We’d like to thank the signatories of the petition for raising the issue of the renaming of the Kate Greenaway Medal. Like the people who have signed and shared the petition, we strongly believe in the power of illustration to empower children and young people to create a better world through books and reading.
We understand the concerns raised and recognise the importance of Kate Greenaway’s contribution to children’s books and illustration. This will be taken into account when considering the future direction of the Awards, and we will continue to honour and recognise Kate Greenaway’s work, as we did with our Greenaway Greats reading scheme last year.
We felt it would be useful to clarify the process by which the decision was made.
As the oldest and best-loved children’s book awards, we are passionate about supporting and celebrating illustrators of today, and ensuring we are fulfilling our Awards mission. We are proud that the Carnegie Medal for Illustration continues to be one of the few awards highlighting the important contribution of illustrators. As part of our commitment to promoting a diverse range of talents and perspectives, we strive to be inclusive through our promotion of illustrators on equal terms with writers.
CILIP and YLG will continue to explore opportunities to utilise the exceptional backlist of illustration winners to create participation and engagement projects that bring outstanding reading opportunities to a wide range of traditional and non-traditional readers.