There can be no doubt that the UKLA Book Awards 2025 longlists exemplify the award criteria’s aim of encouraging teachers’ knowledge of high-quality children’s books, that can reflect all identities and promote diversity. The lists are chosen by panels composed of experienced past teacher judges, ex-teachers, librarians, and consultants, who all undertake a significant summer reading challenge. A total of 470 books were submitted across the four categories of these awards. Publishers, both big and small, are obviously keen to submit to this award, which is the only national children’s book awards to be judged by teachers and consequently of great interest to fellow teachers in schools around the UK.

These awards are  completely uninfluenced by any commercial factors, such as sales or expensive marketing campaigns, and they do not require the payment of fees at any point in the process.  This significantly opens the opportunity to promote their books in the valuable school market, to the small independent publishers and it is these who are often the ones that shine through. This is certainly the case this year. There are 40 publishing houses, and even more imprints, represented in these lists, which is a real testament to the strength  and diverse range of children’s publishing. Appearing for the first time are Rocket Bird Books, The Neem Tree Press, Alanna Max and Greystone. They join other successful small imprints like Lantana, Guppy Books, Scallywag Press, Troika, Cicada and Knights Of. Well established publishers have, of course, also been successful, and indeed Walker Books achieved the remarkable feat of having books longlisted in every category.

Publisher, Libby Hamilton, said, “Rocket Bird Books are beyond thrilled to have two books longlisted in only our second year. Our list focuses on quality over quantity – one of the reasons we and other small lists can flourish is an award like the UKLA is free to enter and hugely respected, giving our books a very valuable platform.”

Awards Chair, Christine Lockwood, said, “We always approach this difficult but exciting task with great anticipation.  The longlisting team were challenged to select from a very rich and exceptional list of submissions this year and they have come up with four enticing longlists.  It is always a joy to meet our committed, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic longlisters in person, after a long summer of reading and exchanging views online.  I would like to thank them for their hard work over the summer.  The longlists will now pass to our teams of teacher judges and their group leaders in Liverpool and the North-West, and I can't wait to share these books with them over the next year."

This year there are 87 judges covering the four categories and they have until mid-March to read the longlisted books, discuss them with their group leaders, and share them with pupils. All the groups will then meet, hopefully in person, for the difficult task of choosing their shortlist of 6 books in each category.

Headteachers welcomed the opportunity to receive new books for their schools and for their teachers to widen their knowledge of recent children’s titles and in some cases have teachers across the whole school involved. 60 schools in total will be impacted by this injection of quality texts to inspire learning and reading for pleasure.   For UKLA, giving classroom practitioners the opportunity to read a selection of new children’s books is as important as finding an overall winner. Research carried out by members of UKLA (Cremin et al 2008) clearly demonstrated the links between teachers’ knowledge of children’s books and the likelihood of pupils becoming successful readers. Despite this evidence, teachers are seldom given time to read new books or the funding to purchase them when they do. This research directly inspired the creation of the UKLA Book Awards, which were awarded for the first time in 2008.

Longlist 3-6+

I Want a Dog. Written and illustrated by Jon Agee

Gigantic. Written and illustrated by Rob Biddulph

Gina Kaminski Saves a Wolf. Written by Craig Barr-Green and illustrated by Francis Martin 

Doris. Written and illustrated by Lo Cole

The Magic Callaloo. Written by Trish Cooke and illustrated by Sophie Bass

Beneath. Written and illustrated by Cori Doerrfeld

There's A Tiger on The Train. Written by Mariesa Dulak and illustrated by Rebecca Cobb

Grey. Written by Laura Dockrill and illustrated by Lauren Child

The Golden Hare. Written and illustrated by Paddy Donnelly 

Champ. Written by Payam Ebrahimi, illustrated by Reza Dalvand and translated by Caroline Croskery

Dim Sum Palace. Written and illustrated by X. Fang 

Let's Go! haw êkwa!. Written and illustrated by Julie Flett

Mr Mornington's Favourite Things.  Written and illustrated by Karen George

Stop! That's Not My Story. Written by Smriti Halls and illustrated by Erika Meza

I Love Books. Written and illustrated by Mariajo Ilustrajo

Lulu's Nana Visits. Written by Anna McQuinn and illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw

Poetry is Not for Me! Written by Joshua Seigal and illustrated by Rebecca Burgess

Geoffrey Gets the Jitters. Written and illustrated by Nadia Shireen

Listening to the Quiet. Written by Cassie Silva and illustrated by Frances Ives

Salat in Secret. Written by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow and illustrated by Hatem Aly

