There can be no doubt that the UKLA Book Awards 2025 longlists published today exemplify the award criteria’s aim of encouraging teachers’ knowledge of high-quality children’s books, that can reflect all identities and promote diversity. The lists are chosen by panels composed of experienced past teacher judges, ex-teachers, librarians, and consultants, who all undertake a significant summer reading challenge. A total of 470 books were submitted across the four categories of these awards. Publishers, both big and small, are obviously keen to submit to this award, which is the only national children’s book awards to be judged by teachers and consequently of great interest to fellow teachers in schools around the UK.
These awards are completely uninfluenced by any commercial factors, such as sales or expensive marketing campaigns, and they do not require the payment of fees at any point in the process. This significantly opens the opportunity to promote their books in the valuable school market, to the small independent publishers and it is these who are often the ones that shine through. This is certainly the case this year. There are 40 publishing houses, and even more imprints, represented in these lists, which is a real testament to the strength and diverse range of children’s publishing. Appearing for the first time are Rocket Bird Books, The Neem Tree Press, Alanna Max and Greystone. They join other successful small imprints like Lantana, Guppy Books, Scallywag Press, Troika, Cicada and Knights Of. Well established publishers have, of course, also been successful, and indeed Walker Books achieved the remarkable feat of having books longlisted in every category.
Publisher, Libby Hamilton, said, “Rocket Bird Books are beyond thrilled to have two books longlisted in only our second year. Our list focuses on quality over quantity – one of the reasons we and other small lists can flourish is an award like the UKLA is free to enter and hugely respected, giving our books a very valuable platform.”
Awards Chair, Christine Lockwood, said, “We always approach this difficult but exciting task with great anticipation. The longlisting team were challenged to select from a very rich and exceptional list of submissions this year and they have come up with four enticing longlists. It is always a joy to meet our committed, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic longlisters in person, after a long summer of reading and exchanging views online. I would like to thank them for their hard work over the summer. The longlists will now pass to our teams of teacher judges and their group leaders in Liverpool and the North-West, and I can't wait to share these books with them over the next year."
This year there are 87 judges covering the four categories and they have until mid-March to read the longlisted books, discuss them with their group leaders, and share them with pupils. All the groups will then meet, hopefully in person, for the difficult task of choosing their shortlist of 6 books in each category.
Headteachers welcomed the opportunity to receive new books for their schools and for their teachers to widen their knowledge of recent children’s titles and in some cases have teachers across the whole school involved. 60 schools in total will be impacted by this injection of quality texts to inspire learning and reading for pleasure. For UKLA, giving classroom practitioners the opportunity to read a selection of new children’s books is as important as finding an overall winner. Research carried out by members of UKLA (Cremin et al 2008) clearly demonstrated the links between teachers’ knowledge of children’s books and the likelihood of pupils becoming successful readers. Despite this evidence, teachers are seldom given time to read new books or the funding to purchase them when they do. This research directly inspired the creation of the UKLA Book Awards, which were awarded for the first time in 2008.
Longlist 3-6+
I Want a Dog. Written and illustrated by Jon Agee
Gigantic. Written and illustrated by Rob Biddulph
Gina Kaminski Saves a Wolf. Written by Craig Barr-Green and illustrated by Francis Martin
Doris. Written and illustrated by Lo Cole
The Magic Callaloo. Written by Trish Cooke and illustrated by Sophie Bass
Beneath. Written and illustrated by Cori Doerrfeld
There's A Tiger on The Train. Written by Mariesa Dulak and illustrated by Rebecca Cobb
Grey. Written by Laura Dockrill and illustrated by Lauren Child
The Golden Hare. Written and illustrated by Paddy Donnelly
Champ. Written by Payam Ebrahimi, illustrated by Reza Dalvand and translated by Caroline Croskery
Dim Sum Palace. Written and illustrated by X. Fang
Let's Go! haw êkwa!. Written and illustrated by Julie Flett
