Ceremony date 19 June 2017 Category of Carnegie Medal | Established 1936 | |
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The Carnegie Medal is a British literary award that annually recognises one outstanding new book for children or young adults. It is conferred upon the author by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). CILIP calls it "the UK's oldest and most prestigious book award for children's writing" and says that writers call it "the one they want to win" (quotation marks original).
Contents
- Latest rendition
- Process
- Winners
- Winners of multiple awards
- Carnegie of Carnegies
- Shortlists
- 1936 to 1993
- 1994 to 2002
- 2003 to date
- References
The Medal is named after the Scottish-born American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919), who founded more than 2800 libraries in the English-speaking world, including at least one in more than half of British library authorities. It was established in 1935 by the British Library Association (LA or LAUK) partly to celebrate the centennial of Carnegie's birth and inaugurated in 1937 by the award to Arthur Ransome for Pigeon Post (Jonathan Cape, 1936) and the identification of two Commended books. (There are, or have been, highly recommended, commended and honour books at least so recently as 2002.) That first Medal was dated 1936; only since 2007 it is dated by its presentation, which is now one or two years after publication.
Since 1956, the Carnegie Medal has been a companion to the Kate Greenaway Medal, which recognises "distinguished illustration in a book for children". Both awards were established by the Library Association (1877–2002) and administered by the LA until it was succeeded by CILIP.
Nominated books must be written in English and first published in the UK during the preceding school year (September to August). Until 1969 the award was limited to books by British authors first published in England. The first non-British medalist was Ivan Southall of Australia in 1972, for Josh. The original rules also prohibited winning authors from future consideration. The first author to win a second Carnegie Medal was Peter Dickinson in 1981, who won consecutively for Tulku and City of Gold. There were six repeat winners to 1992 and Patrick Ness became the seventh by winning in 2011 and 2012.
The award by CILIP is a gold Medal and £500 worth of books donated to the winner's chosen library.
Latest rendition
Sarah Crossan won the 2016 Carnegie Medal for One, a verse novel about conjoined sisters.
There were eight books on the 2016 shortlist announced 15 March, each published September 2014 to August 2015. The official website provides bibliographic data, front cover images, capsules, annotations for the public by the judging panel.
Recommended ages have ranged from 8+ to 14+ for books on the shortlist since 2001.
Patrick Ness (2011, 2012) is a previous winner of the Carnegie Medal.
Process
CILIP members nominate books in September and October, after the close of the publication year. Valid nominations are announced in the fall and students from many schools read nominated books and send comments to the panel. The judges are 12 children's librarians in CILIP's Youth Libraries Group (YLG). Currently the shortlist is announced in March and the winner in June, 10 to 21 months after first U.K. publication.
Candidates must be single-author English-language works published in the U.K. during the preceding year (September to August). They must be published for young people, and published in the U.K. originally or within three months in case of co-publication. At least 75% of the content must be originally published during the specified year.
"All categories of books for children and young people are eligible."
CILIP specifies numerous points of plot, characterisation, and style that should be considered "where applicable". Furthermore, "the book that wins the Carnegie Medal should be a book of outstanding literary quality. The whole work should provide pleasure, not merely from the surface enjoyment of a good read, but also the deeper subconscious satisfaction of having gone through a vicarious, but at the time of reading, a real experience that is retained afterwards."
Winners
Up to 2015 there have been 76 Medals awarded in 79 years, covering 1936 to 2014 publications approximately. No eligible book published in 1943, 1945, or 1966 was considered suitable.
From 2007 the medals are dated by the year of presentation. Previously they were dated by the calendar year of their British publication, which then defined the eligible works.
Thirty-nine winning books were illustrated in their first editions, including every one during the first three decades. Six from 1936 to 1953 were illustrated or co-illustrated by their authors; none since then. (These notes do not count a single map or diagram.)
Winners of multiple awards
Seven authors have won two Carnegie Medals, which was prohibited for many years.
