Yoto Carnegies 2023: shortlists announced

The ALCS-sponsored awards celebrate outstanding achievement in children’s writing and illustration and are unique in being judged by children’s and youth librarians, with the Shadowers’ Choice Medals voted for by children and young people.

There are 13 books shortlisted, seven for the Carnegie Medal for Writing and six for the Carnegie Medal for Illustration. The 31 longlisted titles were whittled down by the expert judging panel, which includes 12 librarians from CILIP: the library and information association’s Youth Libraries Group.

The Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing sees an all-female shortlist and includes previous winners Katya Balen and Ruta Sepetys. The Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration shortlist features a diverse range of styles, from a manga-inspired graphic novel, to traditional Chinese paper-cutting.

Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing shortlist

• The Light in Everything by Katya Balen (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
• When Shadows Fall by Sita Brahmachari, illustrated by Natalie Sirett (Little Tiger)
• Medusa by Jessie Burton, illustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
• The Eternal Return of Clara Hart by Louise Finch (Little Island)
• Needle by Patrice Lawrence (Barrington Stoke)
• I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys (Hodder Children’s Books)
• The Blue Book of Nebo by Manon Steffan Ros (Firefly Press)

Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration shortlist

• Rescuing Titanic illustrated and written by Flora Delargy (Wide Eyed Editions)
• Alte Zachen: Old Things illustrated by Benjamin Phillips, written by Ziggy Hanaor (Cicada Books)
• The Worlds We Leave Behind illustrated by Levi Pinfold, written by A. F. Harrold (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
• The Visible Sounds illustrated by Yu Rong, written by Yin Jianling (UCLan Publishing)
• The Comet illustrated and written by Joe Todd-Stanton (Flying Eye Books)
• Saving Sorya: Chang and the Sun Bear illustrated by Jeet Zdung, written by Trang Nguyen (Kingfisher)

The winners will be announced and celebrated on Wednesday 21 June at a live and streamed lunchtime ceremony at The Barbican, hosted by former Children’s Laureate Lauren Child CBE, who won the Carnegie Medal for Illustration – then known as the Kate Greenaway Medal – in 2000 for her first Charlie and Lola book, I Will Not Ever Never Eat A Tomato.