Media Coverage of Carnegie/Kate Greenaway Awards 2000
13th July 2001
General round up of coverage
  Winners:
Lauren Child (Kate Greenaway Medal) and Beverley Naidoo (Carnegie
Medal) either side of Nigella Lawson, who presnted the Medals
Looking at the Final Media Report from Louisa Myatt at the Library
Association it is brought home to me just how hard the Marketing
Department and PR team, work on trying to get the media coverage
the Awards deserve. All the broadsheets ran articles, as well
as three book trade magazines: the Library Association Record
of course, but also The Bookseller and Publishing News.
South Africa’s most prestigious newspaper, the Weekly
Mail, carried an article about the Carnegie winner. There
was also coverage on the radio with Radio 4 featuring the
Awards on the News, children’s programme Go4It, Front Row
and Woman’s Hour. The latter two programmes, I am delighted
to say, were interviews with Lauren Child. The television coverage
was good this year mainly thanks to Channel 4 news, but
BBC News 24 also broadcast a 26 minute interview with Beverley
Naidoo, and Newsround ran a story about the Awards. Most
of the magazines that carried articles were either book-orientated
or aimed at parents: Books for Keeps, Book Trust, Carousel,
Nursery World, Child Education and Practical Parenting. However,
there were some interesting exceptions: Housing Magazine,
the in-house magazine for The National Housing Federation, Vogue
and Time Out.
What the papers said (and Channel 4)
On the day:
The biggest coup on the day was the Channel 4 news, which
featured the Award Ceremony as their closing item. I sat next
to the cameraman at the ceremony, never guessing just how much
of the footage was going to be used. It lasted about 3 minutes,
a long time in television news, and included shots of the Award
Ceremony with a clip of Lauren Child’s speech, as well as
a mini-feature on Beverley Naidoo herself and her comments on
asylum laws in Britain. Luckily Sarah Wilkie’s husband Chris
had videoed it so she and I were able to watch it when we came
home from the Award Ceremony.
The Guardian carried a good all round article that mentioned
not only the Carnegie winner, but the highly commended titles,
the judging process, the shadowing process and a quote from Sarah
Wilkie as well. There was also a lovely article in the Times
Education Supplement [TES] about Eileen Armstrong,
Schools Librarian at Cramlington High School and a CKG judge,
and her LitCritters. In this article Eileen Armstrong receives
the recognition she deserves: "A quiet, slight women, she
has immense power when it comes to channelling teenage energy
and enthusiasm into a passion for books — at the very age
when many young people are said to be turned off reading."
An Ofsted inspector is quoted as describing Eileen as "out
of this world" and saying "Every school should have
one." The article also quotes Eileen on how she sees her
judging role as a "responsibility writ large" although
she "rejoices" in the task of reading the 100 or so
books on the longlist within the allotted six weeks, "I find
myself still reading at three in the morning, but that kind of
immersion is just magic." I particularly liked her comment
"We have to stretch young people, but if you stretch them
too far they never pick up a book again". All in all it was
a very positive article for children’s librarians, teenagers
and the Awards alike, my only problem was with the use of the
term ‘bookworm’ — "Cramlington’s young
bookworms" — grrr!
And the next day…
The next day Sarah, her husband Chris and I had the five main
broadsheets spread over a very small table in a Starbucks in Ealing
and were eagerly scanning them for the promised articles. The
Times, Telegraph, Independent and Financial Times
all had an article in their main paper; the Independent also carried
an in-depth interview with Beverley Naidoo on their Books page.
The Guardian had decided to feature the Lauren Child as
the subject of their regular ‘A Life in Writing’ section
in their ‘Saturday’ supplement but had no article in
their main paper.
The articles in the main papers, with the exception of the Financial
Times, focused on the Carnegie winner and especially the political
nature of her acceptance speech. The Telegraph did mention the
winner of the Greenaway (but only in the last sentence) and their
photograph of Beverley Naidoo and Lauren Child with their books,
sitting either side of Nigella Lawson is a personal favourite.
The Times, Telegraph and Independent quoted heavily from Beverley’s
speech, especially her views on the government’s policy on
asylum seekers and attitude to racism. The Times, with a nod to
current best selling authors J.K. Rowling and Philip Pullman,
went on to contrast The Other Side of Truth with early winners
such as Ransome, C.S. Lewis and