[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-kate-greenaway-carnegie-childrens-book-award":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"In London's BAFTA theatre, a team of librarian judges awarded the coveted CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal for picture book illustrations and Carnegie Medal for novels to illustrator Freya Blackwood for \u003Cb>\u003Ci>Harry and Hopper\u003C/i>\u003C/b> and writer \u003Cb>Neil Gaiman\u003C/b> for \u003Cb>\u003Ci>The Graveyard Book\u003C/i>\u003C/b>. Here's the event review I did for \u003Ca href=\"http://www.writeaway.org.uk\">Write Away\u003C/a>, with added links and photos! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/cg10_roberts_schwz_rddell-1895a2a678.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>Greenaway and Carnegie shortlisted illustrators (and writers) \u003Ca href=\"http://www.walker.co.uk/The-Dunderheads-9781406326048.aspx\">David Roberts\u003C/a> (\u003Ci>The Dunderheads\u003C/i>), \u003Ca href=\"http://www.vivianeschwarz.co.uk\">Viviane Schwarz\u003C/a> (\u003Ci>There are Cats in this Book\u003C/i>), \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Riddell\">Chris Riddell\u003C/a> (\u003Ci>The Graveyard Book\u003C/i>)\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\nIn a video about all the shortlisted Kate Greenaway illustrators, a judge summed up \u003Ca href=\"http://www.freyablackwood.net\">Freya Blackwood\u003C/a>'s book in three words: poignant, emotional, powerful. Blackwood thanked \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Wild\">Margaret Wild\u003C/a> for her powerful text about a boy coming to terms with the death of his dog. She said she felt the award was particularly special because it was judged by children's librarians, who understand these books better than anyone. \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/308702.html\">\u003Cb>(You can read my interview with Freya Blackwood about Harry and Hopper here!)\u003C/b>\u003C/a>\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/cg10_kilgour_blackwood-49ce69b251.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>Greenaway winner Freya Blackwood with illustrator \u003Ca href=\"http://heatherkilgour.com\">Heather Kilgour\u003C/a> (left), a New Zealand friend from their days of working as prop creators on the \u003C/i>Lord of the Rings\u003Ci> film set\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://www.neilgaiman.com/\">Neil Gaiman\u003C/a> thanked the illustrators for the two different editions of his book, Dave McKean and Chris Riddell both of whom were shortlisted for the Greenaway prize). Despite having won a huge gamut of recent prizes, Gaiman looked genuinely moved by the honour, saying it had been the most important to him because it was the first one he'd ever heard of: reading 'Carnegie Medal Winner' on the covers of the Narnia books. He credited key influences to \u003Ci>The Graveyard Book\u003C/i> - Rudyard Kipling's \u003Ci>The Jungle Book\u003C/i> \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/302910.html\">(I recently visited Kipling's house!)\u003C/a> and Pamela Travers' \u003Ci>Mary Poppins\u003C/i>, and thanking his mentors Terry Pratchett and Diana Wynn-Jones.  Gaiman finished with this:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ci>Most of all, in this age of austerity into which we're currently tumbling, I wanted to say this: Libraries are our future. More children are borrowing books from libraries than ever. Closing libraries can be seen as an easy way for a local authority to save a little money... and it is. But it is a terrible, terrible mistake, as we have recently begun to learn, to steal from the future to pay for today.\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\n\u003Clj-embed id=\"243\"/>\\r\n\u003Ci>Once again, I forgot I had a video recorder until after he started speaking - doh! - but here's most of Neil Gaiman's acceptance speech. (\u003Ca href=\"http://s92.photobucket.com/albums/l27/jabberworks/Other%20media/?action=view&current=gaiman2_carneg10.mp4\">Direct video link if the image doesn't come up\u003C/a>)\u003C/i>\\r\n\u003C!--more Lots more photos and links under the cut!-->\\r\n\\r\nTwo schoolgirls named Jenny and Chloe joined the judges in awarding the Carnegie Medal to writer Neil Gaiman, presenting him with a braille edition of \u003Ci>The Graveyard Book\u003C/i>. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/cg10_gaiman_braille-3134adc7ba.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nPresenter and radio host James Naughtie thanked the three schools shadowing the judging process (sponsored by Peters Bookselling Services). He reminisced about one of his own favourite childhood books, \u003Ci>Georgie the Ghost\u003C/i>, and how he found the book in a shop in New York 50 years later and was moved to find that he could remember every picture. He praised libraries for putting books into the hands of readers, books which are meant to be 'looked at, smelt and felt, not just switched on'. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/cg10_shortlist_shadows-791ebf2554.