McCaughrean, Smith win 2018 Carnegie, Greenaway medals

The UK Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) has announced the winners of the 2018 Carnegie and Kate Greenaway medals.

British writer Geraldine McCaughrean won the Carnegie Medal for children’s and YA books for her middle-grade novel Where the World Ends (Oxford University Press), and Canadian illustrator Sydney Smith received the Kate Greenaway Medal for children’s book illustration for his illustrations in Joanne Schwartz’s Town Is by the Sea (Walker Books).

McCaughrean’s novel, inspired by an 18th-century historical record, is a survival story of Scottish boys marooned at sea. It earns McCaughrean her second Carnegie Medal, awarded 30 years after her 1988 win for A Pack of Lies (OUP). Schwartz’s Town Is by the Sea depicts a day in the life of a boy growing up in a 1950s coal-mining town, contrasting the child’s play above ground to the adult world of work below ground in a mining pit. Smith’s expressive brushwork was inspired by Impressionist artists such as J M W Turner.

Amnesty CILIP Honours, which recognise titles that ‘illuminate, uphold or celebrate freedoms’, were awarded to American debut author Angie Thomas for The Hate U Give (Walker Books) and British artist Levi Pinfold for his black-and-white illustrations in The Song from Somewhere Else (A F Harrold, Bloomsbury).

Chair of judges Jake Hope said that 2018 had been an ‘exceptional year’ for the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway medals, with a ‘record number of nominations … leading to incredibly strong shortlists’.

McCaughrean and Smith each receive £500 (A$895) worth of books to donate to a library of their choice and a £5000 (A$8960) cash prize.

View the shortlists here, and for more information about the winners, visit the awards website.

Category: Awards International news Junior