Monday 9th May 2022: The UK’s longest running and best-loved book awards for children and young people is hosting #YotoCarnegieLIVE and #YotoGreenawayLIVE, two virtual shortlist events for young readers.
Held this May in partnership with The Reading Agency, the free, interactive events are for the thousands of reading groups who are shadowing the Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards, as well as schools, libraries and bookshops. There’s one event to celebrate each medal featuring a selection of the shortlisted illustrators and authors talking about their books, as well as answering questions from children and young people, ahead of the winner announcement on 16 June.
#YotoGreenawayLIVE: Monday 23 May, 12.30-1.30pm
Chaired by Amy McKay, school librarian and Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards national coordinator and featuring shortlisted illustrators George Butler (Drawn Across Borders), Mariachiara Di Giorgio (The Midnight Fair), Danica Novgorodoff (Long Way Down), Yu Rong (Shu Lin’s Grandpa) and Peter Van den Ende (The Wanderer). Register for free here.
#YotoCarnegieLIVE: Thursday 26 May, 12.30-1.30pm
Chaired by Emma Braithwaite, head of skills and engagement at The Reading Agency and featuring shortlisted authors Sue Divin (Guard Your Heart), Phil Earle (When the Sky Falls), Manjeet Mann (The Crossing), Julian Sedgwick (Tsunami Girl), Alex Wheatle (Cane Warriors), Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam (Punching the Air). Register for free here.
Also for the first time, the Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards has created two downloadable event packs to enable any shadowing group, school, library or bookshop to host their own in-person Yoto Carnegie Medal #ReadAlong and Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal #DrawAlong celebrations. The event template, which includes video challenges set directly by shortlisted authors and illustrators, is designed to engage children and young people with the shortlisted books in a fun, creative way. They can be downloaded for free here.
Jake Hope, chair of the CILIP Carnegie Greenaway Working Party, comments:
“We are excited to be working with The Reading Agency for the first time this year on a new Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards live virtual event series, which will bring children and young people across the UK closer to the shortlisted authors and illustrators than ever before. We hope this opportunity to engage directly with the creators of some of the books shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals will really bring their stories to life. We’re also looking forward to seeing shadowing groups, schools, libraries and bookshops make use of our new downloadable #ReadAlong and #DrawAlong event packs to inspire young readers creatively and encourage them to read one or more of the shortlisted books.”
The Awards has also distributed shortlist POS packs to public and school libraries and retailers, including stickers, bookmarks and posters.
Winner announcement
The 2022 winners will be announced and celebrated on Thursday 16th June at a lunchtime ceremony at The British Library. It will also be livestreamed from 12pm. The event will be hosted by award-winning poet and novelist Dean Atta, who won the Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice for The Black Flamingo in 2020.
The winners will each receive £500 worth of books to donate to their local library, a specially commissioned golden medal and a £5,000 Colin Mears Award cash prize.
Now in its fourth year, the Shadowers’ Choice Award – voted for and awarded by the children and young people who shadow the Medals – will also be announced at the ceremony. Voting opens for participating shadowing groups on Monday 23rd May.
The Awards are sponsored by Yoto, the innovative, screen-free audio platform for children; Peters, the official book supplier; and ALCS, champions of authors’ rights. With their support, the Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards aim to inspire and empower a new generation of readers.
For media requests and interviews, please contact: Hannah Davies or Annabelle Wright at ed public relations on hannah@edpr.co.uk or annabelle@edpr.co.uk or 020 7732 4796
NOTES TO EDITORS:
About the Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards and Shadowing Scheme
The Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards and Shadowing Scheme are managed by CILIP, the library and information association. The Medals are awarded annually by CILIP and the Youth Libraries Group with longlists announced in February, shortlists in March and the winners announced at a ceremony in June.
The Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards celebrate outstanding achievement in writing and illustration for children and young people respectively and are unique in being judged by librarians. Alongside Yoto as the headline sponsor, the Awards are sponsored by Peters and ALCS.