For many years, some runners-up books were designated Highly Commended, at least 29 in 24 years from 1979 to 2002 and three previously. Among the authors who won two Medals, Anne Fine was highly commended runner-up three times (1989, 1996, 2002) and Robert Westall twice (1990, 1992). The others were highly commended once each, except for Ness who postdates the distinction,
Six books have won both the Carnegie Medal and the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, which was inaugurated 1967. (Dates are years of U.K. publication, and Carnegie award dates before 2006.)
Only A Monster Calls, written by Patrick Ness and illustrated by Jim Kay, has won both the Carnegie and Greenaway Medals (2012).
Only The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (2009) has won both the Carnegie Medal and the equivalent American award, the Newbery Medal.
Author Sharon Creech, who won the Carnegie for Ruby Holler (2002), previously won the Newbery and two U.K. awards for Walk Two Moons (1994).
Four writers have won both the Carnegie and the US Michael L. Printz Award. The Printz Award is an American Library Association literary award that annually recognises the "best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit". The four writers are David Almond, Aidan Chambers, Geraldine McCaughrean, and Meg Rosoff. Chambers alone has won both for the same book, the 1999 Carnegie and 2003 Printz for the novel Postcards from No Man's Land.
In its scope, books for children or young adults, the British Carnegie corresponds to the American Newbery and Printz awards.
Carnegie of Carnegies
For the 70th anniversary in 2007, CILIP posted online information about all of the winning books and conducted a poll to identify the nation's favourite Carnegie Medalist, to be named the "Carnegie of Carnegies". The winner, announced on 21 June 2007 at the British Library, was Northern Lights by Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials, volume one, 1995). It was the expected winner and garnered 40% of the votes in the UK, 36% worldwide.
The nation considered a ballot or all-time shortlist comprising ten of the 67 Medal-winning works, selected by six "children's book experts". The panel provided annotations including reader ages that range from 6+ to 14+ (age 10+ for the winner, Northern Lights).
70th Anniversary Top Ten
Northern Lights, with 40% plurality, was followed by 16% for Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce and 8% for Skellig by David Almond. As those three books had won the 70-year-old Medal in its year 60, year 23, and year 63, some commentary observed that Tom's Midnight Garden had passed a test of time that the others had not yet faced.
Shortlists
Date is year of publication before 2006. Selections were announced and medals presented early in the next year.
1936 to 1993
From 1936 to 1993, there were 55 Medals awarded in 58 years. CCSU library listings for that period include one Special Commendation, 23 Highly Commended books (from 1966, mainly from 1979), and about 130 Commended books. Except for the inaugural year 1936, only the 24 Special and Highly Commended books are listed here.
Medalist:
Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post (Jonathan Cape) — the sixth of 12 Swallows and Amazons novelsCommended:
Howard Spring, Sampson's Circus (Faber and Faber) Noel Streatfeild, Ballet Shoes (J. M. Dent & Sons) — the first of 11 Shoes novelsCCSU listings for 1954 include six commendations, the first since 1936. Beginning 1966 there were some "high commendations" and those were approximately annual by 1979. Only the high commendations are listed here (through 1993).
The special commendation to Harold Jones in 1955 for his 1954 illustration of Lavender's Blue was "a major reason" for the Library Association to establish the Kate Greenaway Medal that year. No 1955 work was judged worthy in 1956, so that Medal was actually inaugurated one year later.
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1994 to 2002
Through 2002 some runners-up were Commended, including some Highly Commended. Where the entire shortlist is given here (back to 1994), boldface and asterisk (*) marks the winner, plus (+) marks the highly commended books, and dash (–) marks the commended books.
1994 (8)
1995 (8)
1996 (8)
1997 (7)
1998 (5)
1999 (8)
2000 (8)
2001 (8)
2002 (7)
2003 to date
Runners-up within the shortlist are not distinguished since 2002.
2003 (6)
2004 (6)
2005 (5)
Date is year of presentation after 2006. The publication year is approximately the preceding school year; for 2012 example, September 2010 to August 2011.
2007 (6)
2008 (7)
2009 (7)
2010 (10)
2011 (6)
2012 (8)
2013 (8)
2014 (8)
The award to Brooks roused some controversy because of the bleak nature of the novel.
2015(8)
2016(8)