Walker dominates again as Yoto Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals longlists revealed

Publishers including Faber and Andersen Press have multiple titles on this year’s Yoto Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal longlists, while Walker Books dominates the latter for the fourth year running.

Recently renamed with its new headline sponsor Yoto, the medals celebrate outstanding achievement in children’s writing and illustration respectively and are judged by children’s librarians, with the Shadowers’ Choice Award voted for by young people.

Thirty-three books have been selected in total, with themes of community, connection, humanity and friendship all explored. In the running are nine debut children’s books, Danica Novgorodoff’s graphic novel edition of previous Carnegie winner Jason Reynold’s Long Way Down (Faber), and four previous winners.

Patrice Lawrence, who was previously nominated for the list three times, has made the cut with Rat (Oxford University Press) while two double Kate Greenaway winners Sydney Smith and Emily Gravett return this year, with I Talk Like a River (Walker Books), a picture book about a boy who stutters, and Too Much Stuff! (Two Hoots), a rhyming tale of two magpies, warning of the dangers of over consumption, respectively.

Two Carnegie winners also return this year. Manjeet Mann, who won the Carnegie Shadowers Choice last year, is in the running for The Crossing (Penguin Children’s Books), an exploration of the refugee crisis in verse, and Angie Thomas, who received the Carnegie Amnesty CILIP Honour in 2018, is back with Concrete Rose (Walker), the prequel to The Hate U Give (Walker), which explores Black boyhood and the responsibility of becoming a young father. Along with the former winners, the Carnegie longlist features previously longlisted authors Katya Balen, Phil Earle, Keith Gray, Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock, Julian Sedgwick, Alex Wheatle and Jeff Zentner.

Jennifer Horan, chair of judges, said:  “It is a real privilege to be chairing the judging panel during what has been an exceptional year for children’s publishing. We were transported and moved by evocative and lyrical prose; taken on fantastical journeys and invited into new worlds through powerful illustration; and given real hope by the messages of humanity, connection and community that so many of this year’s longlisted books share. I congratulate all the authors and illustrators on their outstanding work, which will bring young readers so much pleasure and reassurance in these times of worry.”

The shortlists will be announced on 16th March, with the winners announced and celebrated on 16th June at a ceremony at the British Library. 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.

The 2022 Yoto Carnegie Medal longlist

• October, October by Katya Balen, illustrated by Angela Harding (Bloomsbury)
• Musical Truth by Jeffrey Boakye, illustrated by Ngadi Smart (Faber)
• We Were Wolves by Jason Cockcroft (Andersen Press)
• Guard Your Heart by Sue Divin (Macmillan Children’s Books)
• When the Sky Falls by Phil Earle (Andersen Press)
• When Life Gives You Mangoes by Kereen Getten (Pushkin Children’s Books)
• The Climbers by Keith Gray (Barrington Stoke)
• Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock (Faber)
• The Wolf Road by Richard Lambert (Everything With Words)
• Rat by Patrice Lawrence (Oxford University Press)
• The Crossing by Manjeet Mann (Penguin Children’s Books)
• Grow by Luke Palmer (Firefly Press)
• The Valley of Lost Secrets by Lesley Parr (Bloomsbury)
• Tsunami Girl by Julian Sedgwick, illustrated by Chie Kutsuwada (Guppy Books)
• Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas (Walker Books)
• Cane Warriors by Alex Wheatle (Andersen Press)
• In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner (Andersen Press)
• Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

The 2022 Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal longlist

• While You’re Sleeping illustrated by John Broadley, written by Mick Jackson (Pavilion Books)
• Drawn Across Borders illustrated and written by George Butler (Walker Books)
• The Midnight Fair illustrated by Mariachiara Di Giorgio, written by Gideon Sterer (Walker Books)
• Wild Child illustrated by Barry Falls, written by Dara McAnulty (Macmillan Children’s Books)
• A Cat Called Waverley illustrated and written by Debi Gliori (Otter-Barry Books)
• Too Much Stuff illustrated and written by Emily Gravett (Two Hoots)
• Diamonds illustrated and written by Armin Greder (Allen & Unwin Children’s
Books)
• Over the Shop illustrated by Qin Leng, written by JonArno Lawson (Walker Books)
• Long Way Down illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff, written by Jason Reynolds (Faber)
• The Invisible illustrated and written by Tom Percival (Simon & Schuster)
• Milo Imagines the World illustrated by Christian Robinson, written by Matt de la Pena (Macmillan Children’s Books)
• Shu Lin’s Grandpa illustrated by Yu Rong, written by Matt Goodfellow (OtterBarry Books)
• I Talk Like a River illustrated by Sydney Smith, written by Jordan Scott (Walker Books)
• The House by the Lake illustrated by Britta Teckentrup, written by Thomas Harding (Walker Books)
• The Wanderer illustrated and written by Peter Van den Ende (Pushkin Children’s Books)