Shortlist announced for the Carnegies 2025

The Carnegies celebrate outstanding reading experiences in books for children and young people. They are unique in being judged by librarians, with the Shadowers’ Choice Medals voted for by thousands of reading groups in schools and libraries in the UK and around the world, who shadow the judging process and choose their own winners.

16 books have been shortlisted in total, with eight in each category for the Carnegie Medal for Writing and the Carnegie Medal for Illustration; whittled down from 35 longlisted titles by the judging panel, which includes 14 children’s and youth librarians from CILIP’s Youth Libraries Group. The awards aim to spark a lifelong passion for reading by connecting more children with books that will change lives.

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. 

Ros Harding, Chair of Judges for The Carnegies 2025, 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 2025 CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR WRITING SHORTLIST 

• Treacle Town by Brian Conaghan (Andersen Press)
• The Things We Leave Behind by Clare Furniss (Simon & Schuster UK)
• The Final Year by Matt Goodfellow, illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton (Otter-Barry Books)
• King of Nothing by Nathanael Lessore (Bonnier Books UK)
• Little Bang by Kelly McCaughrain (Walker Books)
• Glasgow Boys by Margaret McDonald (Faber & Faber)
• All That It Ever Meant by Blessing Musariri (Zephyr, Head of Zeus)
• Play by Luke Palmer (Firefly Press)

THE 2025 CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR ILLUSTRATION 

• 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)

You can find out more about the 2025 Carnegies here.