Shaha and Soofiya announced as judges for The Little Rebels Award for Radical Children’s Fiction 

The Little Rebels Award for Radical Children’s Fiction has announced two new judges for 2024, teacher and lecturer, Alom Shaha, and lecturer, designer and illustrator Soofiya. They join current judges Emily Haworth-Booth, Jake Hope and Farrah Serroukh.  

The Little Rebels Award celebrates UK children’s books for readers aged 0–12 which promote social justice. This year marks the first year of the award where self-published creators can enter, as long as they meet the full submissions criteria. The award will be open for entries until 1st March 2024.  

Shaha said: "I’m looking forward to being a Little Rebels Award Judge because I can’t think of a time during my lifetime when radical children’s fiction has been more important.”

A physics teacher and author of several books, Shaha has published titles including Mr Shaha’s Recipes for Wonder and Mr Shaha’s Marvellous Machines (both Scribble UK), alongside The Young Atheist’s Handbook (Biteback) and How to Find a Rainbow (Scribble UK).  

Soofiya’s recent work includes resources like the Free Palestine Zine alongside illustrations for Otter Barry Books’ young reader series, Nikhil and Jay, authored by Chitra Soundar. They described their creative work as a way to “articulate a commentary on gender, race, politics and bodies through a DIY and therapeutically informed approach”. 

Last year the Little Rebels Award was won by Patrice Lawrence’s novella Needle (Barrington Stoke). The prize is given by the booksellers Letterbox Library and Housmans Bookshop on behalf of the Alliance of Radical Booksellers. It includes £2,000 funded by the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust.  

The shortlist for the award will be announced in July with the winning announcement coming in October.