Mar 11, 2025
Carnegies 2025 Shortlists Announced
The Carnegies, the UK’s longest-running book awards for children and young people, announced their 2025 shortlists at the London Book Fair this afternoon.
Judged solely by librarians, these annual awards celebrate outstanding reading experiences in books for children and young people.
2025 Carnegie Shortlists
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 2025 Carnegie shortlists are dominated by books empowering young people by exploring complex emotions such as grief, low mood, anger and shame with empathy, sensitivity and hope.
Masculinity and what it is to be a young man today has emerged as an important theme on the Carnegie Medal for Writing shortlist, with many writers reflecting the marginalised perspectives of boys and teenagers from disenfranchised communities, in settings as varied as a foster home, an ex-industrial town and a South London estate.
Meanwhile, the Carnegie Medal for Illustration shortlist a bold range of artistic styles, from traditional Chinese paper-cutting to earthy watercolours, from simple pencil drawings to colourful collage, conveying story to readers in a way that words alone cannot.
The Chair of Judges for 2025, Ros Harding, said:
“The concept of stories plays an important part in the shortlisted books across both lists, whether this is about the joy that can be found through discovering books or about the stories we tell ourselves and others to make sense of the world around us. It is wonderful to see such an inclusive range of cultures, experiences, voices and illustrative styles feature in the shortlisted books and as a judging panel, we are so excited to be a part of introducing these incredible books to the shadowing groups.”
The shortlisted books are to be viewed and purchased via our 2025 Carnegies Shortlist booklist.
The shortlist for the Carnegie Medal for Writing 2025:
- Treacle Town by Brian Conaghan (Andersen Press)
- The Things We Leave Behind by Clare Furniss (Simon & Schuster UK)
- The Final Yearby Matt Goodfellow, illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton (Otter-Barry Books)
- King of Nothing by Nathanael Lessore (Bonnier Books UK)
- Little Bangby Kelly McCaughrain (Walker Books)
- Glasgow Boys by Margaret McDonald (Faber & Faber)
- All That It Ever Meantby Blessing Musariri (Zephyr, Head of Zeus)
- Playby Luke Palmer (Firefly Press)
The shortlist for the Carnegie Medal for Illustration 2025:
- The Invisible Story by Wen Hsu Chen, written by Jaime Gamboa, translated by Daniel Hahn (Lantana)
- Grey by Lauren Child, written by Laura Dockrill (Walker Books)
- I Love Books by Mariajo Ilustrajo (Quarto)
- Clever Crow by Olivia Lomenech Gill, written by Chris Butterworth (Walker Books)
- Letters in Charcoal by Juan Palomino, written by Irene Vasco, translated by Lawrence Schimel (Lantana)
- Homebody by Theo Parish (Macmillan Children’s Books)
- Wolf and Bear by Kate Rolfe (Macmillan Children’s Books)
- Flying High by Yu Rong, written by Cao Wenxuan, translated by Simone-Davina Monnelly and Jake Hope (UCLan Publishing)
The winners will be announced and celebrated on Thursday 19 June at a live and streamed ceremony at the Cambridge Theatre, home of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s multi award-winning Matilda The Musical. The ceremony will be hosted by Joseph Coelho, winner of the Carnegie Medal for Writing in 2024.
The winners will each receive a specially commissioned golden medal and a £5,000 Colin Mears Award cash prize. The winners of the Shadowers’ Choice Medals – voted for and awarded by the children and young people – will also be presented at the ceremony. They will also receive a golden medal and £500 worth of books to donate to a library of their choice.
The 2025 Carnegie shortlists can be found here.
For further information on the Carnegie Medals, please visit: carnegies.co.uk.
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