The winners of the 2010 awards were announced at a ceremony in London on 24 June.
The Carnegie Medal went to recent Booktrust Teenage Prize winner Neil Gaiman, for The Graveyard Book and the Kate Greenaway Medal was awarded to Australian illustrator Freya Blackwood for Harry and Hopper, written by Margaret Wild.
The Graveyard Book is the story of Bod (short for Nobody) whose parents die when he is a baby, leaving him to be brought up by the ghosts in a graveyard. The book is also beautifully illustrated by Chris Riddell, whose atmospheric illustrations were nominated in their own right for the Kate Greenaway Medal.
Gaimain, who had flown to London from his home in the US to accept the medal, spoke movingly about the Carnegie being the first (and therefore most important!) literary award he had ever heard of as a child and also about how important his local library was to him as he was growing up (the medals are voted for by librarians from around the country).
He closed his speech by commenting that ‘libraries are our future, more children are borrowing books 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’ve recently begun to learn, to steal from the future to pay for today’
Freya Blackwood had come from her home in Australia to accept the Kate Greenaway Medal, and was visiting the UK for the first time since she was a baby. Harry and Hopper is the story of Harry who is coming to terms with the loss of his beloved pet dog.
Margaret Pemberton, Chair of the judging panel commented: ‘In Harry and Hopper, Freya Blackwood excels in her use of muted colour, perspective, and exterior and interior space to give a powerful take on the father-son relationship, and a much-loved pet's death. A sensitive issue for young children is beautifully handled, with Harry's emotions and memories of Hopper expressed visually to great effect.’
