The Yoto Carnegie Medals, formerly the Carnegie Greenaway honors, are awarded for children’s book writing and illustration.

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

Winners To Be Announced June 21

The earlier named Carnegie Greenaway Awards became the “Yoto Carnegie Medals” last year, Yoto being a brand of audiobook player for children. The sponsorship is to run for three years.

• The Carnegie Medal was established in 1936 by Andrew Carnegie, and it was first awarded to Arthur Ransome for Pigeon Post.
• The Carnegie Medal for Illustration was originally named the Kate Greenaway Medal when it was established in 1955.

These awards are juried by children’s librarians, and there’s a “Shadowers’ Choice Medals” series of honors, too, voted for by younger readers.

The programs are run by CILIP, which draws its acronym from its original 1898 charter as the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. Today it calls itself the “Library and Information Association.” Prior to being called the Yoto Carnegies, they were referred to in logos as the CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Children’s Book Awards. Names seem to be particularly fungible around this set of book contests.

The longlists released today (February 15) carry 15 books for the writing award and 18 for the illustration award.

The shortlists for the Yoto Carnegies 2023 are expected to be announced on March 17. The winners is to be announced on June 21 in a streamed event at the Barbican Centre.

Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing, 2023 Longlist

• • 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 Blackthorn Branch, by Elen Caldecott (Andersen Press)
  • Running with Horses, by Jason Cockcroft (Andersen Press)
  • The Eternal Return of Clara Hart, by Louise Finch (Little Island)
  • The Worlds We Leave Behind, by A.F. Harrold, illustrated by Levi Pinfold (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
  • Green Rising, by Lauren James (Walker Books)
  • When Our Worlds Collided, by Danielle Jawando (Simon & Schuster Children’s)
  • Needle, by Patrice Lawrence (Barrington Stoke)
  • Julia and the Shark, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, illustrated by Tom de Freston (Orion Children’s Books)
  • Wrath, by Marcus Sedgwick (Barrington Stoke)
  • I Must Betray You, by Ruta Sepetys (Hodder Children’s Books)
  • The Silver Chain, by Jion Sheibani (Hot Key Books)
  • The Blue Book of Nebo, by Manon Steffan Ros (Firefly Press)

Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration, 2023 Longlist

• John Agard’s Windrush Child, illustrated by Sophie Bass, written by John Agard (Walker Books)
• Rescuing Titanic, illustrated and written by Flora Delargy (Wide Eyed Editions)
• Flooded, illustrated and written by Mariajo Illustrajo (Frances Lincoln)
• Journey to the Last River, illustrated by Teddy Keen, written by The Unknown Adventurer (Frances Lincoln)
• Medusa, illustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill, written by Jessie Burton (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
• The Fog Catcher’s Daughter, illustrated by Alan Marks, written by Marianne McShane (Walker Books)
• Once Upon a Tune, illustrated and written by James Mayhew (Otter-Barry Books)
• Dadaji’s Paintbrush, illustrated by Ruchi Mhasane, written by Rashmi Sirdeshpande (Andersen Press)
• Alte Zachen: Old Things, illustrated by Benjamin Phillips, written by Ziggy Hanaor (Circada 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)
• Choices, illustrated and written by Roozeboos (Child’s Play)
• The Queen in the Cave, illustrated and written by Júlia Sardà (Walker Studio)
• Saving the Butterfly, illustrated by Gill Smith, written by Helen Cooper (Walker Books)
• The Comet, illustrated and written by Joe Todd-Stanton (Flying Eye Books)
• The Queen on our Corner, illustrated by Nia Tudor, written by Lucy Christopher (Lantana)
• The Baker, by the Sea illustrated and written by Paula White (Templar Books)
• Saving Sorya: Chang and the Sun Bear, illustrated by Jeet Zdung, written by Trang Nguyen (Kingfisher)

The initial pool of of longlists comprised 125 nominations from a panel made up of 12 children’s and librarians of younger readers’ content, those librarians being part of CILIP.

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More from Publishing Perspectives on children’s books is here, more on the Carnegie Greenaway honors–now called the Yoto Carnegies– is here, more from us on publishing and book awards programs is here, and more on the UK market is here.