Beverley Naidoo, Candy Gourlay and Louisa Reid have all received nominations for the 2024 Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing.
Nominations have been announced on 6th November 2023 for the 2024 Yoto Carnegies, the UK’s longest-running and best-loved children’s book awards. 69 books are in contention for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing which is awarded to a book written in English for children and young people that sparks an outstanding reading experience.
Among the 69, is Beverley Naidoo’s latest title, The Children of the Stone City (HarperCollins) a thrilling and resonant novel about the power of young people and children striving for change in the face of injustice. Beverley previously won the Carnegie Medal in 2000 for The Other Side of Truth (Puffin).
Candy Gourlay’s Wild Song (David Fickling Books) is also nominated this year. A brilliant YA sequel to Bone Talk, Wild Song is the compelling story of Luki, a young Filipino girl in 1904, and her journey to understanding herself and her place in the world. Wild Song has already received critical acclaim, described by The Observer as “A powerhouse of a novel” and named The Times Children’s Book of the Week as “A shocking, refreshingly different coming-of-age story”.
Activist, written by Louisa Reid, is also nominated for a 2024 Carnegie medal. Written in powerful verse, Activist is a timely novel about sexual abuse allegations within a school and the need to act and stand up for what is right. Activist, described by the Guardian as “a raw, unflinching verse novel […] filled with white-hot, justified rage”, is the latest of Louisa’s YA verse novels after Gloves Off and Wrecked (all published by Guppy Books).
Each book nominated for the Carnegie Medal is read by every member of the judging panel which this year includes 12 experienced librarians from CILIP’s Youth Libraries Group. The longlist will be announced on 13 February 2024, followed by the shortlist on 13 March 2024. Winners will be announced on 20 June 2024.
For more information about the Yoto Carnegies 2024, click here.