Carnegie Awards Launch Patronage Scheme with Yoto as Founding Patron
carnegies.co.uk | #Carnegies2025 | @CarnegieMedals
Wednesday 22 January 2025: The Carnegie Awards, the UK’s most prestigious awards for children’s and young adult books, are thrilled to unveil a new patronage scheme designed to ensure the long-term future of this celebrated literary institution. The initiative was officially announced at the 2024 Yoto Carnegie Awards ceremony, where award-winning children’s audio platform, Yoto, the Carnegies 2022-2024 headline sponsor, was recognised as the Founding Patron of the scheme.
Jessica Tarrant, Content Director at Yoto, expressed her enthusiasm for this new chapter: “We are very pleased to announce that as of this year, Yoto’s relationship with the Carnegie Awards will be evolving further. We have enjoyed three fantastic years as a headline sponsor of these prestigious awards and we are delighted to be continuing our support of the Carnegie Awards as a Founding Patron.”
Louis Coiffait-Gunn, CILIP CEO expressed gratitude to Yoto for their continued support of the Carnegies: “The team at CILIP are incredibly proud to present the UK’s beloved children’s book awards, the Carnegies. We rely on the generous support of partners like Yoto to help us reach tens of thousands of young people each year. Together, we champion librarians to inspire the next generation to create a better world through books and reading. We extend our heartfelt thanks to Yoto for their continued support following their headline sponsorship, as they join us as the Founding Patron of the Carnegies new patronage scheme. We encourage other organisations and individuals who share the values behind the Carnegies to consider becoming patrons and joining us in this vital work.”
Yoto has committed to a three-year patronage, demonstrating their dedication to the future of the Carnegie Awards and the importance of storytelling for young readers.
This patronage scheme marks a significant step in ensuring that the Carnegie Awards can continue to celebrate and promote excellence in children’s literature. It offers an opportunity for individuals and organisations to invest in the future of the awards and play a pivotal role in championing the importance of storytelling for young readers.
The scheme builds on the Awards’ longstanding tradition of honouring authors and illustrators who inspire and ignite the imaginations of children around the world.
For organisations and individuals interested in supporting the Carnegie Awards as patrons, please contact the Awards Manager for more information.
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NOTES TO EDITORS:
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.
- In 2024, the Carnegie Medal for Writing was awarded for the first time to a Black British author, and then Children’s Laureate – Joseph Coelho – for his novel in verse The Boy Lost in the Maze illustrated by Kate Milner (Otter-Barry Books). The 2024 Carnegie Medal for Illustration and Shadowers’ Choice Award for Illustration were both awarded to Aaron Becker in a double-win for his wordless picture book The Tree and the River (Walker Books). The Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Medal for Writing went to Tia Fisher for her debut novel told in verse, Crossing the Line (Bonnier Books UK).
- The Carnegies are supported by The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and Scholastic as the official book supplier.
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 was named one of Bloomberg’s Top Start Ups to watch, and 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, Pottermore Publishing, Roald Dahl Story Company, HarperCollins, Hachette, Bonnier and Scholastic.
About CILIP, the library and information association
- The 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 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.