The winners of the UK’s longest running book awards for children and young people, the Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards, have been announced!

This year’s Yoto Carnegie Medal for a book that creates an outstanding reading experience through writing goes to Katya Balen for October, October  illustrated by Angela Harding (Bloomsbury).

The Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal 2022, recognising outstanding illustration, goes to Danica Novgorodoff for her graphic novel edition of Jason Reynold’s 2019 Carnegie-shortlisted book Long Way Down (Faber & Faber).  Long Way Down: The Graphic Novel is only the second graphic novel to win the Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal, the first being Father Christmas by Raymond Briggs in 1973.

This year’s winners were chosen from a shortlist of 16 titles – eight for each medal  – by an expert team of children’s and youth librarians from across the UK.

Chair of Judges for this year’s awards, Jennifer Horan, said, ‘I am delighted to share this year’s Yoto Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal winners, both of which provide outstanding reading experiences for young people. October, October by Katya Balen is … an expertly written, beautiful and lyrical novel alive with wonder and curiosity. Long Way Down, illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff, is a brilliant, innovative adaptation of the novel by Jason Reynolds. It uses stunning watercolour to powerfully portray the tragedy of gun violence and the emotional impact it has on young people’s lives.

‘Both books ignite imagination and contain themes which help young readers build empathy, providing them with tools to create a better world. They offer hope, comfort and enjoyment, and demonstrate the key role writing and illustration play in children’s development and wellbeing.’

You can read interviews with both Katya Balen and Danica Novgorodoff in online magazine Books for Keeps.

Also announced today were the winners of the Shadowers’ Choice Awards 2022, voted for by the tens of thousands of children and young people who took part in the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Shadowing Scheme. Katya Balen’s October, October has done the double by also winning the Shadower’s Choice Award for the Yoto Carnegie Medal, while Mariachiara Di Giorgio won the Shadower’s Choice Award for the Yoto Kate Greenway Medal with her luminous wordless picture book The Midnight Fair written by Gideon Sterer (Walker Books).

Find out how your school can get involved in the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Shadowing Scheme next year.