CILIP Carnegie/Kate Greenaway Medals 2011

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Congratulations to Patrick Ness, who has won this year's prestigious CILIP Carnegie Medal for his young adult novel, Monsters of Men (the third in the brilliant Chaos Walking trilogy.) Ness used his acceptance speech to launch a fierce defense of libraries, and an attack on the current government policies, which plan to staff UK libraries with volunteers in a cost cutting measure (along with the closures and down-scaling), calling such policies:
"a one-sentence, Big Society idea whose ramifications and consequences they haven't even remotely considered".


Also awarded today was the equally prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration. The medal went to Grahame Baker-Smith, for his beautiful, expressive work FArTHER. Beating out the previous winner, Anthony Browne (who, if he won, would have been the only person to do so three years in a row), Baker-Smith said the book was inspired by his own father and by becoming a father himself. The Greenaway judges described FArTHER as :
"a beautifully conceived picture book with a dream-like quality that captures the imagination of readers of all ages."

Heartfelt congratulations to you both!

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