As a child I harboured secret dreams of being a teacher, a solicitor or a judge. However, others would have said I should be a librarian. I was always a bookworm. Reading and books have been my constant refuge, my joy, my freedom, and never more so than since 2020 with lockdown and the Black Lives Matter movement.
I became a librarian on completing my Master’s degree in 1985 and, after a few years, I fell into teaching through life’s twists and turns, returning to librarianship in 2018 where I’m living my dream as a librarian in Further Education. I have taught from Early Years through to HND level students.
I was fortunate to be a judge for the Awards in the 2021 – 2022 (lockdown) cycle. Since then, I have had a few interviews, visited shadowing groups, judged the Jericho Prize 2023, sat on Reading Teacher = Reading Pupils panels for the Cheltenham Festivals, spoken at the Children’s Bookseller Conference, and I am now working on the new selection of Quick Reads for the Reading Agency. I am on the CILIP125 list, which is an incredible honour.
I am honoured and excited about being Chair of Judges in 2026. I feel privileged to be part of the dreams of others. Whatever your dreams may be, hold on to them. You just never know how life may turn out for you.

Alison King has been the Librarian at Kings Monkton School since 2015. She is the current Chair of Youth Libraries Group Wales, a member of the Carnegies Resources Team and the proud co-founder of Not Judging But, a Carnegie Shadowing Group exclusively for former judges. She was the Welsh representative on the Carnegie judging panel in 2020-2021 and credits the awards with helping her find both her purpose and her people. Alison believes that it is a librarian that makes a library and is a passionate advocate for a professional librarian in every school. When she isn’t lost in a book or researching new titles to add to her extensive TBR, you’ll find her penning poems by the sea.

I have been working for Birmingham Libraries for 20 years. I have worked as a Senior Library Assistant for the Children’s department at the Library of Birmingham for 8 of these years. I primarily manage the events programme for children and young people. I love art in all its forms, drama, music, poetry, illustration, dance, storytelling. I always want to bring what is largely inaccessible to a free public library for everyone to experience.

It is such a pleasure and a privilege to select books. I have respect for all art forms and children’s literature is among the most immersive, fun, and engaging. The process of getting from a concept/idea to the finished product, is most intriguing to me.

I enjoy curating a children’s library. Obtaining books throughout the decades with changing and evolving illustration styles. I ask the children what they think, like and don’t like. A passion for reading and learning starts with a Board Book or Picture Book – understanding art in all forms is key to providing excellent literature for a children’s library.

The best part of my job is customer service. Getting to know our customers and what stories they enjoy. Finding a book for someone and then hearing about how much they loved it, is truly the best feeling.

As soon as I was old enough to visit the library alone, I would go every day in the school holidays to choose a fresh batch of books – to me, reading was everything.  I was lucky enough to have work experience in the same library and it was a dream come true when I was later employed by Swindon Libraries after completing my library diploma at Aberystwyth University.  Despite the early indications that I was headed for the library profession though, I initially began a career in insurance.  After a few years I realised it wasn’t for me and left for my first spell at university instead.

I eventually came back to libraries and before I returned to Swindon, worked in an academic library and in the Guardian’s Library and Research Department.  Both of these gave me an insight into what kind of different libraries existed and cemented my intention to work in public libraries. 

I’ve worked in a variety of roles in the last 12 years in Swindon and am now a stock librarian.  I re-discovered my love of children’s books when my eldest child was born and have had responsibility for the children’s buying since 2021, which brings me so much joy.  I’ve also worked as a Library and Information Assistant since 2017 and continue to do so part-time meaning that I still get to recommend books to children, which I love to do.  It’s thrilling to be selected as a judge for the Carnegies and I can’t wait to getting started.

I have always been a keen reader and writer, as a teenager I was convinced I wanted to work in Children’s Book Publishing. I had a week-long internship at Andersen Press, where I met Klauss Flugge and he offered me some advice “…get a job in a library, they’re key to everything we do here, you’ll learn so much” and so, I went ahead and did just that, and found myself in  love with libraries still working there some years later, long forgetting publishing had ever been on the agenda. I started out as a volunteer and worked my way to become a Young People’s Services Librarian. I believe really passionately in Libraries being places that can change lives. I want all children and young people to have access to knowledge and information, to have the opportunity to become a reader and all that this entails. To be able to submerse themselves in language, poetry, art and music.

