The Carnegies 2026 shortlists announced

The Carnegies book award shortlists were announced today at the London Book Fair, the signal for thousands of schools around the country and abroad to launch their shadowing groups in the run-up to the announcement of the final winners on 23 June.

The Carnegies awards for writing and illustrating children's books, the UK's longest running and most prestigious book awards for children and young people, celebrate outstanding reading experiences in books for children and young people.

Shadowing The Carnegies

The awards are judged by librarians, with the Shadowers' Choice Medals voted for by thousands of reading groups in schools and libraries in the UK and around the world, who shadow the judging process and choose their own winners.

Schools can now register for the Shadowing Scheme. Find out more about Shadowing The Carnegies. Official supplier Scholastic is providing a 35% discount on Shortlist and Longlist packs, or digital copies of the books are available via the official provider, Sora, including free digital copies of the Shortlisted titles. 

This year, The Carnegies is also enabling schools to shadow the longlisted titles, as part of a trial to widen engagement with the awards.

Current themes

Some of the main themes in this year's shortlisted titles for both medals for writing and illustration include identity, belonging, relationships, and the meaning of home, reflecting many of the themes being explored currently by writers, with storytelling ranging from the deeply personal to the historic and mythical.

The Medal for Writing shortlisted titles features subversive storytelling, reimagined folklore and inventive verse and chronology, whilst the Medal for Illustration showcases a range of artistic styles from typography to kirigami, the Japanese art of paper cutting and folding, with two graphic novels also shortlisted for the Medal for Illustration.

Shortlisted authors

There are seven debut authors on the Medal for Illustration shortlist, while a number of authors are making a return visit to the shortlist, including including previous winners Patrick Ness, Jason Reynolds, Katya Balen and Tia Fisher. Writers and illustrators from around the UK including Birmingham, Dumfries, London, Norwich, and Suffolk have been shortlisted for both awards.

Among publishers, Walker Books leads the field for publisher nominations with three titles shortlisted across both Medals, followed by Andersen Press, Faber & Faber, and Lantana who each have two titles shortlisted.

The 2026 Carnegies Shortlists

16 books have been shortlisted in total, with eight in each category for the Carnegie Medal for Writing and the Carnegie Medal for Illustration. These have been whittled down from 37 longlisted titles by the judging panel, which includes 14 children's and youth librarians from CILIP's Youth Libraries Group. The awards aim to spark a lifelong passion for reading by connecting more children with books that will change lives.

The 2026 Carnegie Medal for Writing shortlist (alphabetical by author surname):

Ghostlines by Katya Balen (Bloomsbury Children's Books)

Not Going to Plan by Tia Fisher (Hot Key Books)

Popcorn by Rob Harrell (Piccadilly Press)

The Boy I Love by William Hussey (Andersen Press)

Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody by Patrick Ness, illustrated by Tim Miller (Walker)

Wolf Siren by Beth O'Brien (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Twenty-Four Seconds from Now by Jason Reynolds (Faber & Faber)

Birdie by J. P. Rose (Andersen Press)

The 2026 Carnegie Medal for Illustration shortlist (alphabetical by illustrator surname):

The Playdate by Clara Dackenberg, written by Uje Brandelius, translated by Nichola Smalley (Lantana)

The Endless Sea by Linh Dao, written by Chi Thai (Walker)

Lord of the Flies: The Graphic Novel illustrated & adapted by Aimée de Jongh, written by William Golding (Faber & Faber)

The Sleeper Train by Baljinder Kaur, written by Mick Jackson (Walker)

Wildful by Kengo Kurimoto (Pushkin Children's Books)

Freedom Braids by Oboh Moses, written by Monique Duncan (Lantana)

The Paper Bridge by Seng Soun Ratanavanh, written by Joelle Veyrenc, translated by Katy Lockwood-Holmes (Floris Books)

Wiggling Words by Kate Rolfe (Two Hoots)

Stella Hine, chair of judges for The Carnegies 2026, said that the shortlists "meet young readers where they are, asking searching questions about identity, belonging, community and how we respond as life changes around us". Thee shortlists, she added, offer a "wide scope of everyday life", including stories about friendship, wellbeing, courage, consent, respectful relationships, and empathy in the face of prejudice. Innovation in form is particularly exciting in this year's shortlists, with "inventive verse and chronology, subversive storytelling and reimagined folklore, alongside more traditional narratives". 

Book packs for disadvantaged students

Scholastic, the official book supplier for the awards, is working with CILIP to donate shortlist packs to 10 schools in disadvantaged areas to allow them to also take part in the shadowing and widen the reach of engagement with the awards. Applications will be open from 23 - 30 March, with packs to be sent out immediately afterwards to the selected schools.