The Elephant and the Sea. Written and illustrated by Ed Vere

The Starling's Song. Written by Octavie Wolters and illustrated by Michele Hutchinson

Longlist 7-10+

Puppet. Written by David Almond and illustrated by Lizzy Stewart

Little House. Written by Katya Balen and illustrated by Richard Johnson

The Wonder Brothers. Written by Frank Cottell-Boyce and illustrated by Steven Lenton

Miss Mary-Kate Martin's Guide to Monsters: The Wrath of the Woolington Wyrm Written by Karen Foxlee and illustrated by Freda Chiu

The Final Year. Written by Matt Goodfellow  and illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton

Stitch. Written by Pádraig Kenny

Code Name Kingfisher. Written by Liz Kessler

Safiyyah's War. Written by Hiba Noor Khan

And I Climbed And I Climbed. Written by Stephen Lightbown and illustrated by Shih-Yu Lin

On Poetry Street. Written by Brian Moses and illustrated by Mark Elvins

The Wrong Shoes. Written and illustrated by Tom Percival

The Boy Who Made Monsters. Written by Jenny Pearson and illustrated by Katie Kear

Impossible Creatures. Written by Katherine Rundell and illustrated by Tomislav Tomić

The Letter with the Golden Stamp. Written by Onjali Q Raúf

The Clockwork Conspiracy. Written by Sam Sedgman

Murray  and Bun : Murray the Viking. Written and illustrated by Adam Stower

Pizza Pete and the Perilous Potions. Written by Carrie Sellon and illustrated by Sarah Horne

Greenwild: The World Behind the Door. Written by Pari Thomson and illustrated by Elisa Paganelli

Norah's Ark. Written by Victoria Williamson

Quiet Storm. Written by Kimberly Whittam

Longlist 11- 14+

This Book Won't Burn. Written by Samira Ahmed

Bird Boy. Written by Catherine Bruton

You Could Be So Pretty. Written by Holly Bourne

I Am Wolf. Written by Alastair Chisholm

Sing If You Can’t Dance. Written by Alexia Casale

Where The Heart Should Be. Written by Sarah Crossan

Eddy, Eddy. Written by Kate De Goldi

Electric Life. Written by Rachel Delahaye

Finding Phoebe. Written by Gavin Extence

Northern Soul. Written by Phil Earle

The Things We Leave Behind. Written by Clare Furniss

Noah Frye Gets Crushed.  Written by Maggie Horne

The Boy Next Door. Written by Jenny Ireland

If My Words Had Wings. Written by Danielle Jawando

The Grimmelings. Written by Rachael King

King of Nothing  Written by Nathaneal Lessore

Little Bang. Written by Kelly McCaughrain

Glasgow Boys. Written by Margaret McDonald

Keedie. Written by Elle McNicoll

Louder Than Hunger. Written by John Schu

Longlist Information Books 3-14+

Stand Up and Speak Out Against Racism. Written by Yassmin Abdel-Magied and illustrated by Aleesha Nandhra

Brilliant Black British History. Written by Atinuke and illustrated by Kingsley Nebechi

Lads. Written by Alan Bisset

Wildlife Crossings. Written by Catherine Barr and illustrated by Christiane Engel 

Big Bad Wolf Investigates Fairy Tales. Written by Catherine Cawthorne and illustrated by Sara Ogilvie

Wild languages of Mother Nature. Written by Gabby Dawnay and illustrated by Margaux Samson- Abadie

Tasty Tales. Written and illustrated by Anna Lena Feunekes

Against The Odds. Written by Alastair Humphreys and illustrated by Pola Mai

Story of Now. Written by Shelina Janmohamed and illustrated by Laura Greenan

Slug Life. Written and illustrated by Moesha Kellaway

Measuring Me. Written and illustrated by Nicola Kent

Explodapedia: Rewild. Written by Ben Martynoga and illustrated by Moose Allain

This Book Will Make You An Artist. Written by Ruth Millington and illustrated by Ellen Surrey 

Homebody. Written and illustrated by Theo Parish

Stolen History. Written by Sathnam Sanghera and illustrated by Jen Khatun

Welcome to the Arts: Dance. Written by Sir Alistair Spalding and illustrated by Jason Raish

Wilding. Written by Isabella Tree and illustrated by Angela Harding

Rise Up and Sing. Written by Andrea Warner and illustrated by Louise Reimer

Mission: Arctic Written by Katherine Weiss-Tuider and illustrated by Christiane Schneider

Stones and Bones. Written by Rob Wilshaw and illustrated by Sophie Williams

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