Carnegie Medal in Literature

The Carnegie Medal in Literature was established in the UK in 1936 in honour of Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. It is awarded to an outstanding book for children and young adult readers. Nominated books must be written in English and should first have been published in the UK during the previous year. The Carnegie judging panel consists of 13 children's librarians from the Youth Libraries Group of CILIP, and is thus similar to the American Newbery medal. Nominated books are also read by students from many schools who send feedback to the judging panel. CILIP also recognizes excellence in illustration, with the Kate Greenaway Medal, which is similar to the American Caldecott medal.

The award is announced in the July following the year of publication. The winner receives a golden medal and £500 worth of books to donate to a public or school library.

The original rules stated that an author could only win the Medal once. This rule was later changed to enable subsequent work by the same author to be included for consideration.


List of winners

(note that years refer to the publication date of the books - the medal was awarded the following year)

2006 Meg Rosoff, Just in Case
2005 Mal Peet, Tamar
2004 Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions
2003 Jennifer Donnelly, A Gathering Light, Bloomsbury
2002 Sharon Creech, Ruby Holler, Bloomsbury
2001 Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, Doubleday
2000 Beverley Naidoo, The Other Side of Truth, Puffin
1999 Aidan Chambers, Postcards From No Man's Land, Bodley Head
1998 David Almond, Skellig, Hodder
1997 Tim Bowler, River Boy, OUP
1996 Melvin Burgess, Junk, Andersen Press
1995 Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials: Book 1 Northern Lights, Scholastic
1994 Theresa Breslin, Whispers in the Graveyard, Methuen
1993 Robert Swindells, Stone Cold, H Hamilton
1992 Anne Fine, Flour Babies, H Hamilton
1991 Berlie Doherty, Dear Nobody, H Hamilton
1990 Gillian Cross, Wolf, OUP
1989 Anne Fine, Goggle-eyes, H Hamilton
1988 Geraldine McCaughrean, A Pack of Lies, OUP
1987 Susan Price, The Ghost Drum, Faber
1986 Berlie Doherty, Granny was a Buffer Girl, Methuen
1985 Kevin Crossley-Holland, Storm, Heinemann
1984 Margaret Mahy, The Changeover, Dent
1983 Jan Mark, Handles, Kestrel
1982 Margaret Mahy, The Haunting, Dent
1981 Robert Westall, The Scarecrows, Chatto & Windus
1980 Peter Dickinson, City of Gold, Gollancz
1979 Peter Dickinson, Tulku, Gollancz
1978 David Rees, The Exeter Blitz, H Hamilton
1977 Gene Kemp, The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler, Faber
1976 Jan Mark, Thunder and Lightnings, Kestrel
1975 Robert Westall, The Machine Gunners, Macmillan
1974 Mollie Hunter, The Stronghold, H Hamilton
1973 Penelope Lively, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, Heinemann
1972 Richard Adams, Watership Down, Rex Collings
1971 Ivan Southall, Josh, Angus & Robertson
1970 Leon Garfield & Edward Blishen, illustrated by Charles Keeping, The God Beneath the Sea, Longman
1969 K. M. Peyton, The Edge of the Cloud, OUP
1968 Rosemary Harris, The Moon in the Cloud, Faber
1967 Alan Garner, The Owl Service, Collins
1966 Prize withheld as no book considered suitable
1965 Philip Turner, The Grange at High Force, OUP
1964 Sheena Porter, Nordy Bank, OUP
1963 Hester Burton, Time of Trial, OUP
1962 Pauline Clarke, The Twelve and the Genii, Faber
1961 Lucy M. Boston, A Stranger at Green Knowe, Faber
1960 Dr I. W. Cornwall, The Making of Man, Phoenix House
1959 Rosemary Sutcliff, The Lantern Bearers, OUP
1958 Philippa Pearce, Tom's Midnight Garden, OUP
1957 William Mayne, A Grass Rope, OUP
1956 C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Bodley Head
1955 Eleanor Farjeon, The Little Bookroom, OUP
1954 Ronald Welch (Felton Ronald Oliver), Knight Crusader, OUP
1953 Edward Osmond, A Valley Grows Up
1952 Mary Norton, The Borrowers, Dent
1951 Cynthia Harnett, The Woolpack, Methuen
1950 Elfrida Vipont Foulds, The Lark on the Wing, OUP
1949 Agnes Allen, The Story of Your Home, Faber
1948 Richard Armstrong, Sea Change, Dent
1947 Walter De La Mare, Collected Stories for Children
1946 Elizabeth Goudge, The Little White Horse, University of London Press
1945 Prize withheld as no book considered suitable
1944 Eric Linklater, The Wind on the Moon, Macmillan
1943 Prize withheld as no book considered suitable
1942 'B.B.' (D. J. Watkins-Pitchford), The Little Grey Men, Eyre & Spottiswoode
1941 Mary Treadgold, We Couldn't Leave Dinah, Cape
1940 Kitty Barne, Visitors from London, Dent
1939 Eleanor Doorly, Radium Woman, Heinemann
1938 Noel Streatfeild, The Circus is Coming, Dent
1937 Eve Garnett, The Family from One End Street, Muller
1936 Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post, Cape

Shortlists

(note that years refer to the publication date of the books - the medal was awarded the following year)

2006
Kevin Brooks, The Road of the Dead, The Chicken House
Siobhan Dowd, A Swift Pure Cry, David Ficking Books
Anne Fine, The Road of Bones, Doubleday
Ally Kennen, Beast, Marion Lloyd Books
Meg Rosoff, Just in Case, Penguin
Marcus Sedgwick, My Swordhand is Singing, Orion