The Carnegies resources

The English and Media Centre (EMC) and the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) have developed engaging reading resources for each shortlisted book for schools shadowing the awards, including activity ideas and discussion prompts. The links to these resources can be found on the following pages:

Carnegie Medal for Writing Resources link

Carnegie Medal for Illustration Resources link

Judges reflect on the Shortlisted Titles

Medal for Writing shortlist : 

Patrick Ness's shortlisted title, Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody, is a 'laugh out loud funny' illustrated tale that is 'completely absurd but so clever' in the way it 'subverts' norms and narrative voice, and tells a unique story of anxiety, depression and friendship whilst 'advocating uniqueness and individuality'. Ness won the Carnegie Medal 14 years ago with A Monster Calls (2012).

Rob Harrell's illustrated young fiction novel, Popcorn also explores mental health. Told through the eyes of an anxious young boy on school photo day, Harrell offers a 'window into what someone with anxiety lives with' written with empathy, hope and humour.

Debut author Beth O'Brien, was inspired by Red Riding Hood to write her feminist reimagining, Wolf Siren. In this 'rich and layered' story, O'Brien uses 'beautiful and lyrical' language to transport readers to a small village and magical woodland filled with wolves and secrets.

The connection between a small community and nature is also particularly strong in Ghostlines, written by 2022 Medal for Writing and Shadower's Choice winner, Katya Balen. Set on a small island home to thousands of puffins and very few people, this is a 'compelling' story about what home means to different people.

Historical settings are prevalent this year, with William Hussey setting his Medal for Writing shortlisted title, The Boy I Love, in the WW1 trenches. Judges praised the sense of 'depth' and 'tension' in this 'outstanding' love story of two young men on the frontline.

A 1950s Yorkshire mining town is the setting of J.P. Rose's shortlisted novel, Birdie. Featuring a determined pit pony and an even more headstrong young girl, this 'affecting and emotional' story spotlights Birdie's struggle with racism and belonging as she moves to a new home.

Two YA novels on the writing shortlist focus on teen relationships. Former medal winner Jason Reynolds is shortlisted for Twenty-Four Seconds from Now, a story 'full of heart' about the moments leading up to a young man's loss of virginity. Told backwards in time from the tender moment, judges praised the 'fresh' framing device and 'skill' used to write a gentle moment so powerfully.

Another previous winner, Tia Fisher, has been shortlisted for her verse novel, Not Going to Plan. A powerful story about sexual consent and unplanned pregnancy, the judges praised the way Fisher constructed the poems and played with language to evoke emotion and highlight the characters' relationships.

Medal for Illustration shortlist:

Mental health is explored in Kengo Kurimoto's Medal for Illustration shortlisted book, Wildful, one of two graphic novels on the shortlist. Judges loved the 'filmic quality' Kurimoto has brought to his story of a young girl discovering the joy and magic of a hidden woodland near home, as she processes the grief of losing her grandmother.

The second graphic novel on the shortlist is Lord of the Flies, adapted and illustrated by Aimée de Jongh. The judges said reading this book is an 'uncomfortable experience but one you don't want to let go', praising de Jongh for her 'extremely strong and impactful' retelling of a much-loved classic.

Home is also explored in The Playdate, illustrated by Clara Duckenberg. On the surface, this is a story about a young girl excited to visit her friend for a playdate, but Duckenberg's illustrations reveal a 'multi-layered' secondary story that depicts a hardworking mother cleaning the friend's home, whilst the children are innocently unaware of the social divide.

Connection through journeys emerges as a theme in the Medal for Illustration shortlist this year. The journey to reach a neighbouring town in The Paper Bridge is innovatively explored by Seng Soun Ratanavanh using intricately detailed paper scenes that have been lit and photographed, providing an 'exquisite' and 'memorable' reading experience.

Linh Dao's striking visual contrasts between home and journey in The Endless Sea convey a poignant story of a refugee family traveling from Vietnam. Judges loved the 'highly emotive' colour palette, and use of light and dark silhouettes to build the mood. In Baljinder Kaur's illustrations for The Sleeper Train, there is a 'vibrant Indian twist' to the colour palette and distinctive borders used throughout, creating a real sense of 'movement and journey' and an 'excellent visual experience' of a young girl's train journey across India.

Black identity in history is explored in Oboh Moses' debut, Freedom Braids, a picture book about the liberation of enslaved African women during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Moses uses his bold and vivid digital illustration style to portray fear alongside the love of a community of women with great 'impact and power'.

Kate Rolfe, who was shortlisted for her debut picture book in 2025, also uses typography in her 2026 Medal for Illustration shortlisted title, Wiggling Words. Offering an insight into dyslexia, Rolfe's illustrations develop from panicked chaos to ordered creativity, celebrating the boundless potential of neurodiversity through typography and 'striking' high contrast colours.

Winners' announcement

The winners will be announced and celebrated on Tuesday 23 June at a live and streamed ceremony at the Cambridge Theatre, home of the Royal Shakespeare Company's award-winning Matilda The Musical, and hosted by author and illustrator Catherine Rayner.

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