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The winners of the Yoto Carnegies 2024

June 20, 2024/in news /by Andrea Reece

The Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing is awarded to the current Children’s Laureate, Joseph Coelho for his verse novel The Boy Lost in the Maze illustrated by Kate Milner (Otter-Barry Books). The story portrays a boy’s journey into manhood and integrating the myth of the Minotaur with the contemporary journey of a teenager searching for his father.

The Yoto Carnegies are judged by librarians and Joseph Coelho has made libraries a focus for his tenure as Waterstones Children’s Laureate (2022-2024) launching a ‘library marathon’ project which saw him visit and join a library in every region of the UK, a total of 213 nationwide, to highlight their importance. This will be a very popular win!

Receiving the award, Joseph Coelho said, ‘I am absolutely delighted to be the recipient of this year’s Carnegie Medal for Writing. The Boy

Joseph Coelho, Winner of the Yoti Carnegie Medal 2024, Photographed at the Cambridge Theatre where the award ceremony takes place this year. 19/6/24. Photo Tom Pilston

Lost in the Maze is a novel that means a great deal to me and so to have it recognised by the UK’s, if not the world’s, most prestigious award for children’s literature feels particularly special.

During my tenure as Laureate I have had the pleasure of joining a library in every local authority in the UK, meeting librarians and patrons of libraries on buses, in converted flats and in gorgeous Carnegie buildings. The one thing that has been consistent between all libraries has been the passion, skill and creativity of the librarians. Through their essential work they are tackling social isolation, providing access to essential services and of course creating the readers of the future. I feel completely honoured that it is librarians who have deemed The Boy Lost in the Maze as worthy of a Carnegie medal and will forever be grateful to the team at Otter-Barry Books, illustrator Kate Milner and my agent Caroline Sheldon for helping me bring this story to bookshelves and into the hands of readers.’

Aaron Becker is the winner of the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration for his wordless picture book The Tree and the River (Walker Books).

Accepting the award, Aaron Becker said, ‘I’m incredibly grateful to have received the Carnegie Medal for Illustration for The Tree and the River. It’s an honour and a testament to the power of wordless books.

Growing up, I was always drawn to illustrations and would get lost in pictures. When I began drawing images of my own, I was able to create a space where I could create, imagine and escape into worlds of my own design. Pictures became the way I processed the world. Within the pages of my wordless books, I invite readers to slow down and interpret stories on their own terms. Children and adults alike can project themselves onto the characters within my stories and find their own meaning and discoveries within the details of each spread, free of a narrator to dictate their pace and thoughts. My hope is that winning this award promotes the idea that books can be for anyone, even the reluctant readers among us for whom story resonates more deeply through imagery than words.’

The Yoto Carnegies celebrate achievement in children’s writing and illustration and each year thousands of reading groups in schools and libraries in the UK and around the world get involved in the Awards, with children and young people ‘shadowing’ the judging process, debating and choosing their own winners. They also chose Aaron Becker’s The Tree and the River as their winner, Aaron Becker adding the Yoto Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Medal for Illustration to his Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration.

Shadowers loved how the wordless story left The Tree and the River open to interpretation. Emilie from Rebel Readers said, ‘It is like a movement of time and it could be in the past or in the future’. Dyslexic reader Alec from BurlingtonBookReaders said it helped him learn about the ‘cyclical nature of the world.’

The winner of the Yoto Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Medal for Writing is Tia Fisher for her verse novel, Crossing the Line (Bonnier Books UK), based on a true story about teenagers swept up into county lines.

Commenting on why they chose Crossing the Line, Emelie from shadowing group KEVICHG said ‘the verse style fits this book like a glove’.

The winners were revealed at an in-person ceremony held at the Cambridge Theatre, home of the RSC’s award-winning Matilda The Musical. Over 600 children enjoyed the ceremony in-person with the event live-streamed and watched by thousands of shadowing groups around the country. The awards were hosted by Manjeet Mann, winner of the 2021 Shadowers’ Choice Medal for Writing for her debut novel, Run, Rebel. Her second novel, The Crossing, was shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing in 2022.

