CILIP partners with YOTO to unlock new future for Carnegie Greenway Awards

Long-term sustainability of the UK’s longest running and best-loved children’s book awards secured with new headline sponsor

CILIP, the charity that manages the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Children’s Book Awards, is pleased to announce it has agreed a three-year partnership with Yoto, the innovative, screen-free audio platform for children.

Together, they will work to increase the visibility, profile and reach of the Awards to inspire and empower a new generation of readers.

This year’s Awards will be re-named the Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards 2022 with immediate effect, ahead of the longlist announcement on 16 February. 

The independent nomination and judging process for the Medals, which is uniquely carried out by librarians across the UK, remains the same. CILIP will continue working in partnership with the Awards’ existing sponsors including Peters, the official book supplier, and ALCS.

Nicholas Poole, chief executive of CILIP, says:

“We are hugely excited by our new relationship with Yoto, an innovative partner who shares our mission of inspiring and empowering a new generation of readers. Its support, along with that of our existing valued partners, ensures the long-term viability of the Awards and will enable us to increase their profile and visibility. Thanks to its involvement, the Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards – and the brilliant partners, librarians, publishers, authors, illustrators and retailers that we work with – will be able to engage and include more young people in reading the best books for pleasure. 

“Yoto’s aim of putting kids in control chimes perfectly with the ambitions we have to further develop our Awards shadowing scheme and provide more opportunities for all children and young people to choose and access their favourite books from those selected by our librarian judges each year.”

Ben Drury, co-founder and CEO of Yoto, says:

“Yoto is dedicated to inspiring creativity and imagination in children. We are passionate about bringing the very best in children’s books to the widest audience through audio. We are hugely excited to be embarking on this new long-term partnership with CILIP where through the Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards we can celebrate the greatest children’s authors and illustrators being published each year. Yoto is thrilled to be associated with the most prestigious children’s books awards in the UK, and we look forward to helping ensure even more children can reap the benefits of the best books available.”

Yoto’s platform features original content alongside audio licensed and co-created with partners including PRH, Macmillan, Sony, Disney, LEGO, Roald Dahl Story Company, HarperCollins, Hachette, Bonnier and Scholastic. In 2021, it partnered with the Puffin World of Stories initiative donating 90 Yoto Players, Card Cases and Card Sets to primary schools across the country.

Key Dates for the 2022 Awards:

The nominations for 2022 Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals were announced on 8November with a total of 148 books nominated by librarians. Each nominated book is now being read by every member of the 2022 judging panel, which this year includes 14 children’s and youth librarians from CILIP’s Youth Libraries Group. 

Wednesday 16 February 2022: Longlist announcement.

Wednesday 16 March 2022: Shortlist announcement and Shadowing begins.

Thursday 16 June 2022: 2022 Medal winners’ and Shadowers’ Choice announcement.

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