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SHORTLISTS FOR 2017 CILIP CARNEGIE AND KATE GREENAWAY MEDALS ANNOUNCED

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Today (Thursday 16th March), the shortlists for the 2017 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals, the UK’s oldest and most prestigious book awards for children and young people, are revealed.

The Kate Greenaway Medal, which celebrates illustration in children’s books, sees award-winning writer and illustrator Chris Riddell, the Children’s Laureate, in the running to win an unprecedented fourth Kate Greenaway Medal just a year after his hat-trick in 2016. Riddell is joined by another potential record-breaker in the form of Dieter Braun’s Wild Animals of the North. Originally published in German, this is the first ever translated title to make the Kate Greenaway shortlist following the Medals opening up to translated works in English in 2015. They are joined by former Kate Greenaway Medal winners Emily Gravett, William Grill and Jim Kay and first-time Kate Greenaway-shortlisted authors Francesca Sanna, Brian Selznick and Lane Smith.

The Carnegie Medal, which celebrates outstanding writing for children and young people, sees a range of YA and Middle Grade books make the shortlist. Mal Peet’s final novel Beck, co-authored by Meg Rosoff, could be the second book to win the Medal posthumously, following Siobhan Dowd’s Bog Child in 2009. Peet and Rosoff are joined on the list by fellow former Carnegie Medal winners Frank Cottrell Boyce and Philip Reeve, previously shortlisted author Ruta Sepetys, debut authors Lauren Wolk and Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock and first-time Carnegie-shortlisted authors Zana Fraillon, Glenda Millard and Lauren Wolk.

The 2017 shortlists are:

The CILIP Carnegie Medal 2017 shortlist (alphabetically by author surname):

Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth by Frank Cottrell Boyce (Pan Macmillan)

The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon (Orion Children’s Books)

The Smell of Other People’s Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock (Faber & Faber)

The Stars at Oktober Bend by Glenda Millard (Old Barn Books)

Railhead by Philip Reeve (Oxford University Press)

Beck by Mal Peet with Meg Rosoff (Walker Books)

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys (Puffin)

Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk (Corgi)

The CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2017 shortlist (alphabetically by illustrator surname):

Wild Animals of the North illustrated and written by Dieter Braun. Translated by Jen Calleja (Flying Eye Books)

TIDY illustrated and written by Emily Gravett (Two Hoots)

The Wolves of Currumpaw illustrated and written by William Grill (Flying Eye Books)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone illustrated by Jim Kay, written by J.K. Rowling (Bloomsbury)

A Great Big Cuddle illustrated by Chris Riddell and written by Michael Rosen (Walker Books)

The Journey illustrated and written by Francesca Sanna (Flying Eye Books)

The Marvels illustrated and written by Brian Selznick (Scholastic)

There is a Tribe of Kids illustrated and written by Lane Smith (Two Hoots)

Tricia Adams, Chair of the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals judging panel for 2017, said: “Both of these shortlists celebrate the wonderful talent on offer, from established names to debut authors and illustrators making a real impact with their first books. Questions of identity, friendship and responsibility, both to others and to the natural world, are key themes this year. It is also hugely heartening to see our shortlisted writers and illustrators tackling potentially difficult and big ideas whilst introducing them to younger readers in a wide range of page-turning yet different ways.”

Kate Arnold, President of CILIP, said: “From stories set in futuristic fantasy worlds to the Second World War, from modern day refugee camps in Australia to Depression-era America, both shortlists celebrate the huge imagination of some of the finest storytellers and artists today. There are journeys to be made, friendships to discover, characters to fall in love with and worlds to truly immerse oneself in.”

On Kate Greenaway shortlist, Chris Riddell’s creative use of vignettes in A Great Big Cuddle celebrates what it means to be young, while Emily Gravett’s Tidy contrasts forest colours with monochrome to highlight the difference between the natural world and an artificial one. Debut illustrator Francesca Sanna’s The Journey uses clever repetition of tones and colours to emphasise the book’s key themes of travel and migration, whilst Brian Selznick’s immersive storytelling in The Marvels is brought to life through detailed illustrations and near-cinematic close-ups, zooms and panning. A highly-stylised geometrical line and varied layouts bring Dieter Braun’s encyclopaedia of beasts Wild Animals of the North, to life whilst previous Greenaway Medal winner William Grill uses sweeping pencil strokes to depict the wolves and wildernesses of New Mexico in The Wolves of Currumpaw. Fellow previous Greenaway Medal winner Jim Kay vividly reveals the world of muggles and magic in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Finally, Lane Smith uses scale, size and muted earth tones to create movement in his adventure through the natural world, There is a Tribe of Kids.

