The Yoto Carnegies celebrate outstanding achievement in children’s writing and illustration and are unique in being judged by children’s and youth librarians, with the respective Shadowers’ Choice Medals voted for by children and young people.
Matt and I have both been judges for the awards, many moons ago, and it is and extraordinarily rigorous process involving reading and re-reading dozens of books and forming proper arguments as to why things should be shortlisted (or not…in fact sometimes I was very passionate about *not* letting something get further…), judges can’t just say “this is my favourite because it is cute”. So we love seeing the longlist and then shortlist announcement and imagining the conversations that went on for them to be the chosen few! I definitely have favourites in this year’s lists:
The 2023 Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing longlist is (alphabetical by author surname):
· The Light in Everything by Katya Balen (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
· When Shadows Fall by Sita Brahmachari, illustrated by Natalie Sirett (Little Tiger)
· Medusa by Jessie Burton, illustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
· The Eternal Return of Clara Hart by Louise Finch (Little Island)
· Needle by Patrice Lawrence (Barrington Stoke)
· I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys (Hodder Children’s Books)
· The Blue Book of Nebo by Manon Steffan Ros (Firefly Press)
The 2023 Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration longlist is (alphabetical by illustrator surname):
· Rescuing Titanic illustrated and written by Flora Delargy (Wide Eyed Editions)
· Alte Zachen: Old Things illustrated by Benjamin Phillips, written by Ziggy Hanaor (Cirada Books)
· The Worlds We Leave Behind illustrated by Levi Pinfold, written by A. F. Harrold (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
· The Visible Sounds illustrated by Yu Rong, written by Yin Jianling (UCLan Publishing)
· The Comet illustrated and written by Joe Todd-Stanton (Flying Eye Books)
· Saving Sorya: Chang and the Sun Bear illustrated by Jeet Zdung, written by Trang Nguyen (Kingfisher)
Click here to read more about the fantastic books that have been chosen.
