The Diverse Book Awards was established in November 2019 and are open to anyone who has written a book for children, young adults and adult. Fiction only and UK based authors.

They want to highlight the best of the diverse voices published in the UK both traditionally and self-published. They believe there's a need to showcase the talent of marginalised voices, so they came up with The DBAwards to open a space where the spotlight is on them. 

Here are the top 7 diverse UK books in Children's and YA fiction. 

Children’s 

Baller Boys by Venessa Taylor, illustrated by Kenneth Ghann (Hashtag Press)

Clean Up! by Nathan Bryon, illustrated by Dapo Adeola (Penguin Random House Children’s)

Do You Know Me? by Rebecca Westcott, Libby Scott (Scholastic Children’s Books)

Little Badman and the Time-Travelling Teacher of Doom by Humza Arshad and Henry White, illustrated by Aleksei Bitskoff  (Penguin Random House Children’s)

Too Small Tola by Atinuke, illustrated by Onyinye Iwu (Walker Books)

Windrush Child by Benjamin Zephaniah (Scholastic Children’s Books)

Zombierella: Fairy Tales Gone Bad by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Freya Hartas (Walker Books)

Young Adults

And The Stars Were Burning Brightly by Danielle Jawando (Simon & Schuster)

Boy, Everywhere by A. M. Dassu (Old Barn Books)

Cane Warriors by Alex Wheatle (Andersen Press)

Eight Pieces of Silva by Patrice Lawrence (Hodder Children’s Books (Hachette)

Hideous Beauty by William Hussey (Usborne)

Run, Rebel by Manjeet Mann (Penguin Random House Children’s)

Wonderland by Juno Dawson (Quercus Children’s Books)

The winner will be announced on an online awards ceremony at 7pm on October 21st 2021