The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals are the oldest and most prestigious children’s book awards in the UK, with the first winners announced in 1936 and 1956 respectively. The titles on the shortlists are contenders for the highest accolades in children’s literature, with previous winners including legendary talents such as Arthur Ransome, C.S Lewis and Mary Norton for the CILIP Carnegie Medal and illustrators Quentin Blake, Shirley Hughes and Raymond Briggs for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal.
The CILIP Carnegie Medal Shortlist 2015
All books are available from the library.
When Mr Dog Bites by Brian Conaghan
Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan
Tinder by Sally Gardner (author) and David Roberts (illustrator)
Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge
The Fastest Boy in the World by Elizabeth Laird
Buffalo Soldier by Tanya Landman
The Middle of Nowhere by Geraldine McCaughrean
More Than This by Patrick Ness
Challenging themes including war, sickness and adversity, run through both shortlists. Gothic fantasy Tinder begins with its central character, young soldier Otto, narrowly giving Death the slip, while More Than This starts with the drowning of its hero, a boy named Seth. Elsewhere in the Carnegie shortlist, Dylan, the Tourette’s sufferer of When Mr Dog Bites, believes he faces death in the not-too distant future, and the titular Buffalo Soldier of Tanya Landman’s novel, an ex-slave now serving in the post-Civil War US army, feels Death is “so close you can smell his breath.” The devastation of World War One looms large in Frances Hardinge’s Cuckoo Song, whilst Geraldine McCaughrean’s The Middle of Nowhere begins with a child losing her mother to a snake bite in the Australian Outback. Sarah Crossan’s Apple and Rain sees a young girl called Apple delighted to be reunited with her estranged mother until she meets Rain, the half-sister she didn’t know she had. Finally, Elizabeth Laird’s The Fastest Boy in the World sees the eleven-year-old Solomon facing a marathon run to seek help for his beloved grandfather.
