The Carnegie Medal is a book award that is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people. Previous winners include A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, One by Sarah Crossan and Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman. Each year hundreds of titles are nominated and a shortlist of 6-8 books is created. This year the shortlisted books were:
Wed Wabbit by Lisa Evans
After the Fire by Will Hill
Where the World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean
Rook by Anthony McGowan
Release by Patrick Ness
Saint Death by Marcus Sedgwick
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk
From otherworldly quests to social justice, the shortlist covered a wide range of genres and subjects, and our reading group ‘The Page Turners’ shadowed the award by reading the shortlisted books and choosing their own favourites.
As well as writing reviews and talking about the books, we took part in a number of activities during the shadowing process including creating our own Wed Wabbits (Red Rabbits) out of socks, designing a mood board to represent Where the World Ends and writing a newspaper report based on the events of The Hate U Give.
The shadowing process came to a conclusion on the 18th June, when we joined other Norfolk Schools for a celebration event and to find out who was selected as the winner. The celebration event was held at Long Stratton High School and we were joined by reading groups from Litcham High School, Caister Academy and Wymondham High Academy. When we arrived we were put into groups with pupils from other schools to discuss the books. It was great to hear the diversity of opinions and put forward our arguments for our favourites. At the end of the morning we voted for the Norfolk favourite – After the Fire by Will Hill won by a landslide, however unfortunately the official vote went to Where the World Ends instead.
We asked Harriett in Year 9 her thoughts about the shadowing process who told us:
“I really enjoyed shadowing the award and reading different kinds of books and it was great to meet new students at the shadowing event. My favourites were After the Fire and The Hate U Give. I was surprised by the winner and think either of these books should have won instead.”
