Carnegie Shortlist 2013

[Anna]

The winner will be announced on 19th June 2013.
This year's Shortlist nominations are:


A Boy and A Bear in a Boat - Dave Shelton


Wonder -R J Palacio


A Greyhound of a Girl - Roddy Doyle


The Weight of Water- Sarah Crossan



Maggot Moon-Sally Gardner


Midwinter blood- Marcus Sedgewick


Code Name Verity- Elizabeth Wein


In Darkness - Nick Lake

[Caren]

I look forward to reading through the short list every year. These books are usually so varied and so good. I'm in the USA and I really like the fact that a short list for the Carnegie Medal is given. I wish the (ALA) Newbery would do something similar.

[Elizabeth]

I love it too. The only other short list that I follow is the Red House book awards, this comes out before the Carnegie and is a good lead into this. The difference is the children who are shadowing can actually make a difference to the winner as their votes count.

[Anna]

Hi Caren, nice to see you made it over! That's interesting. I assumed the Newbery had. Shortlist. That's a shame. The Carnegie does much to encourage school groups to follow the books.
I bought 'Dead End in Norvelt' last year after it won, but I must confess I haven't read it. I gave it to my school librarian to read first and she was unimpressed so I lost enthusiasm. Did you read it Caren?

@Elizabeth: we tried following Red House one year but it didn't really take off. I did it as I was worried that our yr7 students found Carnegies' pace too challenging and the books too mature. The following year we just bought a selection of Carnegie long list books and that worked much better. I found the Red House books a little flat.

[Zara]

I have to say I'm a little disappointed with the shortlist this year. I've read all the books on it except In Darkness. I loved Code Name Verity (I want it to win!) but none of the books had quite the same impact as A Monster Calls last year or My Sister Lives On The Mantlepiece. I only joined the Carnegie Shadowing Group at school last year, I love these reading books that are so varied and for such different audiences.

[Elizabeth]

Hi Zara, thanks for joining us. Sometimes it's like that, the list doesn't always inspire me. What I find great about the Carnegie is that it makes you read things you would not normally pick up and sometimes if I haven't enjoyed reading something it comes to life when you discuss it. The number of times I thought I hadn't enjoyed something and after discussing it I realised I had enjoyed it is strange. I hope that makes sense! I am struggling with Code name Verity but I am determined to finish it, In the hopes that I will enjoy talking about it. In Darkness was very good and I think it will be a great book to talk about. It will not be suitable for our younger readers though.

[Anna]

Hi Zara, glad you could make it over. I'm a little relieved there are some younger books this year even though they are not as good. We were desperate for new KS3 members. We have struggled to keep our Yr 7 readers recently as the books were more challenging.
What kind of age spread do your books groups tend to be?

[Zara]

Anna wrote: "Hi Zara, glad you could make it over. I'm a little relieved there are some younger books this year even though they are not as good. We were desperate for new KS3 members. We have struggled to kee..."

Yes - the one book our school managed to get hold of but nobody read was the one about insect poetry, I think none of us wanted to be seen reading it on the train because it would seem too childish! We have a few Year Sevens in our shadowing group, more Year Eights, one or two Year Nines, about four of us Year Tens and a couple of Year 11s and Sixth Formers.

@Elizabeth, I know what you mean when you say some books are better looking back on them when you discuss them! I found that with A Boy And A Bear In A Boat! I'm surprised you didn't like Code Name Verity, it was the only one that moved me enough to tears this year. I love our reading group, as not only do I get to read other books I wouldn't normally, I have made so many friends all over the school with whom I can have great conversations about books at the tram stop!

[Abigael]

Hi Everyone,
I haven't read a single book on the shortlist yet (every Carnegie book I read on the longlist sadly didn't make it through). Does anyone have any suggestions about what I should begin with? I have my eye on Code Name Verity, but I don't want to start with the obvious choice.

[Elizabeth]

Hi Abigael, thanks for joining us. I have only read three and unfortunately I am struggling with code Name Verity though I know others have really enjoyed it! I really liked In darkness but it was quite violent. The other one I've read is The Greyhound of a girl which was very easy to read with quite a sweet storyline. I have heard great things about Wonder I'm really looking forward to reading it.

[Elizabeth]

Anna, I can't really explain what it is about Code Name Verity that I'm not enjoying and it is really annoying me that I have to say that. I'm finding it very slow and I haven't really liked the way the story is told through their writing I think. It wont be long before I'm finished and I can then stop moaning about it :)

[Anna]

Hi Abigail, Nice to meet you!
My favourite so far has been Weight of Water (I've read Wonder, Boy and a Bear and Weight of Water. Ive just started Midwinterblood which seems promising.)
Weight of Water is a vrey unusual read and very fast so it does make you feel like you are making progress. Boy and a Bear is sweet but a little abstract, Wonder is a traditional 'child with a problem starts school'narrative; well written but for me a bit too American. I didn't think it was in the same league as Mina last year, but pleasant enough.
I think Ela has read most of them.

