First News announced as media partner for Yoto Carnegies

The Yoto Carnegies has announced First News—a UK-based newspaper for children—as its media partner for 2023. 

First News will work with the Yoto Carnegies team to encourage young readers to engage with the authors, illustrators and books celebrated by the awards. 

The Yoto Carnegies are the UK’s longest running children’s book awards, recognising "outstanding reading experiences created through writing and illustration in books for young people". The award is unique in being judged by librarians and also includes a "shadowing" scheme, in which children and schools are invited to "shadow" the judging process, debate the books and decide their own Shadowers’ Choice winner from each shortlist. 

In 2022, Katya Balen won both the Yoto Carnegie Medal and the Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice for her book October, October (Bloomsbury). The Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal—now named the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration—was won by Danica Novgorodoff for Long Way Down (Faber) and Mariachiara Di Giorgio was awarded the Greenaway Shadowers’ Choice for The Midnight Fair (Walker Books). 

Nicky Cox, editor-in-chief of First News, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with the Yoto Carnegies who share our passion for getting young people reading and are looking forward to keeping our readers updated on the awards throughout the year. First News is at the forefront of ensuring children have access to reliable, trustworthy and age-appropriate news curated especially for them and gives children a voice about the issues they care about. While children make up 27% of the world’s people, they are 100% of the future.”

Nick Poole, the chief executive of the Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals, which provides judges for the awards, said: “We’re thrilled to be partnering with First News for the Yoto Carnegies this year. They have always been fantastic supporters of the awards but following our brand refresh, it felt like the perfect opportunity to come together to inspire children and foster a love of reading. With an engaged young readership across the country and shared goals of fuelling curiosity and critical thinking, there is a lot of synergy in our ambitions.” 

This year’s longlist will be announced on 15th February and the shortlist on 17th March. The winners will be announced in June.