In a Carnegie Medal shortlist dominated by novels of identity, friendship, love and survival, debut children’s author Lauren Wolk’s Wolf Hollow – a US-set coming-of-age tale of a young girl’s experience of bullying, survival and friendship in a small town in the 1940s – vies with previous Carnegie Medal winner Philip Reeve’s intergalactic fantasy thriller Railhead, where hi-tech trains transport passengers between planets and galaxies in a mere moment. Both face tough competition from previous Carnegie winners Mal Peet and Meg Rosoff in Beck, Peet’s final novel finished by Rosoff, a sweeping coming-of-age epic about a mixed race boy transported to North America in the 1900s. Journalist-turned-debut-author Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock’s The Smell of Other People’s Houses – inspired by her own experiences of growing up in Alaska in the Seventies – is joined on the eight strong shortlist by Zana Fraillon’s The Bone Sparrow a story of unexpected friendship in the tough world of an internment camp in Australia and Glenda Millard’s tale of survival and redemption through friendship, love and the power of poetry, The Stars at Oktober Bend. Previous Medal winner Frank Cottrell Boyce’s Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth about family, fostering, the power of friendship and how a boy called Prez regains his voice, and Ruta Sepetys’s Salt to the Sea, a WW2-set story of refugees and survivors inspired by a real life naval disaster, complete the Carnegie shortlist for 2017.

The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals are the oldest children’s book awards in the UK, with the first winners announced in 1936 and 1956 respectively. The titles on the shortlists are selected from nominations for their literary and artistic merit and are contenders for the highest accolades in children’s literature, with previous winners including legendary talents Arthur Ransome, C.S Lewis and Mary Norton for the Carnegie Medal and illustrators Quentin Blake, Shirley Hughes and Raymond Briggs for the Kate Greenaway Medal.

The winners for both the CILIP Carnegie Medal and the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal will be announced on Monday 19th June at a lunchtime ceremony at RIBA in central London.

The winners will each receive £500 worth of books to donate to their local library, a specially commissioned golden medal and £5,000 each from the Colin Mears Award. At the ceremony in June, one title from each shortlist will also be named the recipient of the Amnesty CILIP Honour, awarded to books that most distinctively illuminate, upholds or celebrate freedoms. The Honour aims to increase awareness of how great children’s books encourage empathy and broaden horizons. Today’s CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals shortlists were announced at a celebratory event at Amnesty International in London.

Notes to Editors

Shortlisted Books

CILIP Carnegie Medal 2017 shortlist:

Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth by Frank Cottrell Boyce (Pan Macmillan)

Prez doesn’t talk anymore. He didn’t talk in The Temporary, where he was taken when his granddad started behaving oddly. He didn’t talk when The Family came, to take him to live on their farm in Dumfries for the summer. He is very good at listening though, which proves useful when a small, extremely talkative, mind-reading alien named Sputnik, arrives on The Family’s doorstep. Sputnik is on a mission; he needs Prez to show him ten reasons why Earth is worth saving, otherwise it will be shrunk to the size of a golf ball. Prez has no idea what to do – he can’t ask for help, because he doesn’t talk, and The Family also seem to think Sputnik is a small, yappy dog. Time is running out – how can Prez show Sputnik all the Wonders of the World when they are stuck in rural Scotland? Where do you even start?

Frank Cottrell Boyce is the author of MillionsFramedCosmic, The Astounding Broccoli Boy and the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang sequels. He is also a successful writer of screen-plays and, along with director Danny Boyle, devised the Opening Ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games. He lives in Merseyside with his family.

The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon (Orion Children’s Books)

Born in a refugee camp, all Subhi knows of the world is that he’s at least 19 fence diamonds high, the nice Jackets never stay long, and at night he dreams that the sea finds its way to his tent, bringing with it unusual treasures. And one day it brings him Jimmie. Carrying a notebook that she’s unable to read and wearing a sparrow made out of bone around her neck – both talismans of her family’s past and the mother she’s lost – Jimmie strikes up an unlikely friendship with Subhi beyond the fence. As he reads aloud the tale of how Jimmie’s family came to be, both children discover the importance of their own stories in writing their futures.

Zana Fraillon lives in Victoria, Australia, with her husband and three sons. She worked as a primary school teacher before having children, and has had picture books and middle grade fiction published in Australia.