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>Shortlisted writers and illustrators and schoolchildren from the shadowing programme\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\nCILIP Chief Executive Bob McKee marked his last of 11 years in this role with hard words for the government and their plans for budget cuts, condemning them for 'thinking libraries can be run by volunteers... Nonsense, say I'. He argued that we need 'proper libraries, funded by the public,  free for users, stuff with paid professionals... I'd rather borrow something from a librarian than a banker.' He thanked YLG Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Co-ordinator Sue Roe, who was also stepping down from her role. McKee listed three reasons why he had become a librarian: fulfillment from work, friendship from colleagues and the contribution this work and his colleagues make to society in enriching people's lives. Librarians, he said 'may be unassuming, but don't ever assume we're unimportant. Proper librarians with proper libraries can change people's lives for the better.' \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/cg10_naughtie-e32c6e89ef.jpg\" width=\"310\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/cg10_mckee-a549e5f444.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>Presenters Jim Naughtie and Bob McKee\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\nChair of the CILIP Youth Libraries Group and 2010 judges presented the awards with CILIP President Biddy Fisher, mentioning that the Kate Greenaway Medal included the Colin Mears Award with a cheque for £5000. Colin Mears was a Worthing-based accountant and children's book collector who bequested the organisation with funds for the award and his collection for a gallery and museum.\\r\n\\r\nOkay, that was the end of my review. Then I just got to meet a lot of the fab people there!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/cg10_reeve-a7142e0fbc.jpg\"> \\r\n\u003Ci>\u003Ca href=\"http://www.philip-reeve.com/\">Philip Reeve\u003C/a>, Carnegie shortlisted for Fever Crumb\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/cg10_judge_bsmith-1df0581506.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>Award judge Julia Hale and Greenaway shortlisted \u003Ca href=\"http://www.illustrationweb.com/illustrators/home_large.asp?artist_id=3314\">Grahame Baker-Smith\u003C/a> (Leon and the Place Between)\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/cg10_sedgwick_odedina-09f1abde10.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>Carnegie-shortlisted writer \u003Ca href=\"http://www.marcussedgwick.com\">Marcus Sedgwick\u003C/a> signing copies of Revolver (Neil Gaiman's Bloomsbury editor, Sarah Odedina, is the blond in the background)\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/cg10_philbeer_mcintyre-c338fe0a24.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>\u003Ca href=\"http://www.philbeer.co.uk/\">\u003Ca href=\"http://www.philbeer.co.uk/\">Phil Beer\u003C/a>\u003C/a> and me. I was chuffed to spot this fiddler from the folk group Show of Hands, whom I've seen a couple times in concert. His partner, Carnegie-shortlisted \u003Ca href=\"http://www.juliehearn.co.uk\">Julie Hearn\u003C/a> for \u003Ci>Rowan the Strange\u003C/i>, rolled her eyes, saying that people are always spotting him at her book events, but never spot her at his.\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\nAfter the reception, Ben and Lucy at Walker Books kindly invited me to come along with them to \u003Ca href=\"http://www.fortnumandmason.com/the-parlour.aspx\">Fortnum & Mason\u003C/a> for the most amazing ice cream sundaes. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/cg10_schwarz-2ceee302cf.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>Viviane Schwarz and her well-deserved 'Beekeeper' sundae\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/cg10_norland_deacon-fa95b1e457.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>'There are Cats in This Book' designer Ben Norland and Alexis Deacon\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\nWe got REALLY into our food, and Viv and I even started making amazing champagne ice cream floats. Alexis said, it was like 'the coke table of children's books'. What a great industry.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/cg10_patrick_ness-f0ff31daab.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>\u003Ca href=\"http://www.patrickness.com/\">Patrick Ness\u003C/a>, Carnegie-shortlisted for The Ask and the Answer\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/cg10_ingrams_norland_deacon-44d3d3f862.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>Lucy Ingram, Ben Norland, Alexis Deacon\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/home/index.php\">\u003Ci>The CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Children's Book Awards website\u003C/i>\u003C/a>\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cb>**NEWS FLASH!**\u003C/b> Hurrah! I just got a call this morning from David Fickling Headquarters, saying the first advance copies of my DFC Library book \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/new/vernlettuce-book.html\">Vern and Lettuce\u003C/a> have just arrived! Matilda on the front desk says they look brilliant, and she'll send me copies to arrive tomorrow morning, just as my parents arrive from the airport!\\r\n\u003Cb>...Okay, my goal is to get a COMIC BOOK (call it 'graphic novel' if you like) winning one of these prizes next year! Is this even conceivably possible? YES.\u003C/b> (Mine would be good, but another would do, too!)","2010-06-25T12:10:00.000Z","kate-greenaway-carnegie-childrens-book-award",[],"kate greenaway & carnegie children's book award",1776628718440]