The Yoto Carnegie Medals are awarded annually by CILIP and the Youth Libraries Group to books for children and young people that create outstanding reading experiences through writing or illustration.
The Medals are uniquely nominated and judged by librarians. Nominations open in September each year and members of CILIP are able to nominate one title per Medal and explain how that title meets the Medals criteria. In addition, several external nominations bodies that share CILIP’s values and mission for the Awards are invited to nominate one title per Medal. Every book that receives a nomination is checked and verified for eligibility before the Nominations list is published in November each year. All books nominated are read and considered by the librarians that form the panel of judges.
The judging panel meet to decide the longlists, then the shortlists and finally, the Medal winners, based on the official Medals’ criteria. Longlists are published in February and shortlists in March, with the winners announced at a ceremony in June.
You can find out about recent nominations, longlists, shortlists and winners on the press desk.
The Awards mission is: to champion librarians to inspire and empower the next generation to create a better world through books and reading.
We do this by:
To be eligible for the Awards, titles must have been first published in the UK or Ireland between 1 September and 31 August of the previous calendar year. Books first published in another country must have been co-published in the UK or Ireland within three months of the original publication date.
The book must be written in the English language (either as an original work in English or a first English translation of a foreign-language work) and specifically published for children and young people.
The book may be co-authored; however, multiple author anthologies are excluded.
In the case of e-books and short stories or poetry previously published in a magazine or elsewhere, the point of publication should be considered as the date when the work is published as a whole. At least 75% of the complete work must be original material published for the first time within the specified time frame.
All categories of books, including poetry, non-fiction and graphic novels, in print or ebook format, for children and young people are eligible.
Books by previous Carnegie and/or Kate Greenaway Medal winners are eligible.
Publishers of titles that are shortlisted for either of the Medals will be asked to contribute a sum of approx. £2.5k per shortlisted title. This is used to help fund the design, print and distribution of shortlist publicity materials into approx. 2500 UK schools and public libraries.
Established in 2019, the Shadowers’ Choice Awards is voted for and presented by shadowers. Shadowing groups are invited to vote for their favourite book from each shortlist when voting opens in June. The winners of the Shadowers’ Choice Award are presented with a medal at the winners’ ceremony.