Maura Farrelly, Chair of Judges for The Yoto Carnegies 2024, said, ‘The Boy Lost in the Maze is a multi-layered immersive read which is playful in its language and construction and is as architectural as the mythical maze itself. The Tree and the River is a beautiful visual narrative of the natural world and the impact of humankind which invites readers to become absorbed in the landscapes. The epic spreads are alive with intricate detail and gorgeous use of light and colour. Both are ambitious and exciting books that inspire the imagination and empower young readers.

Congratulations to our 2024 medal winners and to the Shadowers’ Choice winners. Thank you to all the young readers who took part in the Shadowing programme and to the librarians who continue to support and inspire readers and to champion the best in books for children and young people everywhere.’

The winners will each receive a specially commissioned golden medal and a £5,000 Colin Mears Award cash prize. The winners of the Shadowers’ Choice Medals – voted for and awarded by the children and young people – will also be presented at the ceremony. They will also receive a golden medal and, for the first time this year, £500 worth of books to donate to a library of their choice.

Yoto, the innovative, screen-free audio platform for children, is the headline sponsor of the Awards. The Yoto Carnegies are also sponsored by ALCS. Scholastic are the official book supplier and First News are the official media partner.

https://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/The-Yoto-Carnegies-logo.png 298 910 Andrea Reece http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bfklogo.png Andrea Reece2024-06-20 13:00:542024-06-20 10:24:20The winners of the Yoto Carnegies 2024

The longlists for the 2024 Yoto Carnegies

February 13, 2024/in news /by Andrea Reece

The longlists for the 2024 Yoto Carnegies, the UK’s longest running book awards for children and young people, have been announced.

From 129 nominations, a total of 36 books have made the longlists; 19 for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing, and 18 for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration, formerly the Kate Greenaway Medal. The 12 judges are children’s and youth librarians from CILIP’s Youth Libraries Group.

Tyger by SF Said and illustrated by Dave McKean (David Fickling Books) is on both prize longlists. Author and illustrator were previously nominated together for Phoenix in 2013.

There are four verse novels on the longlist for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing. Waterstones Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho is on the list for The Boy Lost in the Maze. The other three are by New York Times bestselling author Kwame Alexander and debut authors, Cathy Faulkner and Tia Fisher. Marcus Sedgwick has been longlisted posthumously for Ravencave, the follow up to Wrath, which was also longlisted in 2023.

Previous winners and shortlisted illustrators feature on the Yoto Medal for Illustration longlist including Sydney Smith, Bob Graham, Jon Klassen and Catherine Rayner. Seven of the 18 books are published by Walker Books.

The 2024 Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing longlist is (alphabetical by author surname):

The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander (Andersen Press)

The Song Walker by Zillah Bethell (Usborne)

Away with Words by Sophie Cameron (Little Tiger)

The Little Match Girl Strikes Back by Emma Carroll, illustrated by Lauren Child (Simon & Schuster)

The Boy Lost in the Maze by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Kate Milner (Otter-Barry Books)

Choose Love by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Petr Horáček (Graffeg)

Electric Life by Rachel Delahaye (Troika Books)

Until the Road Ends by Phil Earle (Andersen Press)

Digging for Victory by Cathy Faulkner (Firefly Press)

Crossing the Line by Tia Fisher (Bonnier Books UK)

Wild Song by Candy Gourlay (David Fickling Books)

Boy Like Me by Simon James Green (Scholastic)

Safiyyah’s War by Hiba Noor Khan (Andersen Press)

Steady for This by Nathanael Lessore (Bonnier Books UK)

The Swifts by Beth Lincoln, illustrated by Claire Powell (Penguin)

Dogs of the Deadland by Anthony McGowan, illustrated by Keith Robinson (Oneworld Publications)

Tyger by SF Said, illustrated by Dave McKean (David Fickling Books)

Ravencave by Marcus Sedgwick (Barrington Stoke)

Greenwild: The World Behind the Door by Pari Thomson, illustrated by Elisa Paganelli (Macmillan Children’s Books)

 

The 2024 Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration longlist is (alphabetical by illustrator surname):

The Tree and the River by Aaron Becker (Walker Books)

