The longlist for the 2021 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals have been announced.
The UK’s oldest children’s book awards, and widely recognised as the most prestigious, the Medals celebrate outstanding achievement in children’s writing and illustration respectively.
They are judged by children’s librarians, with the new Shadowers’ Choice Award voted for by children and young people. 40 titles have been longlisted for the 2021 Medals (20 on each longlist) selected from a total of 152 nominations.
Verse novels and poetry anthologies are well represented this year. 2019 winner Elizabeth Acevedo, who became the first writer of colour to win the CILIP Carnegie medal, is longlisted for Clap When You Land; Manjeet Mann receives her first longlisting for her verse novel Run, Rebel alongside fellow debut author Aimee Lucido, with In the Key Of Code. Poetry collections also feature with Somebody Give This Heart A Pen by Sophia Thakur and The Girl Who Became A Tree by Joseph Coelho.
As ever former Carnegie Medal winners make repeat appearances: Patrick Ness is longlisted for Burn; and 2017 winner Ruta Sepetys is longlisted for The Fountains Of Silence. There are debuts too though, including Katya Balen’s The Space We’re In and Danielle Jawando’s, And The Stars Were Burning Brightly.
For the Kate Greenaway Medal, illustrator Eva Eland receives a consecutive longlisting for Where Happiness Begins, When Sadness Comes To Call was shortlisted in 2020. Making their first appearance on the Kate Greenaway longlist are Richard Jones for The Child Of Dreams; David Litchfield for Lights On Cotton Rock and Yoko Tanaka for Dandelion’s Dream. Kate Milner is on both lists – It’s a No-Money Day is longlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway and she illustrated The Girl Who Became A Tree by Joseph Coelho.
2021 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal longlist (alphabetical by illustrator surname):
Just Because illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault, written by Mac Barnett (Walker Books)
The Wind In The Wall illustrated by Rovena Cai, written by Sally Gardner (Hot Key Books)
The Misadventures Of Frederick illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark, written by Ben Manley (Two Hoots)
My Nana’s Garden illustrated by Jessica Courtney-Tickle, written by Dawn Casey (Templar)
Tibble And Grandpa illustrated by Daniel Egneus, written by Wendy Meddour (Oxford University Press)
Where Happiness Begins illustrated and written by Eva Eland (Andersen Press)
The Fate Of Fausto illustrated and written by Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
The Child Of Dreams illustrated by Richard Jones, written by Irena Brignull (Walker Books)
Starbird illustrated and written by Sharon King-Chai (Two Hoots)
Lights On Cotton Rock illustrated and written by David Litchfield (Frances Lincoln)
The Bird Within Me illustrated by Sara Lundberg and translated by B. J. Epstein (Book Island)
It’s A No-Money Day illustrated and written by Kate Milner (Barrington Stoke)
The Girl Who Became A Tree illustrated by Kate Milner, written by Joseph Coelho (Otter-Barry Books)
How The Stars Came To Be illustrated and written by Poonam Mistry (Tate Publishing)
Hike illustrated and written by Pete Oswald (Walker Books)
I Go Quiet illustrated and written by David Ouimet (Canongate)
Arlo The Lion Who Couldn’t Sleep illustrated and written by Catherine Rayner (Macmillan Children’s Books)
Hidden Planet illustrated and written by Ben Rothery (Ladybird)
Small In The City illustrated and written by Sydney Smith (Walker Books)
Dandelion’s Dream illustrated and written by Yoko Tanaka (Walker Books)
2021 CILIP Carnegie Medal longlist (alphabetical by author surname):
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (Hot Key Books)
The Girl Who Speaks Bear by Sophie Anderson, illustrated by Kathrin Honesta (Usborne)
The Space We’re In by Katya Balen, illustrated by Laura Carlin (Bloomsbury)
The Short Knife by Elen Caldecott (Andersen Press)
The Girl Who Became A Tree by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Kate Milner (Otter-Barry Books)
Beverly, Right Here by Kate DiCamillo (Walker Books)
Furious Thing by Jenny Downham (David Fickling Books)
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi (Faber)
On Midnight Beach by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick (Faber)
Deeplight by Frances Hardinge (Macmillan Children’s Books)
And The Stars Were Burning Brightly by Danielle Jawando (Simon & Schuster)
In The Key Of Code by Aimee Lucido (Walker Books)
Run, Rebel by Manjeet Mann (Penguin Random House Children’s)
The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Orion)
Burn by Patrick Ness (Walker Books)
After The War by Tom Palmer (Barrington Stoke)
Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds (Knights Of)
The Fountains Of Silence by Ruta Sepetys (Penguin Random House Children’s)
Somebody Give This Heart A Pen by Sophia Thakur (Walker Books)
Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk (Penguin Random House Children’s)
Ellen Krajewski, Chair, CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals judging panel, said, ‘The talent and imagination on display across 2021’s longlist is truly inspiring. The variety of stories, the creativity in how those stories have been lovingly crafted, and the relatability of the characters and their experiences has been a joy for all the judges to behold. The Awards’ mission is to empower the next generation to shape a better world through books and reading, which is undoubtably what this longlist helps to achieve, inviting children stuck indoors during lockdown to open the door to a myriad of fun and exciting places and be transported. Congratulations to all the authors and illustrators for their exceptional and transformative work.’
The shortlists for both the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals 2021 will be announced on Thursday 18th March 2021, with the winners announced on Wednesday 16th June 2021. Covid-19 guidelines permitting a socially distanced special daytime event will be held at The British Library and live-streamed online.
The winners will each receive £500 worth of books to donate to their local library, a specially commissioned golden medal and a £5,000 Colin Mears Award cash prize.
Now in its third year, the Shadowers’ Choice Award – voted for and awarded by the children and young people who shadow the Medals – will be announced alongside the two Medal winners in June 2021. This award evolved out of CILIP’s Diversity Review, which identified opportunities to empower and celebrate the young people involved in the Medals through the shadowing scheme.
The 2021 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals are sponsored by Peters and ALCS, and funded by Carnegie UK Trust.
For further information about the history of the Medals visit www.ckg.org.uk/archive
