Wednesday 29 January 2025: The Carnegie Awards Ceremony will return to the iconic Cambridge Theatre, home of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s multi award-winning Matilda The Musical, on 19 June 2025. Celebrating excellence in children’s and young adult literature, the live event will be hosted by Joseph Coelho, winner of the 2024 Carnegie Medal for Writing.
This year also marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the Carnegies, with Sora joining as a sponsor for 2025-2027. Sora, the award-winning student reading app from OverDrive, will enhance accessibility by offering free digital access to shortlisted titles for the Carnegie Medal for Writing.
Joseph Coelho to Host Carnegies 2025 Ceremony
Joseph Coelho, celebrated playwright and author of over 50 books and 2022-24 Children’s Laureate, captured hearts in 2024 with his winning title The Boy Lost in The Maze. Reflecting on the Carnegies during his winner speech, Coelho said:
“The Carnegies holds a special place in the hearts of writers and illustrators because it’s judged by librarians […] A book isn’t finished until it is placed into the hands of a child. And librarians do that. They’re on the front line putting the right book into the right child’s hands at the right time.”
Taking the stage at the Cambridge Theatre to host the Carnegies, Coelho brings with him the inspiration drawn from his extensive travels to libraries across the UK. As Children’s Laureate, Joseph joined a library in every region of the UK – 213 libraries in total. The perfect figure to lead this year’s celebration of stories and storytelling, organised by CILIP: the library and information association.
Shadowing Groups: Join Us at the Cambridge Theatre
Hundreds of shadowers will have the opportunity to attend the ceremony in person at the Cambridge Theatre. Group leaders who attended last year praised the experience:
“We had an absolutely wonderful time, both inside and outside the theatre. The Matilda The Musical set lent the proceedings a real sense of occasion, and there was much excitement at the appearance of Mrs Phelps and Manjeet Mann. What an unforgettable way to end our Carnegie Shadowing Book Club.”
“I had such a wonderful time on Thursday and my shadowers had such an amazing day! The experience had a huge impact on them.”
To attend the ceremony, groups must also register for 2025 Shadowing.
The ceremony will also be livestreamed, ensuring shadowing groups from across the UK and beyond can join the festivities virtually.
Spotlight on Sponsors
The 2025 Carnegie Awards are supported by three key sponsors: Scholastic, the official book supplier; ALCS; and Sora, the new official digital partner. Named one of TIME’s Best Inventions, the Sora student reading app will provide free access to all available shortlisted digital books for shadowing groups, enhancing inclusivity and fostering a love of reading among young people.
Louis Coiffait-Gunn, CEO of CILIP, welcomed Sora’s partnership, saying: “We are thrilled to collaborate with Sora as the Carnegies’ new digital sponsor. Their commitment to making books more accessible aligns perfectly with the Carnegies’ mission to inspire and empower the next generation to create a better world through books and reading.”
Nick Forster, Regional Manager, EMEA, Global Libraries & Education, OverDrive, added: “We are so excited to amplify our support of these prestigious awards as the new digital sponsor. All around the globe, librarians and teachers are using Sora to make access to digital books easier than ever. By offering free access to the Carnegie shortlists, we hope to inspire young readers, celebrate outstanding literature, and ensure that every student has the opportunity to connect with these incredible stories, no matter where they are.”
Find out more about how to access the shortlisted books through Sora.
The longlist for the 2025 Carnegies will be revealed online on 12 February, and the shortlists will be announced at a panel event at London Book Fair beginning at 3.15pm on Tuesday 11 March. Visit carnegies.co.uk to find out more.
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For further information on the Carnegies 2025 please visit: www.carnegies.co.uk
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For media and interview requests, please contact: Katie Cregg at ed public relations on katie@edpr.co.uk or 020 7732 4796.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
KEY DATES
Wednesday 12 February 2025: Longlists announced
Tuesday 11 March 2025: Shortlists announced (15:45 GMT)
Wednesday 12 March 2025: Shadowing begins
Thursday 19 June 2025: Winners announced at a live-streamed ceremony
About The Carnegies
The Carnegies celebrate outstanding achievement in children’s writing and illustration respectively and are unique in being judged solely by librarians.
