Young Quills shortlist 2024

HA annual awards for best historical fiction for young people

Published: 24th April 2024

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
 (Illus Jason Cockcroft)

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.