Shortlists for 2020 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals announced

Published on: 19 March 2020

Characters address the importance of friendships and family bonds in books across the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway 16-strong list. The continued popularity of verse is reflected across both Medals and the shortlist features three debut offerings alongside previous winner Levi Pinfold.

Shortlisted titles for the 2020 Kate Greenaway Medal

Today (Thursday 19th March 2020), the eight-strong shortlists for the prestigious CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals, the UK’s oldest book awards for children and young people, are revealed. Selected by volunteer Youth Librarians from longlists of 20 books per Medal, these titles reflect the very best in children’s writing and illustration
published in the UK.

With books promoting environmentalism, acceptance, kindness and bravery, the Awards’ mission ‘to inspire and empower the next generation to shape a better world through books and reading’ is mirrored across this year’s list.

The 2020 shortlists are as follows:

2020 CILIP Carnegie Medal shortlist (alphabetical by author surname):

• The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta, illustrated by Anshika Khullar (Hachette Children's Group)
• Nowhere on Earth by Nick Lake (Hachette Children's Group) 
• Lark by Anthony McGowan (Barrington Stoke)
• Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay (Little Tiger)
• Lampie written and illustrated by Annet Schaap and translated by Laura Watkinson (Pushkin Children's Books)
• Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black by Marcus Sedgwick and Julian Sedgwick, illustrated by Alexis Deacon (Walker Books)
• On the Come Up by Angie Thomas (Walker Books)
• Girl. Boy. Sea. by Chris Vick (Head of Zeus)

2020 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal shortlist (alphabetical by illustrator surname):

• You're Snug with Me illustrated by Poonam Mistry and written by Chitra Soundar (Lantana Publishing)
• The Iron Man illustrated by Chris Mould and written by Ted Hughes (Faber & Faber)
• The Suitcase written and illustrated by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros (Nosy Crow)
• The Undefeated illustrated by Kadir Nelson and written by Kwame Alexander (Andersen Press)
• The Dam illustrated by Levi Pinfold and written by David Almond (Walker Books)
• Mary and Frankenstein illustrated by Júlia Sardà and written by Linda Bailey (Andersen Press)
• Tales from the Inner City written and illustrated by Shaun Tan (Walker Books)
• Child of St Kilda written and illustrated by Beth Waters (Child's Play)

Julia Hale, Chair, CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals judging panel, comments:

“It’s a pleasure to present this dynamic and thought-provoking shortlist, which seems prescient of children and young people’s concerns today. Although each book is uniquely original, there are some commonalities that have emerged. Survival, the environment and the persisting inequalities and prejudices in our world today were themes that came through strongly. As a positive response to these challenges, the shortlists offer solace by displaying the awesome beauty of the natural world, human determination and courage, kindness and support which were frequent touchstones throughout these remarkable books. 

We are so looking forward to sharing them with the shadowing groups across the UK and internationally as there is something here for every reader, to provoke much discussion and sheer reading enjoyment.”

The winners for both the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals 2020 will be announced on Wednesday 17th June 2020 at a special daytime event at The British Library, hosted by University Challenge star and CILIP Library Champion, Bobby Seagull. 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.