The Bookseller has today announced the YA Book Prize 2019 shortlist, which features books by the award’s inaugural winner Louise O’Neill, as well as Juno Dawson, Laura Dockrill and début author Muhammad Khan. The winner will be revealed at Hay Festival at a public event on Thursday 30 May.
This year's #YA10 includes:
- Goodbye, Perfect by Sara Barnard
- Clean by Juno Dawson
- Big Bones by Laura Dockrill
- I Am Thunder by Muhammad Khan
- I Was Born for This by Alice Oseman
- The Surface Breaks by Louise O'Neill
- White Rabbit, Red Wolf by Tom Pollock
- The Outwalkers by Fiona Shaw
- Only Love Can Break Your Heart by Katherine Webber
- A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood
This year’s shortlist will be judged by: writer and Everyday Sexism founder Laura Bates, whose début YA novel, The Burning, was recently published by Simon & Schuster Children’s UK; previous YA Book Prize shortlistee and Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize-winner Alex Wheatle; last year’s SLA School Librarian of the Year Emma Suffield, of Saint Wilfrid’s Church of England Academy in Blackburn; and Daphne Lao Tonge, the founder and owner of YA book subscription service Illumicrate and marketing director for inclusive children’s publisher Knights Of. Re-joining the judging panel is Julia Eccleshare, children’s director at Hay Festival, and chair of judges Caroline Carpenter, The Bookseller’s web editor. The group will be joined by teenage judges from schools in Bradford, Hereford and London.
Carpenter said: "We’re delighted to share this year’s YA10, showcasing the breadth and brilliance of YA publishing in the UK and Ireland today. Among the submissions, we saw three main trends: books about teenagers struggling with their mental health, books set in or around water, and books increasingly concerned with borders. These timely themes reflect some of the biggest issues facing not just young people, but also society in general at the moment, and they are all represented on the shortlist in some way. I’m excited to see which book the judges select as their victor."
Find out more about the #YA10 here. Tickets to the YA Book Prize 2019 ceremony at Hay Festival go on sale on 26 March.