The Carnegie Medal is an annual book prize awarded to the writer of an "outstanding book for children"; eligible works must be written in English and published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. It should not be confused with the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Children's Video, which is a quite different thing altogether.
The award was first established by the Library Association in 1936, with the innagrual winner being Arthur Ransome, for his Pigeon Post, and named in honour of Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie was a Scottish-born industrialist, who made his fortune in the US Steel industry and later used his wealth to endow a number of free libraries across the English speaking world.
The award is now administered by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) which came into being on the 1st April 2002 as a result of a merger between the Institute of Information Scientists and the Library Association. The winner currently receives a golden medal and £500 worth of books which they are obliged to donate to a library of their choice.
For the 70th Anniversary of the Carnegie Medal in 2007 the Institute decided to launch its own Carnegie of Carnegies. A panel of experts selected a shortlist of the ten best winners over the first seventy years of the award, and individuals were invited to cast their vote on the Carnegie website for their favourite work. In the end a total of some 5,000 votes were received from across the world, and the winner announced on the 21st June 2007 was Northern Lights by Philip Pullman which attracted 40% of the vote against 16% share for the runner up Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce.
The Winners of the Carnegie Medal
- 1936 - Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post
- 1937 - Eve Garnett, The Family from One End Street
- 1938 - Noel Streatfeild, The Circus is Coming
- 1939 - Eleanor Doorly, Radium Woman
- 1940 - Kitty Barne, Visitors from London
- 1941 - Mary Treadgold, We Couldn't Leave Dinah
- 1942 - B.B., The Little Grey Men
- 1943 - No prize awarded
- 1944 - Eric Linklater, The Wind on the Moon
- 1945 - No prize awarded
- 1946 - Elizabeth Goudge, The Little White Horse
- 1947 - Walter de la Mare, Collected Stories for Children
- 1948 - Richard Armstrong, Sea Change
- 1949 - Agnes Allen, The Story of Your Home
- 1950 - Elfrida Vipont Foulds, The Lark on the Wing
- 1951 - Cynthia Harnett, The Woolpack
- 1952 - Mary Norton, The Borrowers
- 1953 - Edward Osmond, A Valley Grows Up
- 1954 - Ronald Welch, Knight Crusader
- 1955 - Eleanor Farjeon, The Little Bookroom
- 1956 - C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle
- 1957 - William Mayne, A Grass Rope
- 1958 - Philippa Pearce, Tom's Midnight Garden
- 1959 - Rosemary Sutcliff, The Lantern Bearers
- 1960 - I. W. Cornwall, The Making of Man
- 1961 - Lucy M. Boston, A Stranger at Green Knowe
- 1962 - Pauline Clarke, The Twelve and the Genii
- 1963 - Hester Burton, Time of Trial
- 1964 - Sheena Porter, Nordy Bank
- 1965 - Philip Turner, The Grange at High Force
- 1966 - No prize awarded
- 1967 - Alan Garner, The Owl Service
- 1968 - Rosemary Harris, The Moon in the Cloud
- 1969 - K. M. Peyton, The Edge of the Cloud
- 1970 - Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen, The God Beneath the Sea
- 1971 - Ivan Southall, Josh
- 1972 - Richard Adams, Watership Down
- 1973 - Penelope Lively, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe
- 1974 - Mollie Hunter, The Stronghold
- 1975 - Robert Westall, The Machine Gunners
- 1976 - Jan Mark, Thunder and Lightnings
- 1977 - Gene Kemp, The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler
- 1978 - David Rees, The Exeter Blitz
- 1979 - Peter Dickinson, Tulku
- 1980 - Peter Dickinson, City of Gold
- 1981 - Robert Westall, The Scarecrows
- 1982 - Margaret Mahy, The Haunting
- 1983 - Jan Mark, Handles
- 1984 - Margaret Mahy, The Changeover
- 1985 - Kevin Crossley-Holland, Storm
- 1986 - Berlie Doherty, Granny was a Buffer Girl
- 1987 - Susan Price, The Ghost Drum
- 1988 - Geraldine McCaughrean, A Pack of Lies
- 1989 - Anne Fine, Goggle-eyes
- 1990 - Gillian Cross, Wolf
- 1991 - Berlie Doherty, Dear Nobody
- 1992 - Anne Fine, Flour Babies
- 1993 - Robert Swindells, Stone Cold
- 1994 - Theresa Breslin, Whispers in the Graveyard
- 1995 - Philip Pullman, Northern Lights
- 1996 - Melvin Burgess, Junk
- 1997 - Tim Bowler, River Boy
- 1998 - David Almond, Skellig
- 1999 - Aidan Chambers, Postcards From No Man's Land
- 2000 - Beverley Naidoo, The Other Side of Truth
- 2001 - Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
- 2002 - Sharon Creech, Ruby Holler
- 2003 - Jennifer Donnelly, A Gathering Light
- 2004 - Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions
- 2005 - Mal Peet, Tamar
- 2006 - Meg Rosoff, Just in Case
REFERENCES
The Carnegie Medal at
http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/carnegie/carn.html
http://www.mcpl.lib.mo.us/readers/awards/juv/carnegie.htm
Pullman children's book voted best in 70 years - The Guardian Friday June 22, 2007
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2108818,00.html