During my career as a Librarian, I was shortlisted for a “Libraries Change Lives Award” for my work on a Bag Books Project, set up a Storybook Dads project in the local prison library and completed a Masters Degree in Children’s Literature from Roehampton University. I am proud of my career in libraries and learnt so much from the people I met along the way. It is a real honour to be part of the judging panel, to contribute to such an historic an important award process.

My best friends during my formative years were the Wakefield twins from the Sweet Valley High books.  I was introverted (and still am), gay and working class, living in a large council estate on the outskirts of Romford.  I felt that I never fitted into the sometimes ‘toxic masculinity’ during this time.  It was these soap-operatic stories that created the ideal escapism during my formative years; always enjoyed in the lavish 1970s splendour of my local public library!

I am a veteran school librarian with over twenty-five years’ experience within libraries.  I was nurtured by a large catalogue of librarians, who, through their knowledge, wisdom and love, transformed a YTS trainee, who was a little rough around the edges, into the professional I am today.  These heroes motivated me to move away and begin a degree in librarianship.  Years later my roots are firmly embedded within north west England, and still doing a job that I love passionately.

I am always striving to be the best version of myself, gaining further qualifications including an MA in Information Literacy (at Sheffield University), plus won (and proudly winning) the coveted School Library Association ‘Librarian of the Year’ award.  My achievements are important to me, but not as much as the thousands of kids I have welcomed into the school library over the years.  A crucial part of my role is seeking and stocking books that present different versions and possibilities of what it looks and feels like to be a young adult, from the past, current present and future, in the stories that they read.  I look forward to choosing the next set of titles that could have the potential to change lives.

My lifelong love of reading began at my local Carnegie library in the 1970s. In fact, I was lucky enough to live within walking distance of three public libraries, and when my mum got a job cleaning one of them, I couldn’t have been happier – I was always keen to go and ‘help’ her! At school, I loved being a pupil librarian, spending my breaks and lunchtimes in the school library. Having access to such a wide range of books through local and school libraries also fed my love of learning and I became the first person in my family to go to university.

For much of my working life, I was an associate lecturer with The Open University, teaching courses that included history, literature, and classical studies. I believe that reading is key to making learning accessible to people from all backgrounds, but that it also offers so much more – joy, adventure, escape, empathy. I loved being a reading volunteer at my children’s primary school, and, more recently, have set up a local book club and started volunteering with the children’s reading charity, Ready Steady Read. I also became a school librarian in 2022: having the opportunity to promote reading for pleasure, to discuss books with children and staff, and to curate a diverse and inclusive selection of books is really my dream job. Books have opened up so many worlds for me, and I am so excited and honoured to be representing Yorkshire and the Humber as a Carnegie judge!

Despite a lifelong passion for stories, my path has taken some turns along the way. I have held an array of roles, from stable assistant in Denmark to chef in Australia. Only after landing a ‘temporary’ job as a teaching assistant did my passion for working with young people surface, and I have now been in schools for almost twenty years.

I’ve been an English teacher all over the nation, from a wonderful school in a disadvantaged area of Wales, to a high-achieving girls’ school in Surrey, and then to the secure estate, working with young offenders in the Midlands. Alongside teaching, I rejuvenated the prison library, igniting a desire to ensure that the young people I worked with could not only see themselves as readers, but find themselves in the pages of a book.

A librarian position was the ideal role after having my son. It was meant to be another temporary move whilst he was small, but I’m several years in, on my second librarian post, and have absolutely discovered my true calling! I’m currently at Bishop Ullathorne in Coventry and have again had the opportunity to create a thriving school library full of relatable and inspiring books and an exciting programme of events including library lessons, author visits and a big World Book Day ‘Character Hunt’.

Running a Book Club has been one of my favourite parts of being a librarian, and we love a good shortlist. Having shortlisted for local book awards and shadowed the Carnegies for years, I am delighted to have been appointed as the West Midlands judge for 2025/26. I hope I can help select books that will engage and inspire people as much as we have been inspired.

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love stories – I’m told my mum started reading to me before I was even born. I love that there is a story for everyone and that they can be told in so many different ways; they are fundamental to our understanding of the world and our place in it.