The Yoto Carnegie Medal is awarded annually to an author whose writing creates an outstanding reading experience for children or young people. It was established in 1936 in memory of the Scottish-born philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919). The Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal, established in 1955, is named after the popular nineteenth century artist, known for her beautiful children’s illustrations and designs. The Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal is awarded annually to a book illustrator whose artwork creates an outstanding reading experience for children and young people.
Each year thousands of reading groups in schools and libraries in the UK and overseas get involved in the Awards, with children and young people ‘shadowing’ the judging process. They read, discuss and review the books on the shortlists, get involved in reading related activity in groups, and vote for their favourite books to win the Shadowers’ Choice Awards.
In 2021, the Carnegie Medal was won by Jason Reynolds for Look Both Ways, and the Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice was awarded to Manjeet Mann for Run, Rebel. The Kate Greenaway Medal was won by Sydney Smith for Small in the City and Sharon King-Chai was awarded the Greenaway Shadowers’ Choice for Starbird.
In additional to the publicity packs for schools and libraries, the Awards are expanding their reading campaign with shortlist POS packs being made available to retailers for the first time, including stickers, bookmarks and posters. Any booksellers who would like to be added to the list please contact: danielle@agile-ideas.com
About The Reading Agency
The Reading Agency is a national charity that tackles life’s big challenges through the power of Reading, We work closely with partners to develop and deliver programmes for people of all ages and backgrounds; our vision is for a world where everyone is reading their way to a better life.
We help 1.9 million people benefit from reading every year, through our programmes, our tireless campaigning, our excellent networks, and our power to influence, challenge and make change happen. www.readingagency.org.uk
About CILIP, the library and information association
CILIP is the leading voice for the information, knowledge management and library profession. Our goal is to put information and library skills and professional values at the heart of a democratic, equal and prosperous society.
CILIP is a registered charity, no. 313014. The Youth Libraries Group (YLG) is a special interest group of CILIP who work to preserve and influence the provision of quality literature and library services for children and young people, both in public libraries and school library services.
YLG has 12 regional committees covering all of the UK, and each committee advertises and democratically recruits a judge to represent them on the panel of judges. Each judge serves a two-year term and each year the panel is a unique mix of new and experienced judges led by the Chair of Judges. Following the independent diversity review of the Awards, CILIP introduced a co-opting procedure so that if this recruitment process does not result in a sufficiently diverse and representative judging panel, up to two judges will be co-opted to join the panel.
In 2022, the judging panel includes 14 volunteer judges from CILIP’s Youth Libraries Group. Find out more about this year’s judges here
About Yoto
Yoto is the audio platform that kids control. Our audio players let kids safely explore their favourite stories, music and more without a screen.
Inspired by Montessori principals, Ben Drury and Filip Denker founded Yoto in 2017. The very first Yoto Player launched on Kickstarter, then sold out in 2019. The second generation Yoto Player was designed with renowned design agency, Pentagram, and launched in early 2020.
Yoto Player has won awards and accolades from critics and toddlers alike. TIME Magazine even named it one of the Best Inventions of 2020.
Yoto Mini – our portable audio player – launched in late 2021.
Yoto’s platform features original content alongside audio licensed and co-created with partners. These include PRH, Macmillan, Sony, Disney, LEGO, Roald Dahl Story Company, HarperCollins, Hachette, Bonnier and Scholastic.
About the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society
The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) is a not-for-profit membership organisation set up by writers, for writers.
ALCS pays writers royalties for the secondary use of their work, as well as campaigning to protect their rights. Today, it represents more than 114,000 members internationally and since its inception in 1977, it’s paid out over £570 million to writers. There is no other organisation quite like ALCS. www.alcs.co.uk
About Peters
Peters is the UK’s leading specialist book supplier to schools, academies, public libraries and school library services. They are passionate about children’s reading, and believe all children and young people should have access to great books, as well as inspiring spaces to enjoy them in. https://peters.co.uk