2005
David Almond, Clay, Hodder Children's Books
Frank Cottrell Boyce, Framed, Macmillan Children's Books
Jan Mark, Turbulence, Hodder Children's Books
Geraldine McCaughrean, The White Darkness, Oxford University Press
Mal Peet, Tamar, Walker Books

2004
Anne Cassidy, Looking for JJ, Scholastic Children's Books
Gennifer Choldenko, Al Capone Does My Shirts, Bloomsbury
Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions, Macmillan
Sharon Creech, Heartbeat, Bloomsbury
Eva Ibbotson, The Star of Kazan, Macmillan
Philip Pullman, The Scarecrow and his Servant, Doubleday

2003
David Almond, The Fire Eaters, Hodder Children's Books
Jennifer Donnelly, A Gathering Light, Bloomsbury
Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, David Fickling Books
Elizabeth Laird, The Garbage King, Macmillan
Michael Morpurgo, Private Peaceful, Collins
Linda Newbery, Sisterland, David Fickling Books

2002
Kevin Brooks, Martyn Pig, The Chicken House
Sharon Creech, Ruby Holler, Bloomsbury Children's Books
Anne Fine, Up On Clound Nine, Corgi Books
Alan Gibbons, The Edge, Dolphin Paperbacks
Lian Hearn, Across the Nightingale Floor, Macmillan Children's Books
Linda Newbery, The Shell House, David Fickling Books
Marcus Sedgwick, The Dark Horse, Dolphin Paperbacks

2001
Sharon Creech, Love that Dog, Bloomsbury Children's Books
Peter Dickinson, The Ropemaker, Macmillan Children's Books
Eva Ibbotson, Journey to the River Sea, Macmillan Children's Books
Elizabeth Laird, Jake's Tower, Macmillan Children's Books
Geraldine McCaughrean, The Kite Rider, Oxford University Press
Geraldine McCaughrean, Stop the Train, Oxford University Press
Terry Pratchett, Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, Doubleday

2000
David Almond, Heaven Eyes, Hodder Children's Books
Melvin Burgess, The Ghost Behind the Wall, Andersen Press
Sharon Creech, The Wanderer, Macmillan Children's Books
Jamila Gavin, Coram Boy, Mammoth
Adéle Geras, Troy, Scholastic David Fickling Books
Alan Gibbons, Shadow of the Minotaur, Orion
Beverley Naidoo, The Other Side of Truth, Puffin Books
Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass, Scholastic David Fickling Books

1999
David Almond, Kit's Wilderness, Hodder Children's Books
Bernard Ashley, Little Soldier, Orchard Books
Aidan Chambers, Postcards from No Man's Land, Bodley Head Children's Books
Susan Cooper, King of Shadows, Bodley Head Children's Books
Gillian Cross, Tightrope, Oxford University Press
Jenny Nimmo, The Rinaldi Ring, Mammoth
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Bloomsbury Children's Books
Jacqueline Wilson, The Illustrated Mum, Doubleday

1998
David Almond, Skellig
Robert Cormier, Heroes
Peter Dickinson, The Kin
Chris d'Lacey, Fly, Cherokee, fly
Susan Price, The Sterkarm Handshake

1997
Malorie Blackman, Pig-heart Boy
Henrietta Branford, Fire, Bed and Bone
Tim Bowler, River Boy
Geraldine McCaughrean, Forever X
Philip Ridley, Scribbleboy
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Theresa Tomlinson, Meet me by the Steel Men

1996
Melvin Burgess, Junk
Michael Coleman, Weirdo's War
Anne Fine, The Tulip Touch
Elizabeth Laird, Secret Friends
Terry Pratchett, Johnny and the Bomb
Philip Pullman, Clockwork, or All Wound Up
Chloe Rayban, Love in Cyberia
Jacqueline Wilson, Bad Girls

1995
Susan Gates, Raider
Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials: Book 1 Northern Lights
Jacqueline Wilson, Double Act

1994
Lynne Reid Banks, Broken Bridge
Theresa Breslin, Whispers in the Graveyard
Berlie Doherty, Wills and old Miss Annie
Lesley Howarth, Maphead
Michael Morpurgo, Arthur High King of Britain
Jenny Nimmo, Griffin's Castle
Robert Westall, A Time of Fire
Jacqueline Wilson, The Bed and Breakfast Star

1993
Melvin Burgess, The Baby and Fly Pie
Anne Merrick, Someone came Knocking
Jenny Nimmo, The Stone Mouse
Robert Swindells, Stone Cold

70th Anniversary Carnegie of Carnegies (2007)

For the 70th Anniversary of the Carnegie Medal CILIP is running an online poll to find the nation's favourite Carnegie Medal winning book of all time. The poll was launched on 20th April, and the winner - Philip Pullman's Northern Lights - was announced on 21st June at the British Library.

The shortlist of ten medal winning novels was as follows (the bracketed date refers to the year of first publication):


David Almond, Skellig, (1998)
Melvin Burgess, Junk, (1996)
Kevin Crossley-Holland, Storm, (1985)
Jennifer Donnelly, A Gathering Light, (2003)
Alan Garner, The Owl Service, (1967)
Eve Garnett, The Family From One End Street, (1937)
Mary Norton, The Borrowers, (1952)
Philippa Pearce, Tom's Midnight Garden, (1958)
Philip Pullman, Northern Lights, (1995)
Robert Westall, The Machine-Gunners, (1981)