[Zara]

Weight of Water was very good, and is probably tied for second in my view with Midwinterblood and Wonder. I liked Maggot Moon but it was disturbing at points and confusing at others! In Weight of Water I adored some of the poems, and I thought it was a very touching audience. Sometimes authors make their protagonists too young for their age, but here I didn't really believe in the love story as Kasienka was only twelve, for heaven's sake, and most of my book group agreed it was unreasonable. It would have been more realistic if she was at least three years older. I know Margaret Beaufort was already married at that age, but that was six hundred years ago. It was a beautiful book though, and a good quick read - just not in public in case you cry.

[Ela]

I haven't finished in darkness, or read code name verity and a greyhound of a girl yet.
My favourites so far are probably maggot moon and weight of water.

It's interesting what you were saying about this years Shortlist Zara, I feel this one is SO much stronger than last year's I found most of last years really irritating.

[Abigael]

Thanks Elizabeth and Anna. I finally made a trip to the library and managed to pick up (and take out) In Darkness and Code Name Verity. At the moment I'm reading In Darkness and though pretty gruesome, it's amazingly vivid and in my opinion quite realistic. Fingers crossed that the other books will be as brilliantly crafted!

[Elizabeth]

Hi All, please look at my review for Code Name Verity.....I'm pleased to say that I did love it once I finished it. A book should be finished before you judge it. Enough people were telling me it was good kept me going and it had a great ending. I am really looking forward to the discussions on it once everyone is finished .

[Anna]

I will be putting a few polls up over the next week or two. Keep a look out if you like that sort of thing!

[[deleted user]]

Hi all.
I am extremely behind with reading the short list this year due to my a levels.Happily, they are all over now. I aim to read all or at least some of the books by Wednesday. I have read wonder and am half way through code name verity. It's frustrating that I have to read a lot of them in audio, it makes the reading process slower but I see it as an awesome challenge. I will also be posting reviews when I get round to it :)

[Elizabeth]

Hi Jasmine, glad you could join us. Sounds like you have a lot to catch up on but some are quicker to read than others. Wonder has gone down well with all my students and A weight of water was also well received. In Darkness and Maggot Moon have a serious violent element that surprisingly do not seem to be affecting the students that have read them. Maybe it's going over their heads or more worryingly they are so used to watching worse on the TV that its not bothering them. I hope you get to finish them all by Wednesday......

[[deleted user]]

Hi. Yes I've heard that maggot moon has some violent parts, but apparently it's one of the favourites to win, I love the authors use of language, she is great at description. I hope I finish them all by Wednesday to as I'm actually going to London for the reward. Which one is your favourite?

[Elizabeth]

I think my favorite is In Darkness. Though it is a shame that a lot of my younger students wont have read it. I also liked Weight of Water as I thought it managed to get a great story into very few words. Lucky you being at the ceremony, you will have to tell us all about it!

[[deleted user]]

I will definitely tell you all about it :)

[Anna]

Hi Jasmine, yes do tell all! I think it's quite a varied mix this year with a few books that are really very interesting but for very different ages. I think I prefer Verity to In Darkness, but for younger readers Maggot Moon is excellent and Weight of Water is lovely. Younger students are loving Wonder. I'm changing my mind on a daily basis. Happy reading!

[Anna]

and the winner of the Carnegie Medal was... Maggot Moon
and the winner of the Greenaway prize was...Black Dog

I'll add a link to some justifications and official reactions shortly

[Elizabeth]

A little disappointed by Maggot Moon but then Sally Gardner said some nice things about libraries so I think maybe its ok that she won :) In Darkness was our Guernsey winner. I liked Black Dog, it was really easy to read and the children loved it. My favorite was King Jack and the Dragon though.

[Anna]

How old were your students on average we had all yr 7 and 8 and 1 yr 5.
My favourite Greenaway was I want my Hat back - I loved how underplayed it was and the humour. The vote was fairly even at the conference apart from Pirates which only got 1 vote.

[Elizabeth]

We had lots of yr2 and then a couple of yr4,5 and 6 We also have some 8,9 and 10 from our special school. They all did the Greenaway. The Carnegie were mainly yr 7 but with a sprinkling of 8,9,10 and 1 sixth former. We had 25 talking about the Carnegie so had two groups. It's a real mix, but that's what I love about it :)

[Anna]

We had to re-enact the conference at home last night as my eldest daughter couldn't attend because of GCSE exams. I and my 3 kids tried to negotiate a rank order. She was persuading us that Code Name Verity deserved to win and ended up in tears whilst arguing the emotional power of the book!

[Elizabeth]

Amazing that books can reduce us to tears, I too got quite heated when discussing it with my group who really did not think that the part where Maggie shot Verity was that amazing.....I was talking to a group of mainly yr7's who were mostly boys......I tried :)

[Anna]

:)My son agreed to move it 'up' one place but it still only came 4th!