The UK’s longest-running book awards for children and young people, the Yoto Carnegies, have announced their 2024 shortlists at the London Book Fair today. Judged solely by children’s and youth librarians, these annual awardscelebrate outstanding achievement in children’s writing and illustration.
16 books have been shortlisted in total, with eight in each category for the Carnegie Medal for Writing and Carnegie Medal for Illustration.
Notably, the 2024 shortlist for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing is dominated by poetry,with three novels written in verse – two by former shortlistees, Waterstones Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho, and New York Times bestselling author Kwame Alexander, and one debut, Tia Fisher – alongside a poetry collection by prolific children’s writer Nicola Davies. The list is heavily weighted towards YA readers.
Meanwhile, picture books prevail on the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration shortlist, which includes previous winner Catherine Rayner and three-time shortlisted illustrator Poonam Mistry.
Journeys, literal and metaphorical, are a common theme across both lists, with books encouraging empathy and hope and promoting an understanding of historical and contemporary global issues, including the environment.
The Chair of Judges for 2024 Yoto Carnegies said:
“These are books to empower young readers, and for some will provide validation and refuge; stories of courage, of characters thriving to find themselves and their place in the world, often in difficult or dangerous situations. The books shortlisted for the writing medal exemplify immersive and compelling writing with the power to inspire and move readers across a range of forms. The illustration shortlist is entirely comprised of picture books, with a strong theme of the environment, underlining the way picture books can speak to all ages, and showing how nature and illustrated books can heal and empower.”
The shortlisted books are available to buy online.
The shortlist for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing 2024:
Mar 12, 2024
