Nadia Mikail's The Cats We Meet Along the Way won the overall 2023 Waterstones Children's Book Prize, as well as the older readers category. The Bookseller reported that the award, voted for solely by booksellers, consists of £5,000 (about $6,095) and "the promise of ongoing commitment to the winners' writing and illustrating careers."
Florentyna Martin, Waterstones head children's buyer, said: "In a phenomenal debut, Nadia Mikail's prose sparkles in the growing market for older readers. Booksellers were overwhelmed by the tenderness woven through each chapter; the moments of silence between the characters are as truthful and evocative as their conversations. Mikail has ultimately crafted a novel of hope, set against an eventful road trip, that encourages us to share stories and dreams."
Mikail commented: "I was really missing my family when I started writing this book, and constantly worrying about them during the pandemic, so I wrote it as sort of a worst-case scenario situation, like what would happen if the apocalypse was about to happen, and I was away from my loved ones. In the midst of trying to kind of work out those anxieties through writing, I realized the only thing we can do is care for the people we love every day and hope for a better future for them even when things seem hopeless."
Other category winners were M.T. Khan's Nura and the Immortal Palace (younger readers) and Kim Hillyard's Gretel the Wonder Mammoth (illustrated books).