Wolves in Helicopters by Paddy Donnelly, written by Sarah Tagholm (Andersen Press)

April’s Garden by Catalina Echeverri, written by Isla McGuckin (Graffeg)

The Concrete Garden by Bob Graham (Walker Books)

Deep by Stephen Hogtun (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)

Lost by Mariajo Ilustrajo (Quarto)

Colours, Colours Everywhere by Sharon King-Chai, written by Julia Donaldson (Macmillan Children’s Books)

The Skull by Jon Klassen (Walker Books)

The Wilderness by Steve McCarthy (Walker Books)

Tyger by Dave McKean, written by SF Said (David Fickling Books)

To the Other Side by Erika Meza (Hachette Children’s Group)

The Midnight Panther by Poonam Mistry (Bonnier Books UK)

The Bowerbird by Catherine Rayner, written by Julia Donaldson (Macmillan Children’s Books)

Global by Giovanni Rigano, written by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin (Hachette Children’s Group)

The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish by Chloe Savage (Walker Books)

My Baba’s Garden by Sydney Smith, written by Jordan Scott (Walker Books)

The Boy Who Lost His Spark by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini, written by Maggie O’Farrell (Walker Books)

What Feelings Do When No One’s Looking by Aleksandra Zając, written by Tina Oziewicz (Pushkin Press)

Maura Farrelly, Chair of Judges for The Yoto Carnegies 2024, said, ‘Huge congratulations to all of our longlisted authors and illustrators in what has been a fantastic year for books for children and young people. It has been a joy and a privilege to chair an enthusiastic and dedicated panel of judges as we read, debated and considered the nominated titles before arriving at two exciting longlists. These are books that play with language and show how powerful words and illustrations can inspire imaginations and encourage empathy as well as helping young readers make sense of an increasingly confusing world and give them hope for a brighter future.’

The shortlists for the 2024 Yoto Carnegies will be announced at a panel event at London Book Fair beginning on Wednesday 13 March. The winners’ ceremony will be hosted live and streamed on Thursday 20 June.

The winners each receive a specially commissioned golden medal and a £5,000 Colin Mears Award cash prize. The winners of the Shadowers’ Choice Medals – voted for and awarded by the children and young people – will also be presented at the ceremony. They will also receive a golden medal and £500 worth of books to donate to a library of their choice.

Yoto, the innovative, screen-free audio platform for children, is the headline sponsor of the Awards. The Yoto Carnegies are also sponsored by ALCS. Scholastic are the official book supplier and First News are the official media partner.

 

https://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/The-Yoto-Carnegies-logo.png 298 910 Andrea Reece http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bfklogo.png Andrea Reece2024-02-13 07:28:082024-02-13 07:28:08The longlists for the 2024 Yoto Carnegies

Winners of the 2023 Yoto Carnegies

June 21, 2023/in news /by Andrea Reece

The winners of the UK’s longest-running and best-loved book awards for children and young people, the Yoto Carnegies have been announced.

Jeet Zdung has won the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration, formerly the Kate Greenaway Medal for Saving Sorya: Chang and the Sun Bear (Kingfisher, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Books). This is the second consecutive year that the prize has been awarded to a graphic novel. Written and inspired by the real life of Vietnamese wildlife conservationist Dr Trang Nguyen, the manga-inspired illustrations offer “something new to discover on each re-reading” and inspire and educate young wildlife activists.

For the first time in the awards almost 90-year history, the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing is awarded to a book in translation – The Blue Book of Nebo (Firefly Press), written and translated by Manon Steffan Ros. The original Welsh publication, Llyfr Glas Nebo, won multiple awards, including the 2019 Wales Book of the Year.

The Yoto Carnegies celebrate outstanding achievement in children’s writing and illustration and are unique in being judged by an expert panel of children’s and youth librarians, including 12 librarians from CILIP, the library and information association’s Youth Libraries Group.

Selected from shortlists of six and seven titles respectively, both winners were praised by the judges for providing an “immersive” reading experience, addressing questions about how we live now and how this might affect the future.

