2021 Branford Boase Award - Shortlist Announced
2021 Shortlist
The shortlist for the 2021 Branford Boase Award is
announced today.
The
shortlist for the 2021 Branford Boase Award was announced yesterday, Thursday 29 April 2021. Since 2000, the Branford Boase has been awarded annually to the
author of an outstanding debut novel for children. Uniquely, it also honours
the editor of the winning title and highlights the importance of the editor in
nurturing new talent.
Founded
to commemorate author Henrietta Branford and
influential Walker Books editor Wendy Boase,
the Branford Boase Award is recognised as ‘the one to
watch’ with an impressive record of identifying exceptional authors at the
start of their careers. Winners and shortlisted authors include Siobhan Dowd, Meg Rosoff, Muhammad Khan, Philip Reeve, Frank
Cottrell-Boyce, Frances Hardinge, Patrick Ness and Marcus Sedgwick. The 2020 winner was Liz Hyder.
When Life Gives You
Mangoes
Author: Kereen Getten
Editor: Sarah Odedina
Publisher: Pushkin Children’s Books 9+
Clara lives in a small village on an island, where it seems nothing much
happens.
There is a mystery though: why can’t Clara remember what happened when she was
playing in the sea last year? The truth when it emerges is shocking for
readers, and a gentle story of rural life on a Caribbean island is suddenly
taut with uncertainty.
Witch
Author: Finbar Hawkins
Editor: Fiona Kennedy
Publisher: Zephyr 13+
Finbar Hawkins sets his gripping story in 17th century England, where
witches were feared and hated by the general population. Evey has always
suppressed her magical powers but thing change when her mother is murdered by
four witch-hunters.
Consumed by a desire for revenge, she sets out to track the killers down,
acknowledging what and who she is in the process.
And the Stars Were
Burning Brightly
Author: Danielle Jawando
Editor: Jane Griffiths
Publisher: Simon and Schuster YA
Seventeen-year-old Al Bryant is intellectually voracious, a reader, a
painter. He seems strong, modest but confident, and generous spirited;
everything’s to play for. His suicide therefore is not just shocking, it’s
incomprehensible. Al’s brother Nate and Megan, a girl in Al’s class, need to
understand it. As answers come, the revelations are savage, but Megan and Nate
are guided by the beacon which Al’s life becomes.
A Kind of Spark
Author: Elle McNicoll
Editor: Eishar Brar
Publisher: Knights Of 9+
Addie is autistic and finds school difficult to navigate at the best of
times, and it’s worse when her one friend seems to reject her. Fortunately, her
family understand, especially big sister Keedie, who is also autistic. The
story opens out when Addie’s class begin to study local history and learn about
a group of so-called witches. Though they lived hundreds of years ago, Addie
identifies with these misunderstood, persecuted women, and determines to do
something for them.
Run, Rebel
Author: Manjeet Mann
Editor: Carmen McCullough
Publisher: Penguin YA
Amber Rai is only truly alive when running and shows potential. But her
abusive father refuses to allow her on the track. Her mother is powerless to
help, held back by illiteracy and lack of English and also a victim of Amber’s
father. But together, Amber, her mother and her sister Ruby can take small
steps to freedom. A powerful, moving verse novel.
Orphans of the Tide
Author: Struan Murray
Illustrator: Manuel Sumberac
Editor: Ben Horslen
Publisher: Puffin: 9+
Set in the last city of a drowned world, the book opens with a dead
whale washing in with the tide, only for a mysterious boy to climb out alive.
The City’s religious authorities believe his body to house The Enemy, the god
responsible for putting the world in its watery grave. However, our protagonist
Ellie, a young inventor, is sure he’s innocent, sparking a thrilling adventure
to find out the truth.
The Super
Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates
Author: Jenny Pearson
Illustrator: Rob Biddulph
Editors: Rebecca Hill and Becky Walker
Publisher: Usborne 8+
When Freddie sets off on a secret journey that will take him half-way
across the country, his two best friends come too; they have their own reasons
for wanting to escape home for a bit. Together the three boys get into and out
of some extraordinary scrapes, inadvertently becoming heroes in the process,
and Freddie experiences what might be an actual miracle. A wonderful road-trip
adventure.
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