The Yoto Carnegies celebrate outstanding reading experiences in books for children and young people. They are unique in being judged by librarians, with the Shadowers’ Choice Medal voted for by children and young people. 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 20 June at a live and streamed ceremony, hosted by Manjeet Mann, winner of the 2021 Shadowers’ Choice Medal for Writing. The winners will each receive a specially commissioned golden medal and a £5,000 Colin Mears Award cash prize.

16 books have been shortlisted in total, with eight in each category for the Carnegie Medal for Writing and Carnegie Medal for Illustration, whittled down from the 36 longlisted titles by the judging panel.

Maura Farrelly, who chaired the judging, said: “The judges have worked incredibly hard to select 16 outstanding books; books that celebrate the very best of writing and illustration for children and young people. These are books to empower young readers, and for some will provide validation and refuge; stories of courage, of characters thriving to find themselves and their place in the world, often in difficult or dangerous situations”.

The 2024 Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing shortlist

• The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander (Andersen Press)
• The Song Walker by Zillah Bethell (Usborne)
• Away with Words by Sophie Cameron (Little Tiger)
• The Boy Lost in the Maze by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Kate Milner (Otter-Barry Books)
• Choose Love by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Petr Horáček (Graffeg)
• Crossing the Line by Tia Fisher (Bonnier Books UK)
• Safiyyah’s War by Hiba Noor Khan (Andersen Press)
• Steady for This by Nathanael Lessore (Bonnier Books UK)

The 2024 Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration

• The Tree and the River by Aaron Becker (Walker Books)
• April’s Garden by Catalina Echeverri, written by Isla McGuckin (Graffeg)
• Lost by Mariajo Ilustrajo (Quarto)
• The Wilderness by Steve McCarthy (Walker Books)
• To the Other Side by Erika Meza (Hachette Children’s Group)
• The Midnight Panther by Poonam Mistry (Bonnier Books UK)
• The Bowerbird by Catherine Rayner, written by Julia Donaldson (Macmillan Children’s Books)
• The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish by Chloe Savage (Walker Books)

You can find out more about the 2024 Yoto Carnegies here.