2025
Children's & YA Prize Winner
Nathanael Lessore
King of Nothing
(Hot Key)
Nathanael Lessore was born in Camberwell, South East London, as one of eight children to French and Madagascan parents. Nathanael can run 100 metres in under 10 minutes and has trouble finding sunglasses that frame his face properly. His debut book Steady For This was shortlisted for the Jhalak Children’s & Young Adult Prize, and won the Branford Boase Award 2024. He writes stories that show his South East London childhood as the funny, warm, adventurous world that wasn’t always represented as such.
(Hot Key)
Short list
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Bringing Back Kay-Kay, Dev Kothari (Walker)
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Flower Block, Lanisha Butterfield & Hoang Giang (Puffin)
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King of Nothing, Nathanael Lessore (Hot Key)
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Mayowa and the Sea of Words, Chibundu Onuzo (Bloomsbury)
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The Boy to Beat the Gods, Ashley Thorpe (Usborne)
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The Thread That Connects Us, Ayaan Mohamud (Usborne)
Long list
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Bringing Back Kay-Kay, Dev Kothari (Walker)
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Flower Block, Lanisha Butterfield & Hoang Giang (Puffin)
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It's Time to Hush and Say Goodnight, Chitra Soundar, ill Sandhya Prabhat (Walker)
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King of Nothing, Nathanael Lessore (Hot Key)
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Little Dinosaurs Big Feelings, Swapna Haddow & Yiting Lee (Magic Cat)
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Mayowa and the Sea of Words, Chibundu Onuzo (Bloomsbury)
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Red Sky at Night, Poet's Delight, Alex Wharton, ill Ian Morris (Firefly Press)
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The Boy to Beat the Gods, Ashley Thorpe (Usborne)
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The Gift, Jii and Nikos Park Trepkas (Tate Publishing)
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The Hidden Story of Estie Noor, Nadine Aisha Jassat, ill Sandhya Prabhat (Orion)
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The Thread That Connects Us, Ayaan Mohamud (Usborne)
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These Stolen Lives, Sharada Keats (Scholastic)
