GLOBAL nominated for a 2024 Yoto Carnegie Medal

Eoin and Giovanni and I are delighted to tell you that our new graphic novel, GLOBAL, has been nominated for the prestigious 2024 Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration – so huge congratulations to our brilliant artist, Giovanni Rigano, and all our lovely team at Hodder Books.

The Yoto Carnegies awards are the UK’s oldest children’s book award. There’s one for writing and one for illustration. Both awards are unique in the UK in that they are chosen by lovely librarians from up and down the entire country.

The organisers ay: “A grand total of 129 books have been nominated for the 2024 Medals. 69 books are in contention for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing which is awarded to a book written in English for children and young people that sparks an outstanding reading experience and 60 books for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration, which celebrates an outstanding reading experience through illustration. This includes 6 titles that have received nominations in both Medal categories.”

The award have a huge nationwide organisation behind them. “A national (and international) reading for pleasure initiative, the Yoto Carnegie Shadowing Scheme engages thousands of children and young people in reading the books on the shortlist via reading groups in schools and public libraries with dedicated educational reading resources and promotional materials to support each shortlist. Each year young people who take part in the scheme are invited to vote for their favourite books to win the Shadowers’ Choice Awards, which are announced alongside the Medal winners at the annual winners’ ceremony.”

If you run a school library of are involved with one the you can register your school to take part in the shadowing groups by following this link: https://yotocarnegies.co.uk/take-part/register/

The Yoto Carnegie for Illustration used to be called the Kate Greenaway Medal, and some folks still think it should be. The Kate Greenaway Medal for Illustration was introduced in 1955 as a companion for the already existing Carnegie Medal for Writing. It was named after Kate Greenaway, the 19th century English illustrator of children’s books who was born in Hoxton, London in 1846.

The awards stated mission is: “To champion librarians to inspire and empower the next generation to create a better world through books and reading.“

It’s a huge honour to have our graphic novel, Global, nominated. Giovanni described it as “a very lovely surprise.”

Our graphic novel, ILLEGAL was nominated for both the Carnegie Medal for Writing and the Kate Greenaway Medal for Illustration (now the Carnegie Medal for Illustration) meaning double trouble for Giovanni as he is now a two-time nominee! Big hugs to him.

Global is published by Hodder in the UK & Ireland and SourceBooks in the USA & Canada. Translation editions are already available in France and Italy with more to follow.