The 2009 winners of the prestigious CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals have been announced.
Siobhan Dowd won the Carnegie Medal for her final novel, Bog Child , the first time the medal has been awarded to an author posthumously.
Bog Child is a coming-of-age tale about a boy growing up during the troubles in Northern Ireland. One day when digging for peat, he unearths the body of a perfectly preserved Iron Age girl and as her tragic story unfolds in his dreams, we learn more of his own burgeoning love life and hopes for the future.
Sadly, Siobhan Dowd died two years ago and the award was accepted on her behalf by her three sisters and publisher David Fickling, who commented:
‘This is the greatest endorsement of the quality of Siobhan’s writing yet...the CILIP Carnegie Medal has real integrity and is unique amongst literary awards: there is no prize money; it does not reflect the commercial interests of publishers and book-sellers; it does not depend on votes or the celebrity status of the author. Judged by librarians who spend their lives connecting young people to good writing it is the purest recognition of quality writing for children.’
Read an interview from our archive with Siobhan Dowd.
Catherine Rayner, one of the Big Picture campaign's Best New Illustrators, won the Kate Greenaway Medal for Harris Finds his Feet, a tale of a small hare with big feet, who learns to be independent for the first time.
Joy Court, Chair of the CILIP Kate Greenaway judging panel commented: 'Harris is a triumph, from the way he moves and his expressions to his velvety fur and his oversized feet.
'His relationship with his Grandad is beautifully evoked as are the times of day and the textures of the exquisite landscapes around him, in a book which oozes charm and glows with colour.'
Read an interview with Catherine Rayner.
The CILIP Carnegie Medal Shortlist 2009
Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce (Macmillan Children’s Books)
Black Rabbit Summer by Kevin Brooks (Puffin)
Airman by Eoin Colfer (Puffin)
Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd (David Fickling Books)
Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray (Definitions)
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Walker Books)
Creature of the Night by Kate Thompson (Bodley Head)
The CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal Shortlist
The Snow Goose by Angela Barrett, text by Paul Gallico (Hutchinson)
Varmints by Marc Craste, text by Helen Ward (Templar)
Little Boat by Thomas Docherty (Templar)
How to Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham (Walker Books)
The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins)
The Savage by Dave McKean, text by David Almond (Walker Books)
Harris Finds his Feet by Catherine Rayner (Little Tiger Press)
Molly and the Night Monster by Chris Wormell (Jonathan Cape)
