Seven authors are in the running for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing prize which awards outstanding achievement in children’s writing.
According to The Guardian, authors including Jessie Burton, Patrice Lawrence and Sita Brahmachari are part of an all-female shortlist for this year’s edition.
Burton, Lawrence and Brahmachari are all first-time shortlistees as is Manon Steffan Ros. The shortlist is completed by Katya Balen, who won the award in 2022, Louise Finch and Ruta Sepetys.
Alongside the prize for writing, the shortlist of six books for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration has also been announced.
The nominees, said chair of judges Janet Noble, show that “stories of bravery, compassion and community are told authentically and sensitively in a range of distinctive written and illustrative styles”.
On the writing shortlist, Burton is shortlisted for Medusa, Lawrence is shortlisted for Needle and Brahmachari for When Shadows Fall.
Then there is Steffan Ros’s The Blue Book of Nebo, Balen’s The Light in Everything, Finch’s The Eternal Return of Clara Hart and I Must Betray You by Sepetys.
The winners of both awards will be announced on 21 June at a live and streamed ceremony hosted by former children’s laureate Lauren Child. They will each receive £500 worth of books to donate to a library of their choice, a specially commissioned and newly designed golden medal and a £5,000 Colin Mears award cash prize.
