www.literaryawards.co.uk

The Carnegie Medal is awarded annually to the writer of an outstanding book for children.

It was established by in 1936, in memory of the great Scottish-born philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919). Carnegie was a self-made industrialist who made his fortune in steel in the USA. His experience of using a library as a child led him to resolve that "if ever wealth came to me that it should be used to establish free libraries." Carnegie set up more than 2800 libraries across the English speaking world and, by the time of his death, over half the library authorities in Great Britain had Carnegie libraries.

First awarded to Arthur Ransome for ‘Pigeon Post’, the winner receives a golden medal and £500 worth of books to donate to a library of their choice.

The medal is awarded by CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals..

2009 Shortlist |2008 Winner | 2008 Shortlist | 2007 Winner and Shortlist | Winners 1936 -2006

The CILIP Carnegie Medal 2010

Winner: Neil Gaiman's,  THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, has already won the UK Booktrust Teenage Prize and America's prestigious Newbury Medal, a 2009 Hugo and a Locus Award for best YA novel.

Shortlisted

ANDERSON, LAURIE HALSE CHAINS
Bloomsbury (Age range 11+)
ISBN: 9780747598077
Winner: GAIMAN, NEIL THE GRAVEYARD BOOK
Bloomsbury (Age range 9+)
ISBN: 9780747569015
GRANT, HELEN THE VANISHING OF KATHARINA LINDEN
Penguin (Age range 14+)
ISBN: 9780141325736
HEARN, JULIE ROWAN THE STRANGE
Oxford University Press (Age range 12+)
ISBN: 9780192792150
NESS, PATRICK THE ASK AND THE ANSWER
Walker (Age range 14+)
ISBN: 9781406310269
PRATCHETT, TERRY NATION
Doubleday (Age range 11+)
ISBN: 9780385613705
REEVE, PHILIP FEVER CRUMB
Scholastic (Age range 9+)
ISBN: 9781407102429
SEDGWICK, MARCUS REVOLVER
Orion (Age range 12+)
ISBN: 9781842551868

2009 Carnegie Medal Winner & Shortlists

Winner

DOWD, SIOBHAN Bog Child
(Age range: 12+)

Digging for peat in the mountain with his Uncle Tally, Fergus finds something that makes his heart stop. Curled up deep in the bog is the body of the child. And it looks as if she’s been murdered. As Fergus tries to make sense of the troubled world around him (it is 1980s Ireland), a little voice come to him in his dreams and the mystery of the bog child unfurls.

This is a beautifully written and controlled novel, strong on dialogue but with some beautiful descriptive phrases as well. The dual narrative is deftly done and Dowd is very good on family relationships and the atmosphere of the times. The ending is satisfying, and the whole believable and unflinching.

Other Shortlisted

COLFER, EOIN Airman
Puffin (Age range: 9+)

One dark night on the island of Great Saltee, fourteen-year-old Conor is framed for a terriblecrime he didn't commit. Thrown into prison by the dastardly Hugo Bonvilain, Conor is trapped in a sea swept dungeon and branded a traitor. He must escape and clear his name; he wants his old life back - his family, his friends... and his princess.

This is a rollicking read; a terrific tale of derring-do in which Colfer combines brilliant plotting with his customary humour and strong well-rounded characterisation. There is plenty to enjoy in the understated irony and the excellent descriptions of historical gadgets and inventions, but this book also has a convincing and engaging emotional reality.

GRAY, KEITH Ostrich Boys (Definitions)
Definitions (Age range: 12+)

Kenny, Sim and Blake are about to embark on a remarkable journey. Stealing the urn that contains the ashes of their best friend Ross, they set out to travel 261 miles from Cleethorpes on the English east coast, to the tiny hamlet of Ross in southern Scotland, in a bid to give their friend a proper send-off.

A beautifully realised rite of passage novel, very strong on the relationships between its central characters and accurate about the emotions of teenage boys. The dialogue is particularly powerful and the pace of the plot just right in this authentic book about the end of childhood and the beginning of adult lives.

NESS, PATRICK The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking)
Walker (Age range: 14+)

Todd Hewitt is the last boy in Prentisstown, a town like no other where everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts in a constant, overwhelming, never-ending Noise. There is no privacy and there are no secrets. Or are there? Just one month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd unexpectedly stumbles on a spot of complete silence. And now he is going to have to run…

A bleak and unflinching novel with fascinating characters and extraordinary dialogue which creates a fully-realised world that the reader really buys into. The dog Manchee is an inspired creation! Ness conveys a real sense of terror and the ending is devastating. A novel that really stands out.

THOMPSON, KATE Creature of the Night (Definitions)
Bodley Head (Age range: 14+)

When Bobby’s mother moves the family into a rented house in the country, a neighbour tells him that achild was once murdered there. Bobby doesn’t care. All he wants is to get back to Dublin and resume his old life stealing cars. But getting his old life back turns out to be difficult, especially as the longer he spends in the old cottage, the more convinced he becomes that something strange is going on there.