The Smell of Other People’s Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock (Faber & Faber)

Alaska, 1970: growing up here is like nowhere else. Ruth wants to be remembered by her grieving mother. Dora wishes she was invisible to her abusive father. Alyce is staying at home to please her parents. Hank is running away for the sake of his brothers. Four very different lives are about to become entangled in these intertwining stories of love, tragedy, wild luck, and salvation. Because if we don’t save each other, how can we begin to save ourselves?

Born and raised in Alaska and a long-time journalist for Alaska Public Radio, Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock spent 10 years fishing commercially and raised her children on a boat in Southeast Alaska. She now lives in Lyons, Colorado, where she’s slowly rebuilding her house after the catastrophic floods of September 2013. The Smell of Other People’s Houses is her first novel, and inspired by her experiences of growing up in Alaska.

The Stars at Oktober Bend by Glenda Millard (Old Barn Books)

Alice is 15, with hair as red as fire and skin as pale as bone, but something inside her is broken. She has a brain injury, the result of an assault. Manny was once a child soldier. He is 16 and has lost all his family. Alice is reaching out to express herself through her beautiful-broken words, and Manny is running to escape his past. When Manny and Alice meet they find the beginnings of love and healing. The Stars at Oktober Bend is a powerful story about the strength of the human spirit.

Glenda Millard is a highly respected author of books for children of all ages. Her novel A Small Free Kiss in the Dark was the Winner of the 2009 Queensland Premier’s Award for young adults and included on the Honour List for the 2012 International Board of Books for Young People. Glenda began to write when her four children became teenagers and now writes full-time, often inspired by the landscapes of Victoria, Australia, where she has lived all her life.

Railhead by Philip Reeve (Oxford University Press)

Zen Starling is a petty thief. A nobody. Destined to ride the rails to nowhere special. That is until Raven, a strange and mysterious figure, enlists him for one small job. One small job that might just bring everything in this galaxy, and the next, to the end of the line.

Philip Reeve was born and raised in Brighton, where he wrote his first story at the age of five about a spaceman called Spike and his dog Spook. He is a talented illustrator and writer, and he has illustrated several titles in the Horrible Histories series. Philip is best known for his multi award-winning Mortal Engines quartet, which won the Nestlé Children’s Book Prize, the Blue Peter Book Award, and the Guardian Children’s Book Award. Philip has also won the CILIP Carnegie Medal previously with Here Lies Arthur.

Beck by Mal Peet with Meg Rosoff (Walker Books)

The final novel from Carnegie Medal-winning author Mal Peet is a sweeping coming-of-age adventure, with all the characteristic beauty and strength of his prose. Born from a one-off liaison between a poor young woman and an African soldier in the 1900s, Beck is soon orphaned and sent to the Catholic Brothers in Canada. Shipped to work on a farm, his escape takes him across the continent in a search for belonging. Enduring abuse and many hardships, Beck has times of comfort and encouragement, eventually finding Grace, the woman with whom he can finally forge his life and shape his destiny as a young man. A picaresque novel set during the Depression as experienced by a young black man, it depicts great pain but has an uplifting and inspiring conclusion.

Mal Peet‘s first novel, Keeper, won the Branford Boase Award and the Bronze Nestle Children’s Book Prize; Tamar won the Carnegie Medal and Exposure was the winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. A writer and illustrator, Mal produced many books for children throughout his lifetime, most of them in collaboration with his wife, Elspeth Graham. He also wrote a critically acclaimed adult novel, The Murdstone TrilogyMeg Rosoff is the award-winning author of How I Live Now, which won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and the Branford Boase Award. Her second novel, Just in Case, won the Carnegie Medal and her other books include Picture Me Gone and Jonathan Unleashed, her first novel for adults. She lives in London.

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys (Puffin)

It’s early 1945 and a group of people trek across Germany, bound together by their desperation to reach the ship that can take them away from the war-ravaged land. Four young people, each haunted by their own dark secret, narrate their unforgettable stories. They converge in a desperate attempt to board an overcrowded ship in a Baltic port, which is tragically then sunk by a torpedo. Based on a true story, the incident was the worst maritime tragedy ever.

Ruta Sepetys is the author of acclaimed YA novel, Between Shades of Grey. Born and raised in Michigan in a family of Lithuanian descent, Ruta now lives with her husband in Tennessee. Ruta was a highly successful promoter of classical music concerts, booking and touring with orchestras worldwide, before turning to writing full-time. In 2015, Ruta was awarded The Rockefeller Foundation’s prestigious Bellagio Center writing residency, where she interacted with other leading international artists, writers and thinkers. Ruta discovered the story on which Salt to the Sea is based originally through a family connection and discovered that a cousin of her father’s should have been on board but a fortunate accident near the port meant he missed boarding, saving his life.

Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk (Corgi)

Annabelle has lived in Wolf Hollow all her life: a quiet place, still scarred by two world wars. But when cruel, manipulative Betty arrives in town, Annabelle’s calm world is shattered, along with everything she’s ever known about right and wrong. When Betty accuses gentle loner Toby – a traumatised ex-soldier – of a terrible act, Annabelle knows he’s innocent. Then Betty disappears . . . Now Annabelle must protect Toby from the spiralling accusations and hysteria, until she can prove to Wolf Hollow what really happened to Betty.

After graduating from Brown University in 1981 with a degree in English literature, Lauren Wolk spent a year as a writer with the Battered Women’s Project of the St. Paul American Indian Center, and then worked as both an editor and an English teacher. Since 2007, she has been the Associate Director of the Cultural Center of Cape Cod. She is an award-winning poet and also a visual artist. Wolf Hollow is set in western Pennsylvania where her family roots run deep. Both of her parents were raised in that area, her mother on a farm and in a family that served as the inspiration for the novel.

CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2017 shortlist:

Wild Animals of the North illustrated and written by Dieter Braun (Flying Eye Books)

A gorgeously illustrated study of the Northern Hemisphere’s wild animals, this biologically accurate encyclopaedia of beasts will enthral all. Through Dieter Braun’s beautiful and colourful illustrations, readers will be dazzled by the polar bears and orcas of the Arctic, Europe’s red foxes and swans, the pumas of North America, Asian pandas and many more!

Dieter Braun is a freelance illustrator and children’s book author from Hamburg, Germany. He studied Communication Design at the Folkwangschule in Essen. Clients include international publications like Time MagazineThe New York TimessternCosmopolitanNewsweekElle and Glamour. The illustrations for the anniversary edition of Momo by Michael Ende are among his most recent work.

TIDY illustrated and written by Emily Gravett (Two Hoots)

Brand new from the critically acclaimed Emily Gravett, comes TIDY, a hilarious, vibrantly illustrated, rhyming tale about a badger called Pete, who is slightly over-zealous in his desire for complete cleanliness. Pete likes things neat, but unfortunately his forest home is not the tidiest of dwellings. As the weather, the Seasons, not to mention the other animals, hamper Pete’s dreams of a uncluttered existence, the crafty badger hatches a plan that is bound to keep everything permanently spick and span. But when Pete goes too far and concretes over his woodland home, he begins to realise that maybe his actions have caused more harm than good. And maybe a bit of mess now and again is actually rather a positive thing?

Emily Gravett is a graduate of Brighton University and winner of the 2004 Macmillan Prize for Illustration. WOLVES, her first picture book was published in 2005 and marked the beginning of an internationally stellar career creating extraordinary books for children. Emily’s books have won numerous regional, national and specialist awards, including the prestigious CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal twice – for Wolves and for Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears. Both books are also the recipient of the Nestlé Children’s Book Prize Bronze Award. In 2007, Emily won the Best Emerging Illustrator Award at the Booktrust Early Years Awards for Monkey and Me. Emily was born in Brighton. She left school with few qualifications and spent 8 years living on the road (in a variety of vehicles including a truck, caravan and RAF petrol bus called Toby Diesel) before settling back in Brighton and getting a place on the BA (Hons) Illustration course at Brighton University. She lives in Brighton with her daughter Oleander, partner Mik, and their two dogs Otto and Edie.

The Wolves of Currumpaw illustrated and written by William Grill (Flying Eye Books)

1892, New Mexico. A wolfpack roams the Currumpaw Valley, preying on the cattle and evading capture by the exasperated local ranchmen. Due to his knowledge of wolf behaviour, a British naturalist by the name of Ernest Thompson Seton is employed to hunt down their notorious pack leader, King Lobo… A moving re-telling of the first short story from Ernest Thompson Seton’s 1898 classic collection, Wild Animals I Have Known, this is the second book from CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal award winner William Grill.

A graduate of the University of Falmouth, William Grill is an exciting young talent with a slew of prizes under his belt, including being the youngest Kate Greenaway Medal winner since 1960.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone illustrated by Jim Kay, written by J.K. Rowling (Bloomsbury)

When a letter arrives for unhappy but ordinary Harry Potter, a decade-old secret is revealed to him that apparently he’s the last to know. His parents were wizards, killed by a Dark Lord’s curse when Harry was just a baby, and which he somehow survived. Leaving his unsympathetic aunt and uncle for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry stumbles upon a sinister mystery when he finds a three-headed dog guarding a room on the third floor. Then he hears of a missing stone with astonishing powers, which could be valuable, dangerous – or both. An incredible adventure is about to begin!