Mr Mornington's Favourite Things. Written and illustrated by Karen George
Stop! That's Not My Story. Written by Smriti Halls and illustrated by Erika Meza
I Love Books. Written and illustrated by Mariajo Ilustrajo
Lulu's Nana Visits. Written by Anna McQuinn and illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw
Poetry is Not for Me! Written by Joshua Seigal and illustrated by Rebecca Burgess
Geoffrey Gets the Jitters. Written and illustrated by Nadia Shireen
Listening to the Quiet. Written by Cassie Silva and illustrated by Frances Ives
Salat in Secret. Written by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow and illustrated by Hatem Aly
The Elephant and the Sea. Written and illustrated by Ed Vere
The Starling's Song. Written by Octavie Wolters and illustrated by Michele Hutchinson
Longlist 7-10+
Puppet. Written by David Almond and illustrated by Lizzy Stewart
Little House. Written by Katya Balen and illustrated by Richard Johnson
The Wonder Brothers. Written by Frank Cottell-Boyce and illustrated by Steven Lenton
Miss Mary-Kate Martin's Guide to Monsters: The Wrath of the Woolington Wyrm Written by Karen Foxlee and illustrated by Freda Chiu
The Final Year. Written by Matt Goodfellow and illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton
Stitch. Written by Pádraig Kenny
Code Name Kingfisher. Written by Liz Kessler
Safiyyah's War. Written by Hiba Noor Khan
And I Climbed And I Climbed. Written by Stephen Lightbown and illustrated by Shih-Yu Lin
On Poetry Street. Written by Brian Moses and illustrated by Mark Elvins
The Wrong Shoes. Written and illustrated by Tom Percival
The Boy Who Made Monsters. Written by Jenny Pearson and illustrated by Katie Kear
Impossible Creatures. Written by Katherine Rundell and illustrated by Tomislav Tomić
The Letter with the Golden Stamp. Written by Onjali Q Raúf
The Clockwork Conspiracy. Written by Sam Sedgman
Murray and Bun : Murray the Viking. Written and illustrated by Adam Stower
Pizza Pete and the Perilous Potions. Written by Carrie Sellon and illustrated by Sarah Horne
Greenwild: The World Behind the Door. Written by Pari Thomson and illustrated by Elisa Paganelli
Norah's Ark. Written by Victoria Williamson
Quiet Storm. Written by Kimberly Whittam
Longlist 11- 14+
This Book Won't Burn. Written by Samira Ahmed
Bird Boy. Written by Catherine Bruton
You Could Be So Pretty. Written by Holly Bourne
I Am Wolf. Written by Alastair Chisholm
Sing If You Can’t Dance. Written by Alexia Casale
Where The Heart Should Be. Written by Sarah Crossan
Eddy, Eddy. Written by Kate De Goldi
Electric Life. Written by Rachel Delahaye
Finding Phoebe. Written by Gavin Extence
Northern Soul. Written by Phil Earle
The Things We Leave Behind. Written by Clare Furniss
Noah Frye Gets Crushed. Written by Maggie Horne
The Boy Next Door. Written by Jenny Ireland
If My Words Had Wings. Written by Danielle Jawando
The Grimmelings. Written by Rachael King
King of Nothing Written by Nathaneal Lessore
Little Bang. Written by Kelly McCaughrain
Glasgow Boys. Written by Margaret McDonald
Keedie. Written by Elle McNicoll
Louder Than Hunger. Written by John Schu
Longlist Information Books 3-14+
Stand Up and Speak Out Against Racism. Written by Yassmin Abdel-Magied and illustrated by Aleesha Nandhra
Brilliant Black British History. Written by Atinuke and illustrated by Kingsley Nebechi
Lads. Written by Alan Bisset
Wildlife Crossings. Written by Catherine Barr and illustrated by Christiane Engel
Big Bad Wolf Investigates Fairy Tales. Written by Catherine Cawthorne and illustrated by Sara Ogilvie
Wild Languages of Mother Nature. Written by Gabby Dawnay and illustrated by Margaux Samson- Abadie
Tasty Tales. Written and illustrated by Anna Lena Feunekes
Against The Odds. Written by Alastair Humphreys and illustrated by Pola Mai
Story of Now. Written by Shelina Janmohamed and illustrated by Laura Greenan
Slug Life. Written and illustrated by Moesha Kellaway
Measuring Me. Written and illustrated by Nicola Kent
Explodapedia: Rewild. Written by Ben Martynoga and illustrated by Moose Allain
This Book Will Make You An Artist. Written by Ruth Millington and illustrated by Ellen Surrey
Homebody. Written and illustrated by Theo Parish
Stolen History. Written by Sathnam Sanghera and illustrated by Jen Khatun
Welcome to the Arts: Dance. Written by Sir Alistair Spalding and illustrated by Jason Raish
Wilding. Written by Isabella Tree and illustrated by Angela Harding
Rise Up and Sing. Written by Andrea Warner and illustrated by Louise Reimer
Mission: Arctic Written by Katherine Weiss-Tuider and illustrated by Christiane Schneider
Stones and Bones. Written by Rob Wilshaw and illustrated by Sophie Williams
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