Four former winners shortlisted for CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals

Shortlists for this year's CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals have been revealed, featuring seven first-time nominees alongside four former winners.

The prizes celebrate outstanding achievement in children’s writing and illustration respectively and are unique in being judged by librarians. Eight titles have been shortlisted for each prize from a selection of 40 longlisted titles, read by an expert volunteer team.

In a first for the prize, all the books on the Kate Greenaway Medal shortlist have been illustrated and authored by the same creator. This year also sees first-time shortlistees Marie Louise-Fitzpatrick, Manjeet Mann, Sharon King-Chai, Sara Lundberg, Kate Milner, Pete Oswald and David Ouimet take on former Carnegie Medal winners Elizabeth Acevedo and Ruta Sepetys and previous Kate Greenaway Medal winners Catherine Rayner and Sydney Smith.

The CILIP Carnegie Medal shortlist features Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (Hot Key Books), The Girl Who Speaks Bear by Sophie Anderson, illustrated by Kathrin Honesta (Usborne), The Girl Who Became A Tree by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Kate Milner (Otter-Barry Books), On Midnight Beach by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick (Faber), Run, Rebel by Manjeet Mann (Penguin Random House Children's), Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds (Knights Of), The Fountains Of Silence by Ruta Sepetys (Penguin Random House Children's) and Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk (Penguin Random House Children's).

For the Kate Greenaway Medal, the shortlisted books are Starbird by Sharon King-Chai (Two Hoots), The Bird Within Me illustrated by Sara Lundberg and translated by B J Epstein (Book Island), It's A No-Money Day by Kate Milner (Barrington Stoke), How The Stars Came To Be by Poonam Mistry (Tate Publishing), Hike by Pete Oswald (Walker Books), I Go Quiet by David Ouimet (Canongate), Arlo The Lion Who Couldn’t Sleep by Catherine Rayner (Macmillan Children's Books) and Small In The City by Sydney Smith (Walker Books).

Ellen Krajewski, chair of the 2021 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals judging panel, said: “With themes of freedom, the great outdoors and journeys through the natural world, we hope the outstanding books on this year’s shortlists will inspire and empower young readers, offering hope and escapism during lockdown. The collective experience of books is more important than ever this year, providing opportunities for children and young people to reconnect and share their reading experiences with one another as they return to school. We can’t wait to see the creative responses from this year’s shadowers and discover who they will vote as their favourites to win the Shadowers’ Choice Awards. And what amazing books they have to choose from! Congratulations to all the shortlisted authors and illustrators for their exceptional and creative work.”

The winners will be announced 16th June. Covid-19 guidelines permitting, a socially distanced special daytime event will be held at The British Library and streamed live online. 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 third year, the Shadowers’ Choice Award, voted for and awarded by the children and young people who shadow the medals, will be announced alongside the two medal winners in June 2021.