The CILIP Carnegie and Kate
Greenaway Medals are the UK’s oldest and most prestigious children’s book
awards. Often described by authors and illustrators as ‘the one they want to
win’ – they are the gold standard in children’s literature. The
CILIP Carnegie Medal
is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book written in English
for children and young people and the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal
is awarded by children’s librarians for a book for children and young people that
is outstanding for its illustrations.
I had the privilege of
being the South East Youth Libraries Group Judge in 2015 and 2016 and I am
Young People and Families Outreach
Manager: Library Localities, at Wokingham
Borough Libraries. I am also a member of the Youth Libraries Group
South East committee, which I have been for 12 years, and have held the roles
of secretary, vice chair, chair; I was then given the opportunity to be the
Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Regional Judge.
In 2015 I had to read 91 Carnegie books and 70 Kate
Greenaway books and in 2016, 93 Carnegie books and 69 Kate Greenaway books.
All of the books that are nominated are deemed to
fit the very strict Carnegie and Kate Greenaway criteria. Anyone who is a
member of CILIP can nominate and each authority and regional group has the opportunity
to submit an entry as well. As a regional group – Youth Libraries Group South
East – we organise a regional day every year; this year’s will be September 25
at Crawley Library.
Each year the nominations list is filled with
varied and interesting reads that cover all sorts of issues and adventures, I
personally found that it stretched me to explore new genres that I would not
normally read.
My first challenge as a CKG judge was to read this
great list of books for the first time. It was intensely exciting when the
parcels arrived at my library, and all the lovely shiny new books started to
pile up. When I brought the books home and stacked them all up my six year old
son counted how many there were.
I began the task of reading and critiquing each
book. My son would count each day, to see how many books I had left to read. I
just kept thinking, “I must keep reading, I must keep reading!” Keeping up the reading momentum in the short
space of time available was helped by encouragement and support from
colleagues, friends and family, and my son’s daily countdown. It was essential
to read everywhere, during lunchtimes, in the car and at the park! – “I must
keep reading!”
It was amazing to explore some of the titles with
my son. He adored a lot of the ones we shared and I have had to buy another
bookcase! Some of them really captured his imagination – he wanted to be
an explorer in space and the Antarctic, then laughed at bird thieves and a
funny squashed frog! (Oi Frog! By Kes Gray and Jim Field is undoubtedly one of
the best picture books ever.)
As a judge you also have to promote and raise awareness of the Carnegie and Greenaway awards and encourage participation in ‘shadowing’ groups. Promoting the books through these schemes has been amazing, and hearing young people’s opinions is wonderful.
To explain, children and young people ‘shadow’ the judging process for both awards; they read, discuss and review the books on each shortlist selected by CILIP’s panel of librarian judges and engage in reading related activity online. The scheme has thousands of registered reading groups across the UK and internationally – engaging tens of thousands of children and young people in reading.
Reading activity takes place from March to June – from the moment
that the shortlists are revealed to the final winner’s announcement. The
shadowing process is supported online. More information
can be found here.
I visited shadowing groups across the South in Berkshire,
Hampshire and Surrey, in schools and libraries. We were able to organise one of
the shortlisted authors, Geraldine McCaughrean (The Middle of Nowhere), to come and talk to several of our
secondary school students and shadowing groups. I am currently working with my local Adolescent
Unit, Willow Hospital Education at Wokingham Hospital, to shadow the 2018 prize
for the Kate Greenaway Books. Talking to fellow
book lovers about the shortlisted books and the judging process has been really
enjoyable. It was brilliant to have the opportunity to talk about books so
much!
Moving onto the judging process, we had an amazing
discussion on each of the books nominated. When it came to making decisions,
there were lots of heated debates, outcries of despair, near-tears and a bit of
laughter thrown in too. Revisiting the shortlisted books has been quite a
different experience; going away and re-reading and re-reading (must keep
reading!), so you can completely justify how each of the books stands up to the
criteria. During this process it starts to become more obvious which books
stood out that little bit more. Even if you have decided which book you adore and
think should win the prize, you have got to make sure that the criteria are
fully met.
