Media Releases

THE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION CARNEGIE MEDAL SHORTLIST -
JUDGES’ COMMENTS

ALMOND, David Heaven Eyes
Hodder Children’s Books, £4.99 - pb Age range: 10+ ISBN: 0340743689  

An atmospheric and immediately involving story of ‘damaged’ friends running away from a children’s home. The intensely emotional plot and superbly drawn characters linger in the mind long after one finishes the book. Its universal themes of life and death, light and dark, good and evil, love and loss are always in hopeful balance. A deeply affecting and life affirming story for all ages.

BURGESS, Melvin The Ghost Behind the Wall
Andersen Press, £9.99 - hb Age range: 9+ ISBN: 0862644925  

Burgess’s clarity of writing, immediacy, and his sympathetic treatment of Alzheimer’s disease results in a highly original work. This is a dark, haunting story with a plot that weaves clever detail and excellent characterisation.

On the surface an adventure thriller, but with well developed themes of loss and belonging.  Two narrators tell the story giving very different perspectives.  Vivid, believable and lyrical with strong characterisation, including that of the sea itself.  A powerful and moving book - unputdownable.

A gripping, rigorously researched page-turner which brings a hidden, seamy side of eighteenth century England to dark and dangerous life.  It exposes the unspeakably horrific daily deeds of the corrupt Coram Man in killing countless babies and conning their innocent, unsuspecting parents. With well developed characters and powerful imagery this is a cleverly constructed, complex but never confusing story.  The parallel plots tell two mesmerising tales of two cities, two fathers and two very different sons.  Subtle yet emotive writing.

GERAS, Adele Troy
Scholastic David Fickling Books, £5.99 –pb Age range: 14+ ISBN: 0439992206

A magnificent re-working of the ancient legends of Troy, as full of love, lust, death and glory as the original. Epic in both size and theme, it describes the fall of Troy through the eyes of two young Trojan sisters. In dealing with familiar adolescent preoccupations of love and death, the tragedy and brutality of one of the world’s most famous narratives is given fresh life.

GIBBONS, Alan Shadow of the Minotaur
Orion, £4.99 - pb Age range: 10+ ISBN: 1858817218

The plot of this novel cleverly weaves strands of modern computer games with the Greek myths, to tell a story of family, friendship and growth.  The descriptions are vivid and gorily appealing, the characters strong and sympathetic and the plot well balanced between fantasy and reality.  Fast paced and genuinely scary, it is a book you want to read at one sitting.

The moving, topical story of a Nigerian brother and sister fleeing oppression and seeking asylum in the UK.  It skilfully blends fact and fiction to leave a lasting impression of real issues at work (political injustice, racism, fear) but with tangible emotional involvement through the eyes of its child characters, particularly Sade. The writing is gripping, powerful and evocative, the characters realistic and sympathetic. An important book which challenges the notion of ‘truth’ itself.

The stunning conclusion to the Dark Materials trilogy. A glittering, imaginative work spread over a wide canvas. The strands of honour, treachery and redemption come together in a shattering and genuinely moving climax.  Through superb writing, storytelling and characterisation, Pullman vividly portrays the pain and cruelty, joy and beauty of life and death. A life changing book.

Note

These are the 2000 Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Awards, announced in 2001.  Books published in the UK between 01/01/00 and 31/12/00 are eligible.

Further information for the media only from:

Becca Wyatt, Carnegie / Greenaway Media Officer
Tel: 020 7603 1776    Fax: 020 7371 1750
E-mail: 106077.3102@compuserve.com

Julie Clare, Carnegie / Greenaway Media Officer
Tel: 020 8806 1936    Fax: 020 8806 4817
E-mail: aviva65@aol.com

27 April 2001