Graphic with photos of the four judges for this year's Branford Boase Award, given to author and editor of the year's outstanding debut novel for children and young people. They are Anjali Patel, Katherine Woodfine, Margaret McDonald and Stephen Dilley. It also includs the logos for ALCS and Walker Books who support the Branford Boase Award.

📢The shortlist for the 2026 #BranfordBoaseAward will be announced *tomorrow* 23 April.

Which of the 24 excellent debuts on our 2026 longlist have our judges chosen? Follow us to find out! #KidLitUK #newtalent

branfordboaseaward.org.uk

87. A Deadly Episode by @anthonyhorowitz.com
Another ingenious and entertaining installment in this series in which the author appears as a character alongside the enigmatic and maverick ex-cop Daniel Hawthorne - full of metafictional mischief and amusing digs at the film industry.

Congratulations!

Also Katherine Rundell’s Impossible Creatures and Natasha Farrant’s The Secret Of Golden Island (both third person)
And Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s Leila and the Blue Fox alternates between human and animal perspectives.

Evie and Maryam’s Family Tree by Janeen Hagar is a good example (third person) - actually technically quadruple as you also get sections about each of their great-grandmothers.
The Light in Everything by Katya Balen is another favourite!

86. A Million Tiny Missiles All at Once by @lucasjmaxwell.bsky.social
I loved this book - the narrator's inner life is so well-realised and, like the very best writing for young people, the story is full of real pain but also such warmth and kindness (and GREAT jokes!)
@chickenhousebooks.bsky.social

The Eleventh Trade by Alyssa Hollingsworth

Bird Boy by Catherine Bruton

Letters from the Upside by Katya Balen

Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D Schmidt

All of these feature tremendous moments of kindness, usually when it is least expected but most needed. (I feel like I include Orbiting Jupiter every other week but it fits the bill once again!)

Just finished reading this year's excellent #WomensPrize longlist - such a wonderful selection of books, many of which I would never have discovered otherwise. These would be my shortlist picks but lots of other strong contenders - The Correspondent, Gloria Don't Speak, Paradiso 17, Moderation...

85. The Mercy Step by Marcia Hutchinson
My final book on the #WomensPrize fiction longlist: a beautiful coming-of-age story about a girl from a Jamaican family growing up in 1960s Bradford - both witty and harrowing.
@cassavarepublic.bsky.social @womensprize.bsky.social

This month's #lucky13th giveaway is...

Patrick Ness' PIPER AT THE GATES OF DUSK, the first in a new trilogy set in New World, twenty years after the groundbreaking YA trilogy; Chaos Walking.

Members, reshare this post to win!

@walkerbooksuk.bsky.social

#nationalyearofreading2026 #goallin2026

Happy birthday! Brotherless Night is one of my all-time favourite novels (and now I teach it for A Level NEA) and A Family Matter is excellent too.

84. The Others by Sheena Kalayil
I thought this was excellent - a serious, absorbing and heartbreaking novel from the #WomensPrize fiction longlist about the complex relationships between three marginalised characters in 1980s East Germany.
@flyonthewallpress.bsky.social @womensprize.bsky.social

83. The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
This month's book club read - historical novel about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, and the words which were not included in this.

Susin Nielsen is a great writer for this age group, not as well-known in the UK as she should be.
I really liked Blessing Musariri's latest novel and am looking forward to reading more from her.
Nathanael Lessore and Sally Nicholls's books are perfect for 12-14-year-olds too.

82. Thoughtlands: Walking in Writers' Suffolk by @jackycollissharvey.bsky.social
Perfect reading while staying in Aldeburgh - a love letter to walking and writing and Suffolk.

81. London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth by @praddenkeefe.bsky.social
An outstanding, courageous work of investigative journalism about the death of a 19-year-old and a hidden world of crime and corruption.

80. Mare by Emily Haworth-Booth
An original and compelling debut novel about a woman's attachment to a horse which movingly explores female childlessness.
@grantabooks.bsky.social

79. Transcription by Ben Lerner
This novella in three parts offers a haunting meditation on remembering and misremembering, truth and fiction, technology and the world we live in today.

78. The Ten Year Affair by @somers.bsky.social
An entertaining and well-written novel about marriage, parenthood and infidelity which describes the main character's real and fantasy lives running in parallel with each other.

77. The Witch by Marie NDiaye, translated by Jordan Stump
Shortlisted for the #InternationalBookerPrize, this is a strange, surreal and unsettling novella exploring motherhood and female power and powerlessness.
@thebookerprizes.com

76. Gloria Don't Speak by Lucy Apps
Remarkable novel exploring the perspective of a young woman with a learning disability from the #WomensPrize fiction longlist - a powerful study of vulnerability and isolation.
@weatherglassbooks.bsky.social @womensprize.bsky.social

75. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
Gripping eco-thriller from the #WomensPrize fiction longlist set on a remote Antarctic island housing a seed vault.
@womensprize.bsky.social

74. The Best of Everything by @kitdewaal.com
A tender and touching novel from the #WomensPrize fiction longlist about family, loss and attachment.
@womensprize.bsky.social

73. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
I'm late to the party but I absolutely loved this beautiful and moving epistolary novel from the #WomensPrize fiction longist - a love letter to letter-writing, literature and human connection. Perfect for Elizabeth Strout fans!
@womensprize.bsky.social

72. Moderation by Elaine Castillo
Dry and sardonic romance novel from the #WomensPrize fiction longlist about a Filipino-American woman working as a content moderator for a big tech firm. Brilliant exploration of family relationships and the dark side of social media.
@womensprize.bsky.social

71. Heart the Lover by Lily King
A very moving part-prequel, part-sequel to Writers and Lovers from the #WomensPrize fiction longlist - the final section left me in pieces.
@womensprize.bsky.social

70. Writers and Lovers by Lily King
I really enjoyed this novel about love and loss and the writing life which makes you care very deeply about its protagonist.

69. Piper at the Gatest of Dusk by @patricknessbooks.bsky.social
A long-awaited continuation of the brilliant Chaos Walking trilogy, continuing the story with Todd and Viola's teenage sons. Fearless and heart-stopping storytelling with real emotional depth. @walkerbooksuk.bsky.social

68. The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley
A coolly precise and understated novel which lays bare the 'annihilating flippancy' of 'relentless larkiness'.

67. Paradiso 17 by Hannah Lillith Assadi
A poetic and beautifully written account of a life lived in exile and the eternal longing for home, taking us from 1940s Palestine to Kuwait, Italy, New York and the Arizona desert - from the #WomensPrize fiction longlist.
@womensprize.bsky.social