I moved to the North East to study English Literature at Newcastle University in 2011, and loved it so much, I have yet to leave. I studied not only literary classics and their historical contexts, but also documentary, theatre, and, of course, children’s literature. The Children’s Literature Unit was so wonderful, I stayed on to complete a research masters in the field. During this, I also received the Robinson Bequest Scholarship, which gave me the amazing opportunity to work in a library for the first time.

My work with young people has taken a variety of forms for over 14 years (my entire adult life!). I’ve been Santa’s Elf, volunteered at schools and nurseries, run workshops and clubs of all kinds, and planned and supported events with several charities, BBC Learning, and Seven Stories. 

When I started my current position as a secondary school librarian in Durham back in 2018, I was over the moon. Being able to combine my love of reading and supporting young people has truly been a dream, and I honestly can’t imagine myself doing anything else.

My school librarian first introduced me to the Carnegies when I was 11 years old. To be able to contribute to this legacy as an adult is a huge honour, and I am incredibly excited!

I was motivated to apply for the post of Carnegie judge after attending last year’s YLG conference in Glasgow, to which I was lucky enough to be awarded a bursary by CILIP Ireland. I came away from this, my first conference, feeling inspired and enthused after meeting fellow librarians, as well as others from the wider book world.

I’m excited about the judging experience which will afford even greater opportunity to work with like-minded professionals and the support that brings, sharing ideas and experiences as we read and discuss wonderful new books and which, in turn, be transmitted to readers both in my own school and throughout Northern Ireland. I am particularly excited to embrace the challenge of reading and judging books based on their visual content and the impression made by illustration.

Promoting reading for pleasure has always been paramount to me, from my first incarnation as a teacher of English up to ‘A’ level for 18 years in a small Co. Tyrone grammar school, to my current position as Librarian in a large co-educational 11-18 grammar school in Holywood, where I’ve been for 9 years. I continue to prioritize to pupils, staff and parents the importance of reading for pleasure and its subsequent positive effects on mental wellbeing as well as benefitting all academic progress.

I am therefore delighted to undertake the role of 2026-27 Northern Ireland judge. I think it’s also an excellent opportunity to promote the place of libraries and librarians and the power there is in connecting books to children and the enormous effect that has on them as they develop.

When I was five, I asked for a library. My parents got me a bookcase, and I gleefully began to fill it with as many books as I could get my hands on. Books are an escape, a way of knowing that you are not alone in how you feel. Twenty eight years later, and I’ve now had the privilege of working in two very different libraries and several schools to bring that same love of reading, that same sense of refuge to other children.

I have worked in both Primary and Secondary schools, first for two years as a Teaching Assistant working with teenagers mostly to improve their reading, and then for five years as a primary school librarian in a large school in a low-income area. These roles were extremely rewarding and nothing will ever beat those moments when you manage to place the right book into the hands of a child at the exact minute they need it, that moment when they find themselves reflected in the pages and disappear into their book – utter magic.

In 2019 I moved to the Learning Hub – the teaching resource centre at the University of Reading, where I support trainee teachers in their studies and in selecting materials to use in schools on placement. The Carnegies are such an integral part of introducing teachers to the best of new literature for children, and I’m so excited to be part of the judging team.

I have been an avid reader since I was a child and enjoy all sorts of books – from magical realism to dystopian fiction, from books tackling gritty contemporary issues to unsettling ghost stories and horror – anything goes! After completing a Theology degree and a post-graduate certificate in education, I trained as a librarian at Aberystwyth University. I have had the privilege of working in a variety of libraries, including the historic Bodleian library in Oxford, the library at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, and a music library in Winchester. I absolutely love my current job at Bournemouth School for Girls where I have worked for seventeen years. Spending my days chatting to young people about books, swapping recommended reads, and getting excited about new publications are just a few of the fun things about it!

As well as being a reader, I am also an author. I have an MA in Writing for Young People from Bath Spa University and am an alumna of one of Curtis Brown Creative’s courses. My novels are published by Titan Books and are out in 2025 and 2026.

I am tremendously excited and deeply honoured to have been selected as a judge for the South West and am really looking forward to getting stuck in…

You might expect me to start by saying that I have loved reading since I was a small child. I did not love reading as a child. I don’t remember really getting into reading until my A Levels, when teen vampire novels offered me an escape from revision. At that time, I just wanted to avoid Chemistry homework; I didn’t know that it was the start of a journey towards curating a bookish life. Now I live and breathe books.

