The 2024 shortlists for the UK’s longest running and most prestigious book awards for children and young people have been announced today, Wednesday 13th March.

The Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing and the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration (formerly known as the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals) celebrate outstanding achievement in children’s writing and illustration respectively. Judged by a panel of children’s and youth librarians from across the UK, this year’s longlist of 36 titles has been whittled down to 16 – eight titles for each of the two award categories.

Poetry is a major feature of this year’s Medal for Writing, with three verse novels and a poetry collection accounting for half the shortlist. Picture books prevail on the shortlist for the Medal for Illustration, which includes previous winner Catherine Rayner and three-times shortlisted illustrator Poonam Mistry.

Maura Farrelly, Chair of Judges, 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 striving to find themselves and their place in the world, often in difficult or dangerous situations. The books shortlisted for the writing medal exemplify immersive and compelling writing with the power to inspire and move readers across a range of forms. The illustration shortlist is entirely comprised of picture books, with a strong theme of the environment, underlining the way picture books can speak to all ages, and showing how nature and illustrated books can heal and empower. We are excited to share these lists with shadowing groups and young readers, and very much look forward to reading their reviews and discovering their winners, alongside our own, at the announcement in June.’

Congratulations to all the shortlisted authors and illustrators!

 

Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing 2024

The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander (Andersen Press)

The Song Walker by Zillah Bethell (Usborne Publishing)

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 (Hot Key Books)

Safiyyah’s War by Hiba Noor Khan (Andersen Press)

Steady for This by Nathanael Lessore (Hot Key Books)

 

Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration 2024

The Tree and the River by Aaron Becker (Walker Books)

April’s Garden illustrated by Catalina Echeverri, written by Isla McGuckin (Graffeg)

Lost by Mariajo Ilustrajo (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books)

The Wilderness by Steve McCarthy (Walker Books)

To the Other Side by Erika Meza (Hodder Children’s Books)

The Midnight Panther by Poonam Mistry (Templar Publishing)

The Bowerbird illustrated by Catherine Rayner, written by Julia Donaldson (Macmillan Children’s Books)

The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish by Chloe Savage (Walker Books)

Yoto Carnegies Shadowing Scheme

The announcement of the shortlists also signals the start of this year’s Shadowing Scheme. Across the country, groups of young people will ‘shadow’ the judging process: reading, discussing and reviewing the shortlisted titles before choosing their winners for the Shadowers’ Choice Medals. The Shadowing Scheme is supported by a range of online resources, including a week-long programme of free author events on the Scholastic Schools Live platform starting on Monday 15th April. Find out more about the Shadowing Scheme and how to get involved here.

The winners of the 2024 Yoto Carnegie Medals and Shadowers’ Choice Medals will be announced at a live and streamed ceremony in London on Thursday 20th June, hosted by novelist Manjeet Mann. Keep an eye out for our winner announcement1