The big hitters of the children’s book awards have begun revealing their nominations for this year’s awards. The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals are the most prestigious children’s book prizes in the UK and are definitely ones to watch out for. Previous winners include Neil Gaiman, Patrick Ness, Anne Fine, Jon Klassen, Emily Gravett and Shirley Hughes. The Carnegie Medal is awarded for outstanding writing whilst the Kate Greenaway medal is awarded for outstanding illustration and both awards are judged by children’s librarians. The awards also have an excellent scheme which runs from March until June where you and your class can ‘shadow’ the awards, reading and reviewing the shortlisted books, engaging with other shadowing groups online, and choosing your own winners. The 2016 longlist has just been announced, with the shortlisted books revealed 15th March and the winners announced in June.
Carnegie Medal longlist
Book by John Agard (Walker Books), illustrated by Neil Packer
A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond (Hodder)
One by Sarah Crossan (Bloomsbury)
The Earth Is Singing by Vanessa Curtis (Usborne)
The Door That Led To Where by Sally Gardner (Hot Key Books)
The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge (Macmillan)
The Imaginary by A.F. Harrold (Bloomsbury), illustrated by Emily Gravett
There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake (Bloomsbury)
We Are All Made of Molecules by Susin Neilsen (Andersen Press)
The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness (Walker Books)
Jessica’s Ghost by Andrew Norriss (David Fickling Books)
Panther by David Owen (Little, Brown Book Group)
Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett (Penguin Random House)
Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders (Faber)
The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick (Indigo)
Thirteen Chairs by Dave Shelton (David Fickling Books)
Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley (MiraInk, HarperCollins)
Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine (HarperCollins)
My Name’s Not Friday by Jon Walter (David Fickling Books)
Liccle Bit by Alex Wheatle (Atom Books)
Kate Greenaway Medal longlist
Please Mr Panda illustrated and written by Steve Anthony (Hodder Children’s Books)
Where’s the Elephant? illustrated and written by Barroux (Egmont Books)
Willy’s Stories illustrated and written by Anthony Browne (Walker Books)
This Book Just Ate My Dog! illustrated and written by Richard Byrne (Oxford University Press)
Wall illustrated and written by Tom Clohosy Cole (Templar)
There’s a Bear on My Chair illustrated and written by Ross Collins (Nosy Crow)
Grandad’s Island illustrated and written by Benji Davies (Simon & Schuster)
How the Sun Got to Coco’s House illustrated and written by Bob Graham (Walker Books)
The Imaginary illustrated by Emily Gravett, written by A.F Harrold (Bloomsbury)
Once Upon an Alphabet illustrated and written by Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins)
The Day the Crayons Came Home illustrated by Oliver Jeffers, written by Drew Daywalt (HarperCollins)
Sam and Dave Dig a Hole illustrated by Jon Klassen, written by Mac Barnett (Walker Books)
Something About a Bear illustrated and written by Jackie Morris (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books)
Captain Jack and the Pirates illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, written by Peter Bently (Puffin)
Goth Girl and the Fete Worse Than Death illustrated and written by Chris Riddell (Macmillan)
The Sleeper and the Spindle illustrated by Chris Riddell, written by Neil Gaiman (Bloomsbury)
The Bolds illustrated by David Roberts, written by Julian Clary (Andersen Press)
Animalium illustrated by Katie Scott, written by Jenny Broom (Big Picture Press)
Footpath Flowers illustrated by Sidney Smith, written by JonArno Lawson (Walker Books)
Lili illustrated and written by Wen Dee Tan (Fat Fox)
The Waterstones Children’s Book Prize recognises new and emerging talent and has produced a diverse list of titles up for the prize this year in three categories: Illustrated books; Younger fiction; Older fiction. The winners will be announced on 17th March 2016. The 2015 winners were Blown Away by Rob Biddulph, Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens, and Half Bad by Sally Green. The shortlisted books for 2016 are:
Illustrated books
Cinderella’s Sister and the Big Bad Wolf by Lorraine Carey and Migy Blanco (ill.) (Nosy Crow)
Hector and the Hummingbird by Nicholas John Frith (Scholastic)
Super Happy Magic Forest by Matty Long (Oxford University Press)
The Bear and the Piano by David Litchfield (Frances Lincoln)
The Crow’s Tale by Naomi Howarth (Frances Lincoln)
Have You Seen Elephant? by David Barrow (Gecko)
Younger fiction
Bird by Crystal Chan (Tamarind)
Darkmouth by Shane Hegarty (HarperCollins)
Witch Wars by Sibéal Pounder (Bloomsbury)
The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands (Puffin)
My Brother is a Superhero by David Solomons (Nosy Crow)
The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow by Katherine Woodfine (Egmont)
Older fiction
The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle (Corgi)
Seed by Lisa Heathfield (Electric Monkey)
13 Days of Midnight by Leo Hunt (Orchard)
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson (Walker Books)
The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury (Scholastic)
The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson (David Fickling Books)
Wow. Fantastic lists, should keep us reading for quite some time. my money is on Francis Hardinge for The Lie Tree but now have a lot more books for my holiday reading list…
Thanks Pamela, there are some great books on the lists. I would love to see these 5 books make the shortlist for the Carnegie: The Lie Tree; The Door That Led to Where; One; My Name’s Not Friday; Lies We Tell Ourselves.. They are definitely outstanding titles in my eyes. For the Kate Greenaway illustrator Medal, I think Chris Riddell’s illustrations for The Sleeper and the Spindle are a visual feast. The intricate black and white drawings occasionally touched with gold do so much more than just complement Neil Gaiman’s story. Tom Clohosy Cole’s illustrations in Wall are also very striking , and have a Soviet era feel to them which really stands out in terms of children’s book illustration. There are also lots of favourite illustrators on that list and some talented newcomers so it’s very hard to pick! For the Waterstones Prize, if I was to bet I would go for The Bear and the Piano, Bird, and The Art of Being Normal , and Super Happy Magic Forest as a wildcard because it reminds me of the Adventure Time cartoon!