Each year thousands of reading groups in schools and libraries in the UK and around the world get involved in the Awards, with children and young people ‘shadowing’ the judging process, debating and choosing their own winners. This year their choices are I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys for the Yoto Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Medal for Writing, and The Comet by Joe Todd-Stanton for the Yoto Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Medal for Illustration.

Ruta Sepetys previously won the Carnegie Medal for Writing in 2017 for Salt to the Sea and was shortlisted in 2021 for The Fountains of Silence.

The winners were revealed at an in-person ceremony held at The Barbican, which was live-streamed and watched by shadowing groups around the country. The awards were hosted by former Children’s Laureate Lauren Child CBE, who won the Carnegie Medal for Illustration – then known as the Kate Greenaway Medal – in 2000 for her first Charlie and Lola book, I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato.

Janet Noble, Chair of Judges for The Yoto Carnegies 2023, said, ‘From an incredibly strong shortlist, our panel of librarian judges debated long and hard to choose our two worthy winners of the Yoto Carnegie Medals 2023.

In The Blue Book of Nebo, the world building and distinct voices of the two main characters, the son and his mother, are expertly realised and the reader is compelled to question their own relationship with the modern world. Saving Sorya: Chang and the Sun Bear is a beautiful story, elegantly told, which brings together a global view of conservation and an empowering true story of an inspiring female environmentalist, told through dazzling manga art and watercolours. Jeet has crafted every illustration to immerse the reader, just as Manon draws the reader in completely with her vivid, deliberate prose.

Thanks to the young readers far and wide who have engaged with our shortlists and voted for their own deserving Shadowers’ Choice Medal recipients. Huge congratulations to all four of our Yoto Carnegie medal winners for this year, who demonstrate the best of children’s writing and illustration in its myriad of forms.’

Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing winner, Manon Steffan Ros, said, ‘I used to see the word Carnegie on the covers of my favourite books as a child, and the fact that The Blue Book of Nebo now has that honour bestowed upon it means more than I can say – and to be the first book in translation to win the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing is a source of great delight. One of the greatest privileges of my life has been the fact that I was raised through the medium of the Welsh language, and having access to two languages has brought me so much joy and opportunity. There’s a huge, lively, thriving Welsh language cultural scene that I’m honoured to be a part of. Each language offers a unique and enriching perspective on the world, and so literature in translation has the potential to enhance our lives greatly. Your favourite book might not yet be translated into a language that you understand.’

Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration winner, Jeet Zdung, said, ‘When I was a child, I always wished that I could create my own cartoon movies. The process of creating the book Saving Sorya: Chang and the Sun Bear was a journey to satisfy the child’s longing inside of me – to create an immersive movie on paper using influences of comics and manga. Together with Trang Nguyen, we hope these books will contribute to the conservation of wildlife by sharing with the readers what we know, what we love and care about. For me, this is a long and enduring journey. Winning the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration is a great honour. We hope that the impact of the prize will be felt widely and draw attention to the plight of the Sun Bears and other wildlife.’

Manon Steffan Ros and Jeet Zdung each receive £500 worth of books to donate to a library of their choice, a £5,000 Colin Mears Award cash prize and a newly designed golden medal. For the first time, this year the Shadowers’ Choice winners were also presented with a golden medal.

Ros is making her donation to her local library, Tywyn Library in Gwynedd, where she wrote a few of her books when she didn’t have the means to get internet at home. Dr Trang Nguyen and her organization WildAct have set up libraries for children in localities near Vietnamese national parks to heighten their reading skills and knowledge of conservation; Zdung’s donation will be supporting this effort.

Yoto, the innovative, screen-free audio platform for children, is the headline sponsor of the Awards. The Yoto Carnegies are sponsored by ALCS and Scholastic as the official book supplier, with First News as the official media partner for 2023.

Read the new Books for Keeps interviews with Yoto Carnegies winners Jeet Zdung and Manon Steffan Ros.

 

https://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/The-Yoto-Carnegies-logo.png 298 910 Andrea Reece http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bfklogo.png Andrea Reece2023-06-21 12:55:582023-06-21 13:01:56Winners of the 2023 Yoto Carnegies

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