Jim Kay won the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2012 for his illustrations in A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. He studied illustration at the University of Westminster and since graduating has worked in the Library & Archives of Tate Britain and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. After producing a one-man exhibition at Richmond Gallery he was approached by a publisher and his freelance illustration work began. Jim has produced concept work for film and television, and contributed to a group exhibition at the V&A Museum in London. He now lives and works in Northamptonshire with his partner and a rescued greyhound.

A Great Big Cuddle illustrated by Chris Riddell and written by Michael Rosen (Walker Books)

Two of the biggest names in children’s publishing, Michael Rosen and Chris Riddell, come together in a new poetry collection. The poems in A Great Big Cuddle fizz off the page with sound and rhythm, energy and laughter, as Rosen captures in the most remarkable way what it means to be very, very young. A child’s world with all its details and feelings – toys and games, animals and made-up creatures, likes and dislikes – is vividly conjured up in the most memorable, playful language, and Chris Riddell has produced some his most extraordinary pictures ever to bring this world to life. It’s a book that will be enjoyed by the oldest grown-up and the youngest child – and a future classic.

Chris Riddell is one of the country’s finest children’s book illustrators. He has won the Kate Greenaway Medal three times previously for Pirate Diary, Gulliver’s Travels and for The Sleeper and the Spindle. He is a political cartoonist for The Observer and has collaborated with Paul Stewart on the extremely popular Edge Chronicles and Muddle Earth series. In recent years he has had success writing and illustrating his own books, including the Ottoline stories and Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse, which won a Costa Book Award. Chris lives in Brighton.

The Journey illustrated and written by Francesca Sanna (Flying Eye Books)

What is it like to have to leave everything behind and travel many miles to somewhere unfamiliar and strange? A mother and her two children set out on such a journey; one filled with fear of the unknown, but also great hope. Based on her interactions with people forced to seek a new home, and told from the perspective of a young child, The Journey is full of significance for our time.

Francesca Sanna is an Italian illustrator and graphic designer based in Switzerland. After she finished her studies in Cagliari, the main city of her beloved Mediterranean island, Sardinia, she said goodbye to her family and her cat, Berta, and moved to Germany before and Switzerland after, in order to follow her dream and be able to work as an illustrator. She graduated in 2015 from the Lucerne School of Art and Design with focus on Illustration. The Journey is her first picture book.

The Marvels illustrated and written by Brian Selznick (Scholastic)

In The Marvels, Selznick weaves together two seemingly unrelated stories- one in words, the other in pictures -with spellbinding synergy. The illustrated story begins in 1766 with Billy Marvel, the lone survivor of a shipwreck, and charts the adventures of his family of actors over five generations. The prose story opens in 1990 and follows Joseph, who has run away from school to an estranged uncle’s puzzling house in London, where he, along with the reader, must piece together many mysteries. Filled with mystery, vibrant characters, surprise twists, and heart-rending beauty, and featuring Selznick’s most arresting art to date, The Marvels is a moving tribute to the power of story.

Brian Selznick graduated from university with the intention of becoming a theatre set designer. However, after spending three years bookselling and designing window displays for a children’s bookshop, he was inspired to create picture books of his own. His first novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, won many awards including the New York Times Best Illustrated Book and was a feature-length film, Hugo, directed by Martin Scorsese. His follow-up illustrated novel, Wonderstruck, debuted at number one on the bestseller lists. Brian divides his time between New York and California.

There is a Tribe of Kids illustrated and written by Lane Smith (Two Hoots)

Lane Smith takes us on a colourful adventure through the natural world, following a child as he weaves through the jungle, dives under the ocean and soars into the sky. Along the way he makes friends and causes mischief with a dazzling array of creatures both large and small – but can he find a tribe of his own? Full of warmth and humour, There Is a Tribe of Kids is a playful exploration of wild childhood – of curiosity, discovery and what it means to belong.

Artist and author Lane Smith‘s books include the New York Times bestselling It’s a Book and its companion, It’s a Little Book, the Caldecott Honor-winning Grandpa Green and his quirky collaborations with John Scieszka including The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and The Stinky Cheeseman and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. In 2012, the Eric Carle Museum named him a Carle Artist for “lifelong innovation in the field of children’s picture books,” and in 2014 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Illustrators. Lane Smith lives in a small town in rural Connecticut, USA with his wife, the designer Molly Leach, and a scurry of flying squirrels.