of Remarkable Young Ladies | Alison D Stegert | Chicken House |
The Body in the Blitz (The Ministry of Unladylike Activity 2) |
Robin Stevens | Puffin |
Through Water and Fire | Matt Wainwright | Wakeman Trust |
The Whistlers in the Dark | Victoria Williamson | Scotland Street Press |
For readers aged 14 years and above
Title |
Author |
Publisher |
When Women Were Dragons | Kelly Barnhill | Hot Key Books |
This Summer's Secrets | Emily Barr | Penguin |
Sisters of Sword and Shadow | Laura Bates | Simon & Schuster |
Gwen & Art are not in Love | Lex Croucher | Bloomsbury |
How Far We've Come | Joyce Efia Harmer | Simon & Schuster |
The Wolf-Girl, the Greeks and the Gods | Tom Holland (Illus Jason Cockcroft) |
Walker |
Betrothal and Betrayal: The Empress Irini Series - Book 1 | Janet McGiffin | Scotland Street Press |
I am Lydia | J Ryan | The Book Guild |
The Wolf Cub of Sparta | J Ryan | The Book Guild |
The Wall Between Us | Dan Smith | Chicken House |
Stateless | Elizabeth Wein | Bloomsbury |