The CILIP CKG 2019 longlists came out a month ago, and tomorrow (19th March) the shortlists will be announced, and on Wednesday shadowing groups across the country will begin in earnest. I blogged about the nominations when they came out way back in November and picked my 10 favourite books from each list (having read near half of each at that point), 5 of my Carnegies were longlisted and just 3 of my Kate Greenaway choices. I have now read 19 of each list, having been unable to get ‘The Poet X’ or ‘Beyond the Fence’ in time. I’m very sad about that because I’ve heard great things about both of them and wouldn’t be surprised to see them shortlisted!
My Carnegie top 8 are (in alphabetical order by author):
- Rebound, Kwame Alexander
- The Colour of the Sun, David Almond
- Weight of a Thousand Feathers, Brian Conaghan
- Bone Talk, Candy Gourlay
- A Skinfull of Shadows, Frances Hardinge
- Things a Bright Girl Can Do, Sally Nicholls
- Station Zero, Philip Reeve
- Long Way Down, Jason Reynolds
My Kate Greenaway top 8 are (in alphabetical order by illustrator):
- The Day War Came, Rebecca Cobb (written by Nicola Davies)
- If All the World Were…, Allison Colpoys (written by Joseph Coelho)
- Mary’s Monster, Lita Judge
- Mrs Noah’s Pockets, James Mayhew (written by Jackie Morris)
- You’re Safe With Me, Poonam Mistry (written by Chitra Soundar)
- The Lost Words, Jackie Morris
- Animals with Tiny Cat, Viviane Schwarz
- The Family Tree, Emma Shoard (written by Mal Peet)
I honestly enjoyed all the books, but found choosing the Kate Greenaways much harder than the Carnegies, the judges must have had a tough time getting down from 20 to 8 on each list (max, there may be less) and now they’ve got to re-read all of them multiple times, make copious notes, and get ready for some intense meetings about which books will be crowned winners! I’m really looking forward to seeing what overlap there is between my and their lists, joining in with discussions about the shortlisted titles…and predicting a winner!
