Shortlist Announcement! Little Rebels Award for Radical Children’s Fiction
Debut Authors Shine on the Little Rebels Award Shortlist!
“A good book has the power to counter mainstream assumptions. To me that is what publishing should really be all about, to challenge the narrative and get us thinking and questioning. The Little Rebels Award highlights the books that do this. Books that challenge the status quo and amplify marginalised voices.” (Chris Haughton, Little Rebels Award Judge 2025)
The Little Rebels Award for Radical Children’s Fiction is pleased to announce its 2025 shortlist, on behalf of the Alliance of Radical Booksellers. The six shortlisted titles boldly interrupt the children’s literature landscape, reflecting back on queer histories and commenting on urgent social justice issues in the present.
Cottonopolis centres young, queer, working class protagonists in the slums of 1840s Little Ireland, Manchester. The Fights That Make Us links the homophobic 1980s legislation, Section 28 and the subsequent acts of resistance directly with contemporary prejudice and protest. Keedie centres a neurodiverse lead and pivots from classroom bullying to a take down of wider, oppressive social norms. The only picture book on the shortlist, Kende! Kende! Kende! continues the award’s long tradition of spotlighting refugee narratives. The young protagonist of Mayowa and the Sea of Words pushes back against a vicious anti-immigration bill targeting small boats. Finally, Zac and Jac is an uncompromising yet also subtle treatment of intergenerational racism.
The Little Rebels Award shortlist panel was delighted to be joined this year by Dr. Darren Chetty, lecturer at UCL and columnist for Books for Keeps. He said,
“The stories that make up this year’s Little Rebels shortlist stretch across time, space and realms reminding us that the fight for justice is nothing new, nor a fight that is over. We are invited to join the dots between then and now, here and there, all the time paying close attention to the careful, radical prose and illustrations on display in each of the shortlisted books.”
The Little Rebels Award is proud to continue its history of recognising debut authors (most notably when Zanib Mian took the prize in 2018) who take up half of the 2025 shortlist: S F Layzell, Cathy Jenkins and Chibundu Onuzo (with her children’s fiction debut). Indie publishers, including micro presses, dominate, with titles from Northodox Press, Graffeg, Knights of and Childs Play. Elle Mc Nicoll appears on the shortlist for the third time and Sarah Hagger Holt, winner of the 2022 award, returns to the shortlist.
This year’s judges include two new additions: author and illustrator, Chris Haughton and Centre for Literacy in Primary Education librarian, Phoebe Demeger. They will join teacher and author, Alom Shaha and designer and illustrator, Soofiya.
The 2025 Little Rebels Award winner will be announced at an evening ceremony in October. The winner’s prize includes £2,000 funded by the Marxist Socialist funder, The Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust.
Free downloadable reading guides for each of the shortlisted titles will shortly be available through the Little Rebels Award website, enabling educators and carers to discuss and plan activities around the social justice topics raised in the shortlist.