The Yoto Carnegies, the UK’s longest running book awards for children and young people, announced their 2024 shortlists at the London Book Fair on March 13.

The Yoto Carnegies celebrate outstanding achievement in children’s writing and illustration and are unique in being judged by librarians, with respective Shadowers’ Choice Medals voted for by children and young people.  

The shortlists have been whittled down from the 36 longlisted titles by the expert judging panel which includes 12 librarians from CILIP: the library and information association’s Youth Libraries Group. 

Only one book is described in the press release as having predominant fantastic elements, writing medal finalist The Boy Lost in the Maze by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Kate Milner, which incorporates the myth of the Minotaur.  

The 2024 Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration shortlist

• The Tree and the River by Aaron Becker (Walker Books) 
• April’s Garden by Catalina Echeverri, written by Isla McGuckin (Graffeg) 
• Lost by Mariajo Ilustrajo (Quarto) 
• The Wilderness by Steve McCarthy (Walker Books) 
• To the Other Side by Erika Meza (Hachette Children’s Group) 
• The Midnight Panther by Poonam Mistry (Bonnier Books UK) 
• The Bowerbird by Catherine Rayner, written by Julia Donaldson (Macmillan Children’s Books) 
• The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish by Chloe Savage (Walker Books)  

The 2024 Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing shortlist

• The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander (Andersen Press) 
• The Song Walker by Zillah Bethell (Usborne) 
• Away with Words by Sophie Cameron (Little Tiger) 
• The Boy Lost in the Maze by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Kate Milner  
  (Otter-Barry Books) 
• Choose Love by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Petr Horáček (Graffeg) 
• Crossing the Line by Tia Fisher (Bonnier Books UK) 
• Safiyyah’s War by Hiba Noor Khan (Andersen Press) 
• Steady for This by Nathanael Lessore (Bonnier Books UK) 

The winners will be announced and celebrated on Thursday, June 20 at a live and streamed ceremony at the Cambridge Theatre.  

The winners will each receive a specially commissioned golden medal and a £5,000 Colin Mears Award cash prize. The winners of the Shadowers’ Choice Medals – voted for and awarded by the children and young people – will also be presented at the ceremony. They will also receive a golden medal and, for the first time this year, £500 worth of books to donate to a library of their choice.

[Based on a press release.]