The Carnegie Medal for Writing is awarded annually to a children’s book author whose writing creates an outstanding reading experience. It was established in 1936 in memory of the Scottish-born philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919).
The Carnegie Medal for Illustration (previously known as the Kate Greenaway Medal), established in 1955, is awarded annually to a children’s book illustrator whose artwork creates an outstanding reading experience.
Each year thousands of reading groups in schools and libraries in the UK and overseas get involved in the Awards, with children and young people ‘shadowing’ the judging process. They read, discuss and review the books on the shortlists, get involved in reading related activities in groups, and vote for their favourite books to win the Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Medals for Writing and Illustration.
The official media partner for the 2025 Carnegies is First News.
About Sora
Named one of TIME’s Best Inventions, the Sora student reading app provides every student with access to the right books. Sora is used by 62,000 K-12 schools and millions of students worldwide, supporting the need for required curriculum titles, class sets and pleasure reading with the largest catalog of ebooks, audiobooks, digital magazines and other content. TeachingBooks.net (acquired in 2021) complements Sora with one of the largest sets of book-specific supplemental resources that “bring books to life.” Parent company OverDrive – which also provides digital content to public, academic and corporate libraries through the Libby reading app – was founded in 1986 and is based in Cleveland, Ohio USA.
Joseph Coelho is a best-selling, multi-award winning children’s playwright and author of over 50 books. His The Boy Lost in The Maze was the winner of the 2024 Carnegie Medal for writing and has received international acclaim appearing on the White Raven Book list – Munich, The IBBY UK Honour Books List and awarded The Extraordinary Book of 2023 by The International Children’s Literature Festival of Berlin. Joseph was the Waterstone’s Children’s Laureate 2022 – 2024.
About CILIP, the library and information association
CILIP is the leading voice for the information, knowledge management and library profession. Our goal is to put information and library skills and professional values at the heart of a democratic, equal and prosperous society.
CILIP is a registered charity, no. 313014. The YLG is a special interest group of CILIP who work to preserve and influence the provision of quality literature and library services for children and young people, both in public libraries and school library services.
YLG has 12 regional committees covering all of the UK, and each committee advertises and democratically recruits a judge to represent them on the panel of judges. Each judge serves a two-year term and each year the panel is a unique mix of new and experienced judges led by the Chair of Judges. Following the independent diversity review of the Awards, CILIP introduced a co-opting procedure so that if this recruitment process does not result in a sufficiently diverse and representative judging panel, up to two judges will be co-opted to join the panel.
In 2025, the judging panel includes 14 volunteer judges from CILIP’s Youth Libraries Group and Chair of Judges Ros Harding. Find out more about this year’s judges here.
About Scholastic
For 100 years, Scholastic Corporation has been encouraging the personal and intellectual growth of all children, beginning with literacy. Having earned a reputation as a trusted partner to educators and families, Scholastic is the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books, a leading provider of literacy curriculum, professional services, and classroom magazines, and a producer of educational and entertaining children’s media. The Company creates and distributes bestselling books and e-books, print and technology-based learning programs for pre-K to grade 12, and other products and services that support children’s learning and literacy, both in school and at home. With 15 international operations and exports to 165 countries, Scholastic makes quality, affordable books available to all children around the world through school-based book clubs and book fairs, classroom libraries, school and public libraries, retail, and online.
The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) is a not-for-profit organisation started by writers for the benefit of all types of writers. Owned by its members, ALCS collects money due for secondary uses of writers’ work. It is designed to support authors and their creativity; ensure they receive fair payment and see their rights are respected. It promotes and teaches the principles of copyright and campaigns for a fair deal. It represents over 120,000 members, and since 1977 has paid over £650million to writers.