In 2011 I graduated from the University of Leicester with a BA in American Studies, and then went on to study for an MA in Modern Literature. After this I completed my PGCE and started working as a Secondary English and Media teacher in Leicestershire. After a few years teaching I realised I was extremely jealous of our school librarian, and that maybe I would enjoy that role a lot more than being in the classroom. I was lucky enough to get a job as the Library Manager in a lovely secondary school where the students made me smile and laugh every single day. This experience led me to my dream job with the East Midlands Creative Learning Services as their Library Development Officer. Now I get to curate and develop a huge library and help schools across Leicestershire to deliver quality library learning.

There is no denying that encouraging young people to read is a battle, but it’s one that is being endlessly fought by an army of passionate people. We know and understand firsthand how crucial reading for pleasure is for the emotional and academic development of our young people. Right now, what the world needs is empathy and kindness, and reading is the best way to help build this. My passion is for inclusive and diverse fiction that helps to broaden young people’s window to the rest of the world, while acting as a mirror for their own feelings and experiences.

I am thrilled to be selected as a Carnegie Judge, and I cannot wait to read and reread all the amazing books included this year.

I owe my love of books and libraries to my mum, who took me to our small local library from an early age. I can still remember climbing up the stairs and walking across the wooden floor to the children’s section. Likewise, I can remember the lovely librarian at Holyhead library who shared my excitement when I was finally old enough to have 6 library tickets! After completing a degree in history and literature, and having my children, I decided to change my career and work in a public library (having spent so many years visiting them!). I have worked for Conwy Libraries for 12 years now, where I am currently a library manager.

I am one of those lucky people who love their job. I have always had a keen interest in children’s literature, and working in a library has increased this. It is so rewarding to recommend books to children and young people and help them find books that they enjoy. A key part of my work with children and young people over these past 12 years has been to help organise school visits and library activities for children, and more recently, to establish new Reading Friends groups for local children. My local Reading Friends group love shadowing the awards and look forward to it – they take it very seriously! I am thrilled to have been chosen as the regional judge for Wales – it is a huge honour, and I am really looking forward to it.

I remember very fondly spending hours on end in my local library as a child, in Stockholm. There was a huge red, wooden carved dragon and every bump on his back was a seat. You can imagine the excitement! Growing up, my love for reading only grew stronger and I discovered the magic of creating worlds in my head and experiencing adventures and feelings by reading someone else’s words. 

After 13 happy years teaching Reception in Greece and Singapore, I found myself in London where serendipitously a librarian vacancy came up in a nearby Prep School. So, I have been able to combine my love for teaching and storytelling in the most wonderful way. I am passionate about promoting reading for pleasure and my goal is to find that one book for every child that will make them a passionate and life-long reader.

I strongly believe that change will only come through equipping the younger generations to dream big, believe in themselves, stand up for what they believe, fight for what’s right and take their future and fate in their own hands with creativity and wild imagination. And seeing themselves represented in the books they read, relating to the characters in the stories, and celebrating their achievements, is the easiest way to get to this result. 

Admittedly, children’s literature is having its moment in the spotlight and we’ve been lucky to read some phenomenal books in the last few years. I am beyond excited to embark on this journey with all my fellow judges and celebrate all the remarkable stories and illustrations that so many incredibly talented authors and illustrators have given us. Happy reading! 

A Library member from 2 months old, my love of reading and chosen profession come as no surprise! I have worked in school, public and now university libraries for more than 15 years, with 13 spent working directly with young people, helping them to discover their own love of reading.

My favourite part of being a Librarian is that my entire job revolves around people – getting to know them, offering support in their search for information or for stories, and helping them learn to use the library. I found so much joy in building diverse and inclusive school collections, representative of the experiences of the students and reflecting the world back to them. In public libraries, I was privileged to work with the most incredible people, providing a community and service open to all. From the mobile libraries in the glens to the busy town libraries, the service was there for everyone. Now, in a university, I manage an amazing team of Librarians educating and supporting new generations in the essential literacy and academic skills necessary to navigate an ever-changing information and media landscape.

Having witnessed the journey of a library user from so many perspectives, I am convinced that it all begins and ends with a lifetime love of reading. I am thrilled and deeply honoured to be representing Scotland as a Carnegie judge and can’t wait to see what the incredible writers and illustrators of the UK have to offer!