Authors including Jessie Burton, Patrice Lawrence and Sita Brahmachari are part of an all-female shortlist for the Yoto Carnegie medal for writing.
The prize awards outstanding achievement in children’s writing and features seven authors. Burton, Lawrence and Brahmachari are all first-time shortlistees as is Manon Steffan Ros. The shortlist is completed by Katya Balen, who won the award in 2022, Louise Finch and Ruta Sepetys.
Alongside the prize for writing, the shortlist of six books for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration has also been announced.
The nominees, said chair of judges Janet Noble, show that “stories of bravery, compassion and community are told authentically and sensitively in a range of distinctive written and illustrative styles”.
On the writing shortlist, Burton – best known for adult novels including The Miniaturist – is shortlisted for Medusa, a retelling of the story of Medusa from mythology, illustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill. Hepzibah Anderson in the Observer said the book’s prose is “pulsing with irresistible, rhythmic energy”.
Lawrence is shortlisted for Needle, which explores the criminal justice system for young people through the story of Charlene, a knitter who stabs her foster mum’s son when he destroys her latest creation. Imogen Russell Williams in the Guardian said it was a “profoundly poignant YA story”.
Brahmachari’s When Shadows Fall, illustrated by Natalie Sirett, is about a teenager struck by tragedy, and his friends’ efforts to save him. Russell Williams included it in her best children’s and YA books of 2021, and said it was a “moving, hard-hitting journey for teens through grief and acceptance, interwoven with powerful illustration and viscerally vivid verse”.
Steffan Ros’s The Blue Book of Nebo was originally published in Welsh, and is set in a dystopian version of Wales where 21st century technology has disappeared, and people must survive learning new skills and returning to old ways of living. Russell Williams said it was a “tender, tragic post-apocalyptic story, told with great simplicity and power”.
Balen’s The Light in Everything is a story about blended families. The author’s October, October won last year’s prize, with judges calling it an “evocative exploration of what it means to be truly alive and wholly human”.
Finch’s The Eternal Return of Clara Hart follows a boy who keeps experiencing the same 24 hours again and again after seeing a classmate die in what looks like a tragic accident at a house party. It is the only debut in the running for the writing medal. Russell Williams said it was a “careful, thoughtful, compulsively readable examination of toxic masculinity and normalised sexual abuse”.
I Must Betray You by Sepetys, who won the writing prize in 2017 for Salt to the Sea, is based on the real events of the Romanian revolution of 1989 and is about a teenager who has grown up in a repressive dictatorship. Fiona Noble in the Observer said it was a “tense, thought-provoking thriller”.
The shortlist for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration features a range of illustrative and artistic styles.
Rescuing Titanic, illustrated and written by Flora Delargy, tells the lesser-known history of the Carpathia, the ship that heroically rescued 705 Titanic passengers. It is Delargy’s debut, with Russell Williams calling it a “tour de force”.
Benjamin Phillips is shortlisted for illustrating Alte Zachen: Old Things, written by Ziggy Hanaor. It is a graphic novel about a young boy and his elderly grandmother, and follows them as as they traverse Brooklyn and Manhattan to gather the ingredients for a Friday night dinner.
Levi Pinfold is shortlisted for The Worlds We Leave Behind, written by AF Harrold. A story of friendship, revenge and redemption, it is a companion novel to the pair’s The Song from Somewhere Else, and the fourth time Pinfold has been shortlist for the illustration medal; he won in 2013 for his book Black Dog. Kitty Empire in the Guardian said The Worlds We Leave Behind was “luxuriantly illustrated” with “very creepy” images.
Yu Rong is shortlisted for the second year in a row, this time for The Visible Sounds, written by Yin Jianling. The book is based on the true story of Chinese dancer Lihua Tai, and is about a young child dealing with the frustration and solitude of hearing loss.
The Comet, illustrated and written by Joe Todd-Stanton, is a picture book about a little girl trying to feel at home in a new place. Russell Williams said it was a “luminously beautiful picture book”.
Jeet Zdung is shortlisted for Saving Sorya: Chang and the Sun Bear, written by Trang Nguyen. It is based on the author’s own life and a bear from her childhood that moved her to become a wildlife conservationist and environmental activist. Saving Sorya is Zdung’s first children’s book published in the UK and fuses traditional Vietnamese art with manga.
The winners of both awards will be announced on 21 June at a live and streamed ceremony hosted by former children’s laureate Lauren Child. They will each receive £500 worth of books to donate to a library of their choice, a specially commissioned and newly designed golden medal and a £5,000 Colin Mears award cash prize.