A profoundly moving and believable novel by a natural storyteller which really gets the teenage experience. The language is strong but not gratuitous, the story gripping and powerful, and Bobby a character you care about despite his wayward tendencies.

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Philip Reeve's Here Lies Arthur wins the 2008 Carnegie Medal

26th June, 2008, London- Here Lies Arthur, by Philip Reeve , casts King Arthur as abloodthirsty tyrant and Merlin as his political spin doctor has won the 2008 Carnegie Medal for children's literature. Some of his characters bear more than a passing resemblance to modern-day political figures.

Merlin (here named Myrddin) is not a magician but a hard nosed, Alastair Campbell type [a hard-headed English political PR spin-doctor who work for ex- Prime Minister Tony Blair] who recognises that the Celts needs a strong leader and sets out to create a myth around Arthur, a "war-mongering, self-interested thug".

One of Merlin's PR stunts is the Lady of the Lake, who turns out to be a young servant girl made to hold her breath under the water with a sword in her hand.

The Carnegie Medal - or "the Booker of the playground", as it is sometimes known - is awarded annually for or an outstanding work of fiction for young people, and is judged by the nation's librarians.

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The Carnegie medal shortlist 2008

2008 Winner & Short listed Titles

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Winner: Here Lies Arthur- WINNER Philip Reeve

• Gatty's Tale, Kevin Crossley-Holland, (Age range: 10+)- The magnificent picaresque story of a medievalpilgrimage. Of all the characters in THE SEEING STONE and AT THE CROSSING-PLACES, it is Gatty the village girl - steadfast, forthright, innocent and wise - who has won the hearts of readers.
  
• Ruby Red , Linzi Glass , (Age range: 12+)- In Ruby Winters' world, colour opens some doors and slams othersshut. Her Johannesburg neighbourhood is a far cry from the streets of Soweto where anger and hatred simmer under the surface. Ruby can't resist the blue-eyed Afrikaans boy who brings...
  
• Crusade, Elizabeth Laird, (Age range: 10+)- Adam grabs the chance to join the Crusade to reclaim Jerusalem.He burns with determination to strike down the infidel enemy. Salim's father buys him an apprenticeship with a travelling doctor, to keep him safe. But Salim's employment leads him to...
  
• Apache, Tanya Landman, (Age range: 12+)- Siki is an orphan of the Black Mountain Apache. Her mother was killed by Mexicans three years ago and her father lost in an ambush the winter before that. When Siki witnesses the brutal murder of her little brother Tazhi, she vows to become an...
  
• What I Was, Meg Rosoff - (Age range: 12+)- 'd been kicked out of two boarding schools and the last thing I wanted was to be here, on the East Anglian coast, in a third. But without St. Oswald's, I would not have discovered the fisherman's hut with its roaring fire, its striped blankets...
  
• Finding Violet Park, Jenny Valentine (Age range: 12+)
• Narrated by the most compelling voice since Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, this is a quirky and original voyage of self-discovery triggered by a lost urn of ashes. Narrated by the most compelling voice since Curious Incident of the...
  

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Previous Carnegie Medal Winners 1936- 2007

Please note that before 2007 the year refers to when the book was published rather than when the medal was awarded i.e. the 2005 winner was announced and the medal presented in July 2006.

2007 Meg Rosoff, Just in Case, Penguin

2005 Mal Peet, Tamar, Walker Books

2004 Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions, Macmillan

2003 Jennifer Donnelly, A Gathering Light, Bloomsbury Children's Books

2002 Sharon Creech, Ruby Holler, Bloomsbury Children's Books

2001 Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (New Windmill), Doubleday

2000 Beverley Naidoo, The Other Side of Truth, Puffin

1999 Aidan Chambers, Postcards from No Man's Land (Dance Sequence 5), Bodley Head

1998 David Almond, Skellig, Hodder Children's Books

1997 Tim Bowler, River Boy: 2006 Edition, OUP

1996 Melvin Burgess, Junk (Puffin Teenage Fiction), Andersen Press

1995 Philip Pullman, Northern Lights (His Dark Materials), Scholastic

1994 Theresa Breslin, Whispers in the Graveyard (New Windmill), Methuen

1993 Robert Swindells, Stone Cold (Puffin Teenage Fiction), H Hamilton

1992 Anne Fine, Flour Babies: Play (Plays Plus), H Hamilton

1991 Berlie Doherty, Dear Nobody: Play (Plays Plus), H Hamilton

1990 Gillian Cross, Wolf (Oxford Children's Modern Classics), OUP

1989 Anne Fine, Goggle-eyes (Puffin Books) H Hamilton