Carnegie Longlist 2013

The longlist for the 2013 Carnegie Medal has been announced and I was please to see quite a few books I’ve already read on it, plus several in my TBR pile – and of course in an ideal world I’d like to read all of them! The Carnegie Medal is awarded annually to an outstanding book for children and was established in 1936. The medal is awarded by CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.

These are the longlisted books I’ve already read:

  • David Almond – The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean – Review. An intriguing slightly dystopian read, that was marketed to adults too. I didn’t love this book, but do admire Almond’s writing. 6.5/10
  • Roddy Doyle – A Greyhound of a Girl – Review. A book about death seen through the eyes of three generations of women that will make you smile! 8.5/10
  • Sally Gardner – The Double Shadow – Review. A complex and fantastical/philosophical novel about memory for teens – I loved it. 10/10
  • Sally Nicholls – All fall down – Review – The story of a survivor of the Black Death in 1349. Well researched, could have been darker for me, but a good read. 8.5/10
  • RJ Palacio – Wonder – Review. You’re totally manipulated by this ‘issues’ book, but it is done with kindness. Predictable, but I laughed, I cried, and I couldn’t put it down. 8/10

These are waiting in my TBR pile (affiliate links in the titles):

  • Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner. Yes, a second nomination, and a very different book narrated by a boy with dyslexia (Gardner herself is severely dyslexic)
  • Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick. A short story cycle linked by the moon. Sedgwick is one of my favourite YA authors.
  • Mister Creecher by Chris Priestley – a YA take on Frankenstein. I loved his previous YA book which was a Gothic spine-chiller
  • To Be A Cat  by Matt Haig, in which a child wakes up as his bully’s cat. Coming from the author of The Radleys (my review) but written for older children rather than teens, it’s a must for me.
  • Unrest by Michelle Harrison, a spine-chiller about a boy who is afraid of going to sleep – and he has a good reason.

There are many more in the list that sound wonderful, but I shall concentrate on those I already own a copy of. I’ve got some great reading in store I think, and it’ll be interesting to see what makes the shortlist.

0 thoughts on “Carnegie Longlist 2013

  1. Teresa says:

    Sally Gardner well deserves her double nomination, I loved both of those books. You’re in for a treat with Maggot Moon. I enjoyed Unrest and have Mr Creecher and Midwinterblood TBR also.

    I was pleased to see that Wonder and All Fall Down also feature on the Northern Ireland Book Awards short list as my son’s school book group will be reading nominated books this year and he’s already read two of them…one of the advantages of having a book addict mum, he says!

    • gaskella says:

      I have my fingers crossed that it might be Sally Gardner’s year. Now my daughter’s in yr 7, I hope they might read a couple too.

  2. LizF says:

    I bought junior daughter Midwinterblood and The Double Shadow for Christmas last year as an antidote to A-Level mock revision and she loved them both.
    Your post has reminded me that I haven’t read them myself yet so I had better retrieve them from her bedroom before she gets back from uni for Christmas!

  3. Juna says:

    I’ve just put To be A Cat and The Radleys on my TBR list–I love the idea of vampires living the suburban lifestyle with all its discontents. I don’t know Matt Haig’s work at all, but your description of the former reminded me of Bella Arabella by Liza Fosburgh (a book I found in a used book store in Idaho Falls, Idaho!) It’s probably a more innocent book than To be A Cat, but Bella Arabella is also the story of a young person who turns into a feline. In this case its a lonely child who lives with her much married mother in a large house in semi-rural New York state. When the mother and latest stepfather propose sending her to boarding school, Arabella is desparate to stay home at any cost.

Leave a Reply to TeresaCancel reply