The UK’s longest-running book award for children and young people, the Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards, today announced the shortlists for 2022. The Yoto Carnegie Medal is awarded annually to an author whose writing creates an outstanding reading experience for children or young people. The Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal is awarded annually to a book illustrator whose artwork creates an outstanding reading experience for children and young people.

This year’s shortlist has been described by judges as a collection that “will excite, move and empower the young readers who pick them up.”

The Awards celebrate outstanding achievement in children’s writing and illustration respectively and are unique in being judged by children’s and youth librarians, with the Shadowers’ Choice Award voted for by children and young people.

16 books have been selected in total – eight for the Yoto Carnegie Medal and eight for the Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal – from a longlist of 33 titles. They were chosen by an expert team of volunteer judges, featuring 14 librarians from CILIP’s Youth Libraries Group based across the UK. Additionally, each year thousands of reading groups in schools and libraries in the UK and overseas get involved in the Awards, with children and young people ‘shadowing’ the judging process. They read, discuss and review the books on the shortlists, get involved in reading related activity in groups, and vote for their favourite books to win the Shadowers’ Choice Awards. You can find out more about the shadowing process here.

Six of the eight Yoto Carnegie shortlisted books are based on real-world events – from Tacky’s War to WWII; the legacy of the Troubles to the refugee crisis; the 2011 Japanese tsunami to the Central Park Exonerated Five case – with many demonstrating the power of friendship to help young people overcome challenges and celebrate difference. The judges’ selection champions pictures and their ability to communicate with readers and help them understand the world, with two wordless picture books on the Yoto Kate Greenaway list and two illustrated titles up for the Yoto Carnegie Medal, including one featuring manga.

The shortlist for the Yoto Carnegie Medal :

• October, October by Katya Balen, illustrated by Angela Harding (Bloomsbury)

• Guard Your Heart by Sue Divin (Macmillan Children’s Books)

• When the Sky Falls by Phil Earle (Andersen Press)

• Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock (Faber)

• The Crossing by Manjeet Mann (Penguin Children’s Books)

• Tsunami Girl by Julian Sedgwick, illustrated by Chie Kutsuwada (Guppy Books)

• Cane Warriors by Alex Wheatle (Andersen Press)

• Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

The shortlist for the Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal:

• Drawn Across Borders illustrated and written by George Butler (Walker Books)

• The Midnight Fair illustrated by Mariachiara Di Giorgio, written by Gideon Sterer (Walker Books)

• Too Much Stuff illustrated and written by Emily Gravett (Two Hoots, Macmillan Children’s Books)

• Long Way Down illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff, written by Jason Reynolds (Faber)

• Milo Imagines the World illustrated by Christian Robinson, written by Matt de la Pena (Two Hoots, Macmillan Children’s Books)

• Shu Lin’s Grandpa illustrated by Yu Rong, written by Matt Goodfellow (Otter-Barry Books)

• I Talk Like a River illustrated by Sydney Smith, written by Jordan Scott (Walker Books)

• The Wanderer illustrated and written by Peter Van den Ende (Pushkin Children’s Books)

The winners will be announced and celebrated on Thursday 16th June at a lunchtime ceremony at The British Library, hosted by award-winning poet and novelist Dean Atta, who won the Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice for The Black Flamingo in 2020.

The winners will each receive £500 worth of books to donate to their local library, a specially commissioned golden medal and a £5,000 Colin Mears Award cash prize.

The shortlisted books are available to buy online.

For further information on the Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards please visit: carnegiegreenaway.org.uk.

—————–

Where next?

> Visit our Reading for Pleasure Hub

> Browse our Topic Booklists

> See our Books of the Month.

>View our Year Group booklists