This is where heartache comes – you are passionate
about which book should be the winner, but the more you consider and talk about
the text and images with the other judges, the more it becomes clear who the
winner has to be. I’ve really enjoyed the debating and banter of exploring and
defending the books.
The winner of CILIP Carnegie
2015 prize was Tanya Landman for Buffalo
Soldier – Charley, a young African-American slave from the deep South, is
freed at the end of the American civil war. However, her freedom is met with
tragedy after her adopted mother is raped and lynched at the hands of a mob,
and Charley finds herself alone with no protection. In a terrifyingly lawless
land, where the colour of a person’s skin can bring violent death, Charley
disguises herself as a man and joins the army. Trapped in a world of injustice
and inequality, it’s only when Charley is posted to Apache territory to fight “savage
Indians” that she begins to learn about who she is and what it is to be truly
free.
The winner of CILIP Kate
Greenaway 2015 prize was Will Grill for Shackleton’s
Journey – In the last days of the heroic age of exploration, Ernest
Shackleton dreamed of crossing the frozen heart of Antarctica; a place of
ferocious seas, uncharted mountains and bone-chilling cold. But when his ship,
the Endurance, became trapped in the deadly grip of the ice, Shackleton’s
dreams of crossing Antarctica were shattered. Stranded in a cold, white world,
and thousands of miles from home, the men of the expedition set out on a
desperate trek across the ice in search of rescue.
The winner of CILIP Carnegie 2016 was One by Sarah Crossan – Grace and Tippi are
conjoined twins. And their lives are about to change. No longer able to afford homeschooling,
they must venture into the world – a world of stares, sneers and cruelty. Will
they find more than that at school? Can they find real friends? And what about
love? But what neither Grace nor Tippi realises is that a heart-wrenching
decision lies ahead. A decision that could tear them apart. One that will
change their lives even more than they ever imagined.
The winner of CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2016
was The Sleeper and the Spindle,
illustrated by Chris Riddell, written by Neil Gaiman – On the eve of her
wedding, a young queen sets out to rescue a princess from an enchantment. She
casts aside her fine wedding clothes, takes her chain mail and sword and
follows her brave dwarf retainers into the tunnels under the mountain towards
the sleeping kingdom. This queen will decide her own future – and the princess
who needs rescuing is not quite what she seems. Twisting together the familiar
and the new, this perfectly delicious, captivating and darkly funny tale shows
its creators at the peak of their talents.
A new prize has been added to complement the
Carnegie. Beginning with the 2016 medals, a title from each of the prestigious
shortlists will receive the Amnesty CILIP Honour, a commendation for the books that most distinctively illuminate,
uphold or celebrate freedoms. The books receiving the commendation will be able
to carry an Amnesty CILIP Honour logo. “The Amnesty CILIP Honour will
highlight the fact that so many of the books chosen by expert youth librarians
for the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals have human rights at their
heart.”
Amnesty also provides human rights education
resources for every shortlisted book, which both Amnesty and CILIP will promote
to schools via CILIP’s existing school shadowing scheme and Amnesty’s
TeachRights network.
The First Amnesty CILIP Honour medals went to Robin
Talley for Lies We Tell Ourselves,
which the judges called “an exciting page-turner of a book, it vividly brings
to life the human cost of prejudice and explores an historic battle for equal
access to education.” The Amnesty CILIP Honour for the Kate Greenaway Medal
shortlist went to Ross Collins for There’s
a Bear on My Chair, a book which, according to the judges, is “packed
full of joyous humour: it develops children’s empathy and shows how we can
protest creatively and peacefully when something is wrong.”
The meeting then shared the 2018
shortlist and discussed the books that people had read. Everyone was looking
forward to finding out the winners at the announcement for this year’s prize on
June 18.
Questions were asked on the age ranges of the books
and how this could work with shadowing, the Amnesty prize and a book chat about
new books that have been read and shared that maybe suitable for the 2019
prize.
Don’t forget that as a CILIP member you can join
your regional committees – they are always looking for new members to support
regional activities – more information here.
Elizabeth McDonald (@lisbeverley) is the Young People and Families
Outreach Manager: Library Localities at Wokingham Borough Libraries and an
active member of the CILIP Youth Libraries Group.
This event took place on June 4, 2018 at RISC in Reading.
