The UK’s Branford Boase Award honors debut efforts in children’s books and the editors as well as authors behind them.

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

A Winner Is To Be Announced July 13

As Publishing Perspectives readers will remember, the Branford Boase Award is distinctive in the dense undergrowth of the United Kingdom’s awards forest for two key reasons:

• First, it honors an author’s debut novel for children
• And second, it also honors that author’s editor—an enlightened approach that many other award regimes would do well to emulate

This competition, which today (April 27) has announced its new shortlist, was established in 2000 to honor author Henrietta Branford and Walker Books editor Wendy Boase.

The jury began with a longlist of 21 titles to select these eight.

That jury this year is made up of Maisie Chan, author and winner of the 2022 Branford Boase Award; critic Joanne Owen; Darren Matthews, primary advisory teacher at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education; and Sajeda Amir, English teacher at Levenshulme High School, Manchester. Julia Eccleshare, children’s director of the Hay Festival, is again the jury chair.

The winner will be announced on July 13 at an award ceremony in London.

The 2023 Branford Boase Award Shortlist

• The Bones of Me by Kel Duckhouse, edited by Harriet Birkinshaw, Flying Eye Books YA
• The Eternal Return of Clara Hart by Louise Finch, edited by Siobhàn Parkinson, Little Island Books YA
• Seed by Caryl Lewis, edited by Sarah Hughes, illustrated by George Ermos, Macmillan Children’s Books 7+
• Rebel Skies, Ann Sei Linn, edited by Gráinne Clear, Walker Books, 12+
• The Cats We Meet Along the Way, Nadia Mikail, edited by Bella Pearson, Guppy Books YA
• Ellie Pillai is Brown, Christine Pillainayagam, edited by Leah Thaxton, Faber 13+
• The Haunting of Tyrese Walker, JP Rose, edited by Chloe Sackur, Andersen Press 13+
• The Map of Leaves, Yarrow Townsend, edited by Rachel Leyshon, Chicken House 10+

The Branford Boase Award has a partnership with the Authors’ Licensing  and Collecting Society (ALCS) and it’s supported by Walker Books, which has a title in contention on the shortlist.

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More from Publishing Perspectives on children’s books is here, more on publishing and book awards is here, and more from us on the United Kingdom’s market is here.