Schools shadow prize shortlists

The shortlists for the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals have been announced and thousands of young people around the UK will now 'shadow' the awards.

The books for teenagers included in the Carnegie Medal shortlist include: Wed Wabbit by Lissa Evans (David Fickling Books) After the Fire by Will Hill (Usborne) Where the World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean (Usborne) Rook by Anthony McGowan (Barrington Stoke) Release by Patrick Ness (Walker Books) Saint Death by Marcus Sedgwick (Orion) The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (Walker Books) Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk (Corgi) If Patrick Ness wins, it will be the first time an author has ever won the award three times as his earlier novels Monsters of Men and A Monster Calls have each won the medal. The Medals are the UK's oldest book awards for children and young people, and are judged by children's librarians. Hundreds of schools across the country will begin to shadow the awards and the winners will be announced on Monday 18th June 2018. This year Patrick Ness is in the running for his third Carnegie Medal win with Release. He would be the first author to secure a hat-trick in the Medal's 81-year history. Ness has already been shortlisted for all seven of his children's books and won twice, with A Monster Calls (2012) and Monsters of Men (2011). True stories and contemporary issues inspire several titles across both shortlists. On the Carnegie shortlist, historical events are reimagined in Where the World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean, a novel set around a true survival story from 18th century St Kilda; After the Fire by Will Hill, which takes as its premise the siege of US federal agencies on Seventh-day Adventist sect, the Branch Davidians; and Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk, a book inspired by events that unfolded on Penikese island, Massachusetts once home to a leper colony in the 1920s. More recent global events are reflected in Angie Thomas' powerful debut The Hate U Give, which intersperses family with the ethical concerns fuelling the Black Lives Matter campaign, whilst Marcus Sedgwick's timely novel Saint Death looks at migration along the border of Mexico and the United States of America. Rites of passage appear on both shortlists, starting with the Carnegie Medals'inclusion of Release by Patrick Ness, a coming-of-age novel based on the author's experience of growing up gay in a deeply religious family, and Rook by Anthony McGowan, the third instalment chronicling the lives and growing pains of brothers Kenny and Nicky. The winners of the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals 2018 will be announced on Monday 18th June 2018.