Carnegie Medal (literary award) facts for kids

The Carnegie Medal for Writing, established in 1936, is a British literary award that annually recognises one outstanding new English-language book for children or young adults. It is conferred upon the author by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), who calls it "the UK's oldest and most prestigious book award for children's writing". CILIP is currently partnered with the audio technology company Yoto in connection with the award.

Nominated books must be written in English and first published in the UK during the preceding school year (September to August). Until 1969, the award was limited to books by British authors first published in England. The first non-British medalist was Australian author Ivan Southall for Josh (1972). The original rules also prohibited winning authors from future consideration. The first author to win a second Carnegie Medal was Peter Dickinson in 1981, who won consecutively for Tulku and City of Gold. As of 2018, eight authors had received the Medal more than once.

The winner is awarded a gold medal and £500 worth of books donated to the winner's chosen library. In addition, since 2016 the winner has received a £5,000 cash prize from the Colin Mears bequest.

2023 rendition

Manon Steffan Ros won the 2023 Carnegie Medal for The Blue Book of Nebo, the first time a translation had won the award. The Blue Book of Nebo is a novel told in dual narrative by a boy and his mother navigating a post-apocalyptic world. Translated from Welsh, it depicts Welsh identity and culture.

There were seven books on the 2023 shortlist:

• Katya Balen, The Light in Everything (Bloomsbury)
• Sita Brahmachari, When Shadows Fall (Little Tiger)
• Jessie Burton, Medusa (Bloomsbury)
• Louise Finch, The Eternal Return of Clara Hart (Little Island)
• Patrice Lawrence, Needle (Barrington Stoke)
• Manon Steffan Ros, The Blue Book of Nebo (Firefly Press)
• Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You (Hodder) Winner of the Shadowers choice

Recommended ages have ranged from 8+ to 14+ for books on the shortlist since 2001.

History

The Medal is named after the Scottish-born American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919), who founded more than 2,800 libraries in the English-speaking world, including at least one in more than half of British library authorities. It was established in 1936 by the British Library Association, to celebrate the centenary of Carnegie's birth and inaugurated in 1937 with the award to Arthur Ransome for Pigeon Post (1936) and the identification of two 'commended' books. The first Medal was dated 1936, but since 2007, it has been dated by its year of presentation, which is now one or two years after publication.

In 1955, the Kate Greenaway Medal was established as a companion to the Carnegie Medal. The Kate Greenaway Medal recognises "distinguished illustration in a book for children".

Both awards were established and administered by the Library Association, until it was succeeded by CILIP in 2002. In 2022, the award was officially renamed to the Carnegie Medal for Illustration.

As of 2023, the award is organized by CILIP and sponsored by Yoto, Scholastic, and the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society.

Process

CILIP members may nominate books each September and October, with the full list of valid nominations published in November. The longlist, chosen by the judges from the nominated books, is published in February. The judging panel comprises 12 children's librarians, all of whom are members of CILIP's Youth Libraries Group (YLG). The shortlist is announced in March and the winner in June.

Titles must be English-language works first published in the UK during the preceding year (1 September to 31 August). According to CILIP, "all categories of books, including poetry, non-fiction and graphic novels, in print or ebook format, for children and young people are eligible". Multiple-author anthologies are excluded; however, co-authored single works are eligible.

Young people from across the UK take part in shadowing groups organised by secondary schools and public libraries, to read and discuss the shortlisted books.

CILIP instructs the judging panel to consider plot, characterisation, and style "where appropriate". Furthermore, it states that "the book that wins the Carnegie Medal should be a book of outstanding literary quality. The whole work should provide pleasure, not merely from the surface enjoyment of a good read, but also the deeper subconscious satisfaction of having gone through a vicarious, but at the time of reading, a real experience that is retained afterwards".

A diversity review in 2018 led to changes in the nomination and judging process to promote better representation of ethnic minority authors and books.

Winners

As of 2022, 83 Medals have been awarded over 86 years, spanning the period from 1936 to 2021. No eligible book published in 1943, 1945, or 1966 was considered suitable by the judging panel.

