21 June 2018
Our first foray into shadowing the judging of the CILIP Carnegie Medal has proved a very positive experience for all involved. The Carnegie Medal is awarded by children's librarians for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people, published the previous year.
The shortlist of eight titles was announced in March and our group of Year 8 and 9 pupils sprang into action, reading all the books on the shortlist over a period of three months. Meetings at Tuesday lunchtimes in the Library saw us discussing the books, watching author videos and posting reviews on our own page on the Carnegie shadowing website: click here to visit page
After reading the shortlisted books, the group had two favourite front runners, ‘After the Fire’ by Will Hill and ‘The Hate You Give' by Angie Thomas. We were sure one of them would win when the announcement was made at a special presentation ceremony at The British Library last Monday. The group were able to watch a live stream of the ceremony, but were rather shocked when our least favourite book, ‘Where the World Ends’ by Geraldine McCaughrean, won!
However, we still all enjoyed the experience so much that we will be joining the judging of the five titles on The Southern Schools Book Award shortlist in the autumn. Any girl in Year 7, 8 and 9 is very welcome to join the group.
Ms Amanda Owens, Library Manager