The Yoto Carnegies Renew Media Partnership with Award-Winning Children’s Newspaper First News
yotocarnegies.co.uk | #YotoCarnegies24 | @CarnegieMedals
Tuesday 23 January 2024: The Yoto Carnegies are delighted to announce they will be working with award-winning children’s news provider First News as their official media partner again for 2024.
Following a successful first year of the partnership in 2023, First News will collaborate with the Yoto Carnegies team to create bespoke content for young readers to engage with the authors, illustrators, and books celebrated by the Awards. Content will run throughout the cycle, starting with a Special Report in this week’s issue, on shelves Friday 26 January.
The Yoto Carnegies are the UK’s longest running and best-loved children’s book awards, recognising outstanding reading experiences created through writing and illustration in books for young people. The Awards aim to spark a lifelong passion for reading by connecting more children with the books that will change lives, which aligns with First News’ mission to promote reading for pleasure.
The shadowing scheme attracts and engages with thousands of children and schools as they ‘shadow’ the judging process, debate the books, and decide their Shadowers’ Choice winners from each Medal shortlist.
Nicky Cox MBE, Editor-in-Chief of First News said: “First News is delighted to be the media partner for the Yoto Carnegies, who share our passion for getting young people reading. We’re looking forward to introducing young people to this year’s books and authors, alongside our award-winning trustworthy and age-appropriate weekly news.”
CILIP’s Carnegie Awards Manager, Mackenzie Warner said: “We’re excited to announce the renewal of our collaboration with First News for 2024. Together, we are dedicated to connecting young people with life-changing books, making reading a captivating and accessible journey for all. We’re looking forward to building on the success of this partnership and delighted to be working with the talented team at First News again.”
KEY DATES FOR THE YOTO CARNEGIES 2024:
Tuesday 13 February 2024: Longlists announced
Wednesday 13 March 2024: Shortlists announced and Shadowing begins
Thursday 20 June 2024: Yoto CarnegieMedal Winners announced
– ENDS –
For further information on The Yoto Carnegies 2024 please visit: www.yotocarnegies.co.uk
The Yoto Carnegies logo can be downloaded here.
#YotoCarnegies24 | @CarnegieMedals
For media and interview requests, please contact:
Annabelle Wright or Sabina Maharjan at ed public relations on
annabelle@edpr.co.uk or sabina@edpr.co.uk or 020 7732 4796.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
About The Yoto Carnegies
- The Yoto Carnegies celebrate outstanding achievement in children’s writing and illustration respectively and are unique in being judged solely by librarians.
- The Yoto 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 Yoto 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 Yoto Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Medals for Writing and Illustration.
- In 2023 the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing was awarded to a book in translation for the first time in the awards almost 90-year history, The Blue Book of Nebo (Firefly Press), written and translated by Manon Steffan Ros. Jeet Zdung won the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration for Saving Sorya: Chang and the Sun Bear, (Kingfisher, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Books). This was the second consecutive year that a graphic novel has clinched the prize.
- The 2023 Yoto Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Medals voted for by children and young people were awarded to I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys for the Yoto Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Medal for Writing, and The Comet by Joe Todd-Stanton for the Yoto Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Medal for Illustration.
About First News
- First News provides children and young people with a reliable and age-appropriate news source through their award-winning newspaper, app and learning resources.
- First News was founded by Nicky Cox MBE and Sarah Thomson in 2006 with a mission that remains true today: to offer trustworthy, age-appropriate news to children, enhance critical thinking skills, promote reading for pleasure, and nurture global citizenship.
- First News is the number one national newspaper for children reaching over 2.6 million children every week at home and at school.
- Expertly written by award-winning journalists, First News takes the fear our of sensationalised world events that children hear by providing a balanced and truthful view of the world, carefully, and sensitively written to explain the background to stories in the news.
About CILIP, the library and information association
- The Yoto Carnegies are managed by CILIP, the library and information association. The Medals are awarded annually by CILIP and the Youth Libraries Group (YLG) with longlists announced in February, shortlists in March and the winners announced at a ceremony in June.
- 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 2024, the judging panel includes 12 volunteer judges from CILIP’s Youth Libraries Group and Chair of Judges Maura Farrelly. Find out more about this year’s judges here.
About Yoto
- Yoto is an interactive audio platform for kids. Yoto offer a catalogue of over 1,200 stories, songs, activities and more to inspire creative play and learning without a screen. The carefully connected audio players, Yoto Player (3rd Generation) and Yoto Mini, put kids safely in control. No cameras. No microphones. No ads.
- Inspired by Montessori principles, Ben Drury and Filip Denker founded Yoto in 2017. Yoto Player was designed with renowned design agency, Pentagram, and launched in early 2020. Yoto Mini, the portable audio player, launched in late 2021. The new and improved third generation Yoto Player arrived in summer 2023.
- Now available worldwide, Yoto has won awards and accolades from critics, parents and children alike. TIME Magazine even named it one of the Best Inventions of 2020 and Yoto Mini won a prestigious D&AD Pencil in 2022. Yoto has just been named one of Bloomberg’s Top Start Ups to watch. Yoto were named the second fastest growing tech company by Deloitte in 2023.
- Yoto’s platform features both award-winning original content and audio that has been licensed or co-created with partners. These partners include PRH, Macmillan, Universal Music Group, Sony, Warner Music, Mattel, Disney, LEGO, Roald Dahl Story Company, HarperCollins, Hachette, Bonnier and Scholastic.
