It's medal time again

The shortlist for the 2014 Carnegie Medal has just been released. This medal is awarded for the best children/teenage novel in the UK. It has been running for 77 years and past winners include C.S Lewis (The Last Battle 1956),  Neil Gaiman (The Graveyard Book 2010) and Patrick Ness (A Monster Calls 2012) The awards were named in honour of Andrew Carnegie a man of great charity. He had made a fortune in the steel industry in the USA, although he was Scottish by birth. He was a great believer in reading especially for children and in his lifetime paid for over 2800 libraries to be set up over the world. 

In America the best children's book is awarded the Newbery Medal, whilst in Australia we have the CBCA best book award (Children's Book Council Award).  The shortlist for these last 2 awards have not yet been announced.

Reading books that win awards or even ones that get shortlisted is a great way to make sure you are reading a book that is good quality and well written. The books that are chosen are usually the best in their field and face a lot of competition to make it to the final.

The list for the Carnegie medal this year is an unusual one. More than half the books deal with kidnap and or captivity, not a cheery subject but all are powerfully written and worth reading especially for the older readers 13+

You can read reviews of all these books online here