Young Quills reviews 2023
The Young Quills Awards for best historical fiction for young people
Published: 4th May 2023

The Young Quills books for each year must be published for the first time in English in the year preceding the competition – so 2022 for this year’s selection. Divided by age suitability the books are given to schools on the condition that the children and young people there write a review of the book following our criteria. Those reviews are used as the basis for us to create the shortlist from which the winners are selected.
You can read some of the children and young people's reviews of all this year's books via the links below:
For young readers ages 7–11
For intermediate readers 11–13 years
- The Battle of Cable Street
- Journey Back to Freedom
- Nisha’s War
- When the War Came Home
- Resist
- Rosie Raja: Churchill’s Spy
- Please Write Soon
- The Book of Stolen Dreams
- Dick Kerr Girls: All Together Now
- Dogs of the Deadlands
- The Elemental Detectives
- Enola Holmes: The Case of the Missing Marquis
- Fin and the Memory Curse
- The Good Turn
- The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: drama and danger
- Magicborn
- The Mermaid and the Millpond
- The Ministry of Unladylike Activity
- The Misunderstandings of Charity Brown
- My Friend the Octopus
- Never Forget You
- The Secret of the Treasure Keepers
- The Story of Babur
- The Tale of Truthwater Lake
- The Three Hares: The Terracotta Horse
- The Titanic Tunnel
- The Whisperling