The Little Rebels Children’s Book Award
“The Little Rebels Children’s Book Award is a prize for radical fiction aimed at children aged 0-12. The award is given by the Alliance of Radical Booksellers and was established in conjunction with Letterbox Library. The award is now administered by Letterbox Library and Housmans Bookshop.”
They first introduced us to the Alliance of Radical Booksellers and the aims of the award, which are to amplify social justice children’s books, challenge stereotypes and to lift the books that do not always have a voice.
The Alliance of Radical Booksellers is a group of booksellers “who sell books which inspire, support or report on political and/or personal change in the global, national or local sphere”. Housman’s is a proud member of this group.
The Little Rebels Children’s Book Award asks for submissions by the end of January for consideration for the award. This year they had 177 books submitted from 47 publishers. This has grown considerably since their first year, ten years ago, which saw 66 submissions from only 20 publishers. Fen and Catherine noted that there was still a bit of work to be done in understanding that, when making submissions, inclusive literature and social justice literature are not the same thing, even while they can of course overlap.
As with any prize, the ultimate aim is to get children reading the books. Books can be purchased from the organisers, Letterbox Library https://www.letterboxlibrary.com/acatalog/Little-Rebels-Shortlist-2022-1.html#aLRSL22and Housmans Bookshop https://housmans.com/product-tag/little-rebels-award-2022/. Reading guides have been created for the shortlisted books and can be downloaded via the following link, https://littlerebels.org/reading-guides/.
Catherine and Fen extend their thanks to The Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust for their support with funding the awards. This year the shortlist includes the following titles;
Hey You! An Empowering Celebration of Growing Up Black by Dapo Adeola, illustrated by Dapo Adeola, Alyissa Johnson, Sharee Miller, Jade Orlando, Diane Ewen, Reggie Brown, Onyinye Iwu, Chanté Timothy, Gladys Jose, Bex Glendining, Joelle Avelino, Dunni Mustapha, Nicole Miles, Charlot Kristensen, Kingsley Nebechi, Camilla Sucre, Derick Brooks, Jobe Anderson, Selom Sunu, Published by Penguin Random House Children’s.
No Country Story by Joe Brady, art by Patrice Aggs, Published by David Fickling Books
What Happened to You by James Catchpole, Illustrated by Karen George, Published by Faber and Faber
Sunflower Sisters by Monika Singh Gangotra, illustrated by Michaela Dias-Hayes, Published by Owlet Press
Proud of Me by Sarah Hagger-Holt, Published by Usborne
Show Us Who you Are by Elle McNicoll, Published by Knights Of
No Man’s Land by Joanna Nadin, Published by UCLan Publishing
The 2022 Little Rebels judges are Shaun Dellenty, Emily Haworth-Booth, Jake Hope, Jim MacSweeney and Farrah Serroukh. This knowledgeable and expert panel of judges now have the challenge of choosing a winner. The winner will be announced on the 18th July in a special event held at the CLPE in London.
For further information about the award, visit https://littlerebels.org/ You can also follow the award on Twitter @littlerebsprize or on Insta @littlerebelsaward