The Carnegie Medal
Cick to see the Kate Greenaway Medal, for children's picture books, run in parallel with this award
The Carnegie Medal was first awarded in 1936, having been established in memory of Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish-born industrialist and philanthropist. The winner receives a gold medal and £500 worth of books to donate to a school or public library of their choice.
Winners are chosen by a panel of 13 children's librarians, members of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), who take into account feedback from pupils at selected schools. CILIP also administers the Kate Greenaway Medal, which rewards illustrated children's books, and together these constitute the most prestigious British awards for children's books. They are announced each July, rewarding books published in the previous calendar year.
Ever since its inauguration when it was won by Arthur Ransome, the Medal has rewarded some of the most enduringly popular writers of children's and wider literature. Winners include Noel Streatfeild, Eleanor Farjeon, C S Lewis, Richard Adams, Philipa Pearce, Alan Garner, Robert Westall, Penelope Lively, Geraldine McCaughrean and Terry Pratchett.
Anne Fine, Margaret Mahy, Peter Dickinson and Patrick Ness are the only authors to have won the Medal twice. Ness is also the first author to have all three books ina trilogy shortlisted, although only the final book actually won. On three occasions - in 1943, 1945 and 1966 - no book was considered sufficiently worthy of an award and so no Medal was presented.
To celebrate the prize's 70th anniversary in 2007, children's book experts, including former Chairs of the judging panel, selected their ten best winners of the Medal. A poll was then conducted to find the most popular winner; this was won by Philip Pullman's Northern Lights.
One of the top ten, Melvin Burgess' Junk, which also won the Guardian Award, provoked consternation in certain quarters for its frank depiction of heroin addiction, but the book has gone on to become his most critically and commercially acclaimed.
2013 Shortlist
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Sally Gardner; Julian Crouch | |
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Previous Winners of the Carnegie Medal:
2012: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
2011: Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness
2010: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
2009: Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd
2008: Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve
2007: Just in Case by Meg Rosoff
2005: Tamar by Mal Peet
2004: Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce
2003: A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly
2002: Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech
2001: The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
2000: The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo
1999: Postcards From No Man's Land by Aidan Chambers
1998: Skellig by David Almond
1997: River Boy by Tim Bowler
1996: Junk by Melvin Burgess
1995: Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
1994: Whispers in the Graveyard by Theresa Breslin
1993: Stone Cold by Robert Swindells
1992: Flour Babies by Anne Fine
1991: Dear Nobody by Berlie Doherty
1990: Wolf by Gillian Cross