Art and design blog

The Carnegies are long-running UK children’s book awards which recognise outstanding reading experiences for writing and illustrating in books for children and young people. The Carnegie Medal for Illustration is the award for an outstanding book in terms of illustration for children and young people. The Carnegie Medal for Writing is awarded for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people. 

The winner's of the 2025 competition have been announced! More information is available on the Carnegies web page. 

• Margaret McDonald was announced as the Carnegie Medal for Writing winner, the youngest in its almost ninety-year history for her “life changing and emotional” novel Glasgow Boys. This “honest” and “hopeful” story explores mental health, trauma, inequality and identity through the friendship between two boys who have grown up in foster care. 
• The winner of the Carnegie Medal for Illustration is Olivia Lomenech Gill for Clever Crow, written by Chris Butterworth. This “innovative” and detailed non-fiction picture book illustrated in “earthy” watercolours, charcoal, gouache and collage encourages readers to look afresh at a fascinating, but often maligned, bird. 

The Carnegies celebrate achievement in children’s writing and illustration and are unique in being judged by a panel of children’s and youth librarians, including 14 librarians from CILIP: the library and information association’s Youth Libraries Group. 

[Text and images sourced from The Carnegies web site with permission. More details about the prizes, authors and illustrators are available on the Carnegies web pages]

We have some beautifully visual books in the library which are part of the Portrait of Humanity and Portrait of Britain series:

• Portrait of Humanity volume 4
• Portrait of Humanity volume 5
• Portrait of Humanity volume 6
• Portrait of Britain Volume 7

Johannah Churchill is a lecturer in Contemporary Photographic Practice at the university and she says: “For photography students the books are something to aspire to and something to draw inspiration from. Each of the books showcase 200 new portraits from national and international photographers, selected from thousands of entries, allowing the privilege of a glimpse into the lives of their subjects, and celebrating what connect us.  They’re such a valuable resource for students to draw upon - a wide selection of contemporary photographers and subject matters – I think what I like most is when students find an image in there and then do a deep-dive into favourite photographers’ work.”

Thanks to Johannah for sharing her insights into how these books are useful for our students studying photography. Do pop into our St Peter's Library to discover the delights of these books and the photographs included in them.

It is always a delight to promote research by academic colleagues in the university. Craig Ames is the Programme Leader for our BA Photography and Digital Imaging course. He has recently donated five of his creations to the library - thanks Craig!

You can find the details of the books below which are all available to consult and borrow from the Library@DavidGoldman:

• Ames, C. (2023) Evidential 
• Ames, C. (2022) New topographies: Images of an algorithmic landscape
• Ames, C. (2022) Photographs of British algae: AI impressions
• Ames, C. (2023) The waters of Thera
• Ames, C. (2022) Twentysix image returns

The Carnegies are long-running UK children’s book awards – they recognise outstanding reading experiences for writing and illustrating in books for children and young people. The Carnegie Medal for Illustration is the award for an outstanding book in terms of illustration for children and young people. More information is available on the Carnegies web page.

In the library we are fortunate to have a number of the books which have won this illustration award in recent years.

• Becker, A. (2023) The tree and the river (winner of the 2024 prize)
• Nguyen, T. and Zdung, J. (2023) Saving Sorya: Chang and the sun bear
• Pinfold, L. (2011) The black dog
• Reynolds, J. and Novgorodoff, D. (2020) Long way down: the graphic novel
• Smith, L (2017) There is a tribe of kids
• Smith, S. (2019) Small in the city

We encourage all illustration, design and creative writings students to borrow and read the books.  Explore them to discover the style of illustration, how the stories have been written and how the illustrations enhance the stories. 

…. and who knows, you could be a winner in future years!

“The Carnegies are the UK's longest running and best-loved children's book awards, recognizing outstanding reading experiences creating through writing and illustration in books for children and young people. The Carnegie Medal for Writing is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people. The Carnegie Medal for Illustration is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book in terms of illustration for children and young people” (Source: The Carnegies).

The shortlist for both awards have been released and may be of particular interest to our BA Illustration students and staff, and those linked with our BA Creative and Professional Writing programme.

(Image sourced and used with permission https://carnegies.co.uk/2025-longlists-announced/)