School Book Awards
We are proud to offer a curated selection of prize-winning and shortlisted titles, each recognized by some of the most prestigious literary awards, including the YOTO Carnegie, Costa, Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, and the Lollies. These books represent the very best of contemporary publishing, with stories that are both engaging and thought-provoking, making them perfect for inspiring young readers.
Whether you’re looking for captivating stories, diverse voices, or critically acclaimed titles, our collection includes books that will enrich your students’ learning and spark their imagination.
Showing 1–25 of 98 results
A Kind Of Spark
A Kind of Spark tells the story of 11-year-old Addie as she campaigns for a memorial in memory of the witch trials that took place in her Scottish hometown. Addie knows there's more to the story of these 'witches', just like there is more to hers. ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 192
- MBE Code : 438
A Skinful Of Shadows **Shortlisted For The Carnegie Medal**
Frances Hardinge weaves a dark, otherworldly tale in A Skinful of Shadows, her first book since the Costa Award-winning The Lie Tree.
When a creature dies, its spirit can go looking for somewhere to hide.
Some people have space inside them, ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 416
- MBE Code : 196
Ajay And The Mumbai Sun
Abandoned on the Mumbai railways, Ajay has grown up with nothing but a burning wish to be a journalist.
Finding an abandoned printing press, he and his friends Saif, Vinod, Yasmin and Jai create their own newspaper: The Mumbai Sun.
As they hunt...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 304
- MBE Code : 659
All That It Ever Meant (Carnegie Shortlisted 2025)
'I'm going to tell you exactly how everything happened. Baba always says, Mati mwana'ngu, I love a good story but I don't have time for a long one, so make it short.'
When Mati and her two siblings travel from London to Zimbabwe with their ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 208
- MBE Code : 731
Asha And The Spirit Bird
Asha lives in the foothills of the Himalayas. Money is tight and she misses her papa who works in the city. When he suddenly stops sending his wages, a ruthless moneylender ransacks their home and her mother talks of leaving.
From her den in the ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 288
- MBE Code : 672
Away With Words (Shortlisted For The Yoto Carnegie Medal 2024)
Gala and her dad, Jordi, have just moved from home in Cataluña to a town in Scotland, to live with Jordi’s boyfriend Ryan. Gala doesn’t speak much English, and feels lost, lonely and unable to be her usual funny self. Until she befriends ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 208
- MBE Code : 585
Black Hole Cinema Club
When Lucas meets his friends at the local cinema - nicknamed 'The Black Hole' - they're excited about the movie marathon ahead. Non-stop action, blockbuster special effects and all the snacks they can eat. But as the lights go down, Lucas, Ash, Maya,...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 256
- MBE Code : 738
Blue Book Of Nebo (Yoto Carnegie Winner 2023)
Dylan was six when The End came, back in 2018: when the electricity went off for good, and the normal 21st-century world he knew disappeared. Now 14, he and his mam have survived in their isolated hilltop house above the village of Nebo in ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 160
- MBE Code : 574
Bombs That Brought Us Together
Including the Fourteen-year-old boy, Charlie Law. Who has lived in Little Town, on the border with Old Country, all of his life.
He knows all of the rules: no going out after dark, no drinking, no litter and no fighting… Because you do not want ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 360
- MBE Code : 189
Bone Talk **Shortlisted For The Carnegie Medal**
The Philippines, 100 years ago. A boy called Samkad wants to become a man. He is desperate to be given his own shield, spear and axe. His best friend, Luki, wants to be a warrior too - but she is a girl and that is forbidden. Then a new boy arrives ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 248
- MBE Code : 226
Boy 87
Boy 87 is an original and beautifully written page-turner of a novel about love, survival and the strength that can be found in a hopeful human spirit' -- Sarah Crossan, Carnegie Medal Winner'Shif is an unforgettable character, and his story should ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 224
- MBE Code : 433
Boy In The Tower
When they first arrived, they came quietly and stealthily as if they tip-toed into the world when we were all looking the other way.
Ade loves living at the top of a tower block. From his window, he feels like he can see the whole world stretching...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 336
- MBE Code : 563
Cane Warriors (Carnegie Shortlisted 2022)
Nobody free till everybody free.Moa is fourteen. The only life he has ever known is toiling on the Frontier sugar cane plantation for endless hot days, fearing the vicious whips of the overseers. Then one night he learns of an uprising, led by the ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 184
- MBE Code : 448
Coram Boy
Defined The Whitebread 2010 Book of the Year. Coram Boy is a haunting, yet captivating work of historical fiction for children. And will especially be loved towards fans of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas and Goodnight Mr Tom. Plus, a great read for ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 368
- MBE Code : 244
Crossing The Line (2024 YOTO Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice)
'Do you feel safe?'
A powerful novel exploring how teenagers can be swept up into county lines.
Erik's life has been falling apart ever since his dad died. Homework and being good at school stop feeling important when you're the new man of the ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 368
- MBE Code : 580
Darkwhispers
The Brightstorm twins are back for another adventure! Eudora Vane has organized an explorer fleet to search the last known destination of missing adventurer Ermitage Wrigglesworth. Harriet Culpepper and the crew of the Aurora join the mission, but ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 430
- MBE Code : 550
Girl. Boy. Sea.
A British boy narrowly survives the sinking of his yacht in a huge storm off the coast of Morocco. After days alone at sea in a tiny rowing boat Bill rescues a girl clinging for her life to a barrel. Aya, from the nomadic Berber tribe, was escaping ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 304
- MBE Code : 656
Glasgow Boys (Carnegie Shortlisted 2025)
Meet Finlay. He's studying for his nursing degree at Glasgow University, against all the odds. But coming straight from care means he has no support network.
How can he write essays, find paid work and NOT fall for the beautiful boy at uni, when ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 352
- MBE Code : 730
Glitter Boy
James loves dancing, poetry, and Mariah Carey (not in that order, though, because Mariah would obviously be first!).
His teacher, Mr Hamilton, is getting married to his boyfriend and it seems that James will be part of a surprise choir ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 368
- MBE Code : 662
Goodnight Mister Tom
Winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award. And has created delight to every young reader throughout the generations.
The story of Goodnight Mister Tom includes the character of Young Willie Beach. Who is evacuated to the country, as ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 384
- MBE Code : 179
Guard Your Heart (Carnegie Shortlisted 2022)
Boy meets girl on the Northern Irish border.Derry. Summer 2016. Aidan and Iona, now eighteen, were both born on the day of the Northern Ireland peace deal.Aidan is Catholic, Irish, and Republican. With his ex-political prisoner father gone and his ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 296
- MBE Code : 450
I Am Malala
Winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley, one girl fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, 9 October 2012, she almost paid the ultimate price when she was shot in the head at point-blank ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 304
- MBE Code : 346
I Must Betray You (Shortlisted for the YOTO Carnegie Medal 2023)
Trapped by an evil dictatorship, will Cristian be forced to betray his family or will he risk everything he loves to resist? A bestselling YA thriller based on real events, from a prizewinning author.
Cristian has lived his entire life in the ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 320
- MBE Code : 523
Impossible Creatures
There's a place where all the wildest stories began . From Katherine Rundell, the British Book Awards Author of the Year, comes the paperback release of the first novel in the critically acclaimed, award winning, best-selling Impossible ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 384
- MBE Code : 710
Journey to the River Sea
Winner of the Smarties Gold Medal.
Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award.
An Amazon adventure set in the wilderness of Brazil, Journey to the River Sea is filled with mystery and memorable characters.
It is 1910 and ...
- Book Cover : Paperback
- Number Of Pages : 320
- MBE Code : 357