From 2007 onward, the medals are dated by the year of presentation. Prior to this, they were dated by the calendar year of their British publication.

Forty-one winning books were illustrated in their first editions, including every one during the first three decades. Six from 1936 to 1953 were illustrated or co-illustrated by their authors; none since then.

Carnegie of Carnegies

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Carnegie Medal in 2007, CILIP created a 'Living Archive' on the Carnegie Medal website with information about each of the winning books and conducted a poll to identify the nation's favourite Carnegie Medal winner, to be named the "Carnegie of Carnegies". The winner, announced on 21 June 2007 at the British Library, was Northern Lights by Philip Pullman (1995). It was the expected winner, garnering 40% of the votes in the UK, and 36% worldwide.

70th Anniversary Top Ten

• David Almond, Skellig, (Hodder, 1998)
• Melvin Burgess, Junk, (Penguin, 1996)
• Kevin Crossley-Holland, Storm, (Egmont, 1985)
• Jennifer Donnelly, A Gathering Light, (Bloomsbury, 2003)
• Alan Garner, The Owl Service, (HarperCollins, 1967)
• Eve Garnett, The Family from One End Street, (Penguin, 1937)
• Mary Norton, The Borrowers, (Penguin, 1952)
• Philippa Pearce, Tom's Midnight Garden, (Oxford, 1958)
• Philip Pullman, Northern Lights, (Scholastic, 1995)
• Robert Westall, The Machine Gunners, (Macmillan, 1975)

Northern Lights, with 40% of the public vote, was followed by 16% for Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce and 8% for Skellig by David Almond. As those three books had won the 70-year-old Medal in its year 60, year 23, and year 63, some commentary observed that Tom's Midnight Garden had passed a test of time that the others had not yet faced.

Honorees

Prior to 2007, the award year matched books' year of publication with selection announced and medals presented early the following year.

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

Beginning in 2003, commendations were not presented, only short and longlists; only the shortlists are presented below.

2010s

2020s

Repeat honorees

Eight authors have won two Carnegie Medals, which was prohibited for many years. Additionally, several authors have been shortlisted and/or commended multiple times.

The table below provides a list of authors who have been honoured, sorted first by number of honors and the rank of the honor (e.g., win is higher than commendation), then by the authors' last name. For the sake of ease, shortlists are considered of equal rank to commendations, though lower than high commendations. The table was last updated in March 2024.

Multiple award recipients

Six books have won both the Carnegie Medal and the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, which was inaugurated 1967.(Dates are years of U.K. publication, and Carnegie award dates before 2006.)

• Alan Garner, The Owl Service (1967)
• Richard Adams, Watership Down (1972)
• Geraldine McCaughrean, A Pack of Lies (1988)
• Anne Fine, Goggle-Eyes (1989)
• Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials 1: Northern Lights (1995)
• Melvin Burgess, Junk (1996)

Only A Monster Calls, written by Patrick Ness and illustrated by Jim Kay, has won both the Carnegie and Greenaway Medals (2012).

Only The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (2009) has won both the Carnegie Medal and the equivalent American award, the Newbery Medal.

Sharon Creech, who won the Carnegie for Ruby Holler (2002), previously won the Newbery and two U.K. awards for Walk Two Moons (1994).

Four writers have won both the Carnegie and the US Michael L. Printz Award. The Printz Award is an American Library Association literary award that annually recognises the "best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit". The four writers are David Almond, Aidan Chambers, Geraldine McCaughrean, and Meg Rosoff. Chambers alone has won both for the same book, the 1999 Carnegie and 2003 Printz for the novel Postcards from No Man's Land.

In its scope, books for children or young adults, the British Carnegie corresponds to the American Newbery and Printz awards.

See also

In Spanish: Medalla Carnegie para niños

• Kate Greenaway Medal
• Children's Laureate
• Blue Peter Book Awards
• Guardian Children's Fiction Prize
• Nestlé Smarties Book Prize
• Newbery Medal, the primary American Library Association annual children's book award
• Michael L. Printz Award, the primary ALA annual young adult book award