WINNERS OF THE 2012 CILIP CARNEGIE AND KATE GREENAWAY MEDALS

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‘A MONSTER CALLS’ AWARDED BOTH MEDALS IN A UNIQUE MOMENT IN THE AWARDS’ HISTORY

For the first time in the history of the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Awards, the UK’s most prestigious children’s book awards, the same book has won both medals.

At a ceremony at the Barbican today, 14 June, author Patrick Ness accepted the Carnegie Medal, awarded annually to the writer of an outstanding book, and illustrator Jim Kay accepted the Kate Greenaway Medal for distinguished illustration for their book ‘A Monster Calls’.

Patrick Ness becomes one of a very select band of authors to win the Carnegie twice: he took the award in 2011 for Monsters of Men, the third book in his Chaos Walking trilogy. The others are Anne Fine, Berlie Doherty, Robert Westall, Margaret Mahy and Peter Dickinson; until today, only Peter Dickinson had ever won the Medal in consecutive years (for Tulku in 1979 and City of Gold in 1980).

Rachel Levy, Children’s Library Services Manager for Sutton Libraries and chair of the 2012 CILIP Carnegie judging panel described A Monster Calls as ‘outstanding in every way’ adding, ‘Patrick Ness’s text is exquisite with not a word out of place. Jim Kay’s bold, haunting illustrations match and even expand the text. This is a book readers will remember and return to over and over again. It is one of the defining books of its generation’.

Ness created the tale from the final idea of the late children’s writer, Siobhan Dowd, herself a CILIP Carnegie Medal winner (posthumously in 2009 for Bog Child). A share of the royalties from every copy of A Monster Calls sold goes to the Siobhan Dowd Trust www.siobhandowdtrust.com which aims to bring books and reading to disadvantaged children in the UK.

In a powerful and very moving speech, Patrick Ness paid tribute to Siobhan Dowd, praising her for her enormous compassion and intelligence, and for her empathy, which he described as the ‘vital ingredient in writing for young people’.

This is Jim Kay’s second book for children. In interviews he refers to A Monster Calls as a ‘marmite book’ believing that people would either love the illustrations, or hate them and described winning the medal as ‘a huge boost’.

A Monster Calls was popular with the thousands of young people who take part in the Medals’ unique Shadowing scheme. Their reviews are available to read at www.ckg.org.uk/shadowing

The 2012 winners were announced at a ceremony at The Barbican Centre, London at 12 noon on Thursday 14 June.

CILIP Carnegie Medal Shortlist 2012

My Name is Mina by David Almond, Hodder (9+)
Small Change for Stuart by Lissa Evans, Doubleday (8+)
The Midnight Zoo by Sonya Hartnett, Walker (9+)
Everybody Jam by Ali Lewis, Andersen (12+)
Trash by Andy Mulligan, David Fickling (12+)
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, Walker (9+)
My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher, Orion (10+)
Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys, Puffin (12+)

The 2012 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal Shortlist
Wolf Won’t Bite by Emily Gravett
Puffin Peter by Petr Horácek
A Monster Calls by Jim Kay
Slog’s Dad by Dave McKean by
Solomon Crocodile byCatherine Rayner
The Gift byRob Ryan
There are No Cats in this Book by Viviane Schwarz
Can We Save the Tiger? byVicky White