Best Picture Book
Grandma’s Locs
by Karen Arthur, illustrated by Camilla Ru
(Tate Publishing)
13.5 % of the vote
2nd place:
Me and My Hair
by Kimberley Kinloch, illustrated by Jessica Gibson
(Usborne Publishing)
12 % of the vote
3rd place:
Mama Car
by Lucy Catchpole, illustrated by Karen George
(Faber)
11 % of the vote
Best Children's Book
Time Tub Travellers and the Silk Thief
by Claire Linney
(Self-published)
16.5 % of the vote
2nd place:
Mayowa and the Sea of Words
by Chibundu Onuzo
(Bloomsbury Children's Books)
10.5% of the vote
3rd place:
Bringing Back Kay-Kay
by Dev Kothari
(Walker Books)
9.5 % of the vote
Best Young Adult Book
Desi Girl Speaking by A. S. Hussain
(Hot Key Books)
18.5 % of the vote
2nd place:
The Love Interest
by Helen Comerford
(Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
10.5 % of the vote
3rd place:
Dancers of the Dawn
by Zulekhá A. Afzal
(Rock the Boat)
8% of the vote
Best Adult Book
The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye
by Briony Cameron
(Piatkus)
25 % of the vote
2nd place:
Northern Boy
by Iqbal Hussain
(Boundless)
18% of the vote
3rd place:
The Thirty Before Thirty List
by Tasneem Abdur-Rashid
(Zaffre)
12.5 % of the vote
The Readers' Choice Award was created in 2023 in response to the years of requests from schools to have a say in the awards. Schools wanted to shadow the books and cast a vote on their favourite books. With our limited capacity we tried to think of the best way to get schools involved.
In the end we decided to have a poll with all the longlisted books and encouraged readers to buy the books or support the ones they've read and vote for their favourite across each category. Schools especially got very involved and we're so pleased for the thousand votes received. We cannot wait to see who will win this year!
Please note these votes are entirely by the public.