Thursday 18th March 2021: The shortlists of the prestigious CILIP Kate Greenaway Medals, one of the UK’s oldest and best-loved book award for children and young people, was announced today for 2021. Small in the City, written and illustrated by Canadian Sydney Smith, was one of the shortlisted titles.
The Medal celebrate outstanding achievement in children’s illustration and is unique in being judged by librarians, with the Shadowers’ Choice Award voted for by children and young people. 8 titles have been shortlisted for the 2021 Medalss (8 on each shortlist) selected from a total of 20 longlisted titles, read by an expert volunteer team of librarians from across the UK.
In a first for this year, all the books on the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal shortlist have been illustrated and authored by the same creator.
“With themes of freedom, the great outdoors and journeys through the natural world, we hope the outstanding books on this year’s shortlists will inspire and empower young readers, offering hope and escapism during lockdown. The collective experience of books is more important than ever this year, providing opportunities for children and young people to reconnect and share their reading experiences with one another as they return to school. We can’t wait to see the creative responses from this year’s shadowers and discover who they will vote as their favourites to win the Shadowers’ Choice Awards. And what amazing books they have to choose from! Congratulations to all the shortlisted authors and illustrators for their exceptional and creative work.”
2021 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal shortlist (alphabetical by illustrator surname):
- Starbird illustrated and written by Sharon King-Chai (Two Hoots)
- The Bird Within Me illustrated by Sara Lundberg and translated by B. J. Epstein (Book Island)
- It’s A No-Money Day illustrated and written by Kate Milner (Barrington Stoke)
- How The Stars Came To Be illustrated and written by Poonam Mistry (Tate Publishing)
- Hike illustrated and written by Pete Oswald (Walker Books)
- I Go Quiet illustrated and written by David Ouimet (Canongate)
- Arlo The Lion Who Couldn’t Sleep illustrated and written by Catherine Rayner (Macmillan Children’s Books)
- Small In The City illustrated and written by Sydney Smith (Walker Books)
Small In The City is illustrated and written by Sydney Smith (Walker Books)
Being small can be overwhelming in a city. People don’t see you. The loud sounds of the sirens and cyclists can be scary. And the streets are so busy it can make your brain feel like there’s too much stuff in it. We follow our little protagonist, who knows all about what it’s like to be small in the city, as he gives his best advice for surviving there.
Sydney Smith is based in Toronto and has illustrated multiple children’s books, including Town Is by the Sea, the winner of the 2017 Kate Greenaway Medal, The White Cat and the Monk, written by Jo Ellen Bogart, and the acclaimed Footpath Flowers, which was a New York Times Children’s Book of the Year and a winner of the Governor General Award for Illustration.
The winners of the 2021 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals will be announced on Wednesday 16th June 2021. Covid-19 guidelines permitting, a socially distanced special daytime event will be held at The British Library and live-streamed online.
The winners will each receive £500 worth of books to donate to their local library, a specially commissioned golden medal and a £5,000 Colin Mears Award cash prize.
Now in its third year, the Shadowers’ Choice Award – voted for and awarded by the children and young people who shadow the Medals – will be announced alongside the two Medal winners in June 2021. This award has evolved out of CILIP’s Diversity Review, which identified opportunities to empower and celebrate the young people involved in the Medals through the shadowing scheme.
The 2021 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals are sponsored by Peters and ALCS, and funded by Carnegie UK Trust.
For media requests, please contact Eve Ragout or Tabby Ives at Riot Communications:
eve@riotcommunications.com 07828 760 451
tabitha@riotcommunications.com 07821 954 228
Images, artwork and further information on individual books and authors is available in the media pack.
For further information about the history of the Medals visit www.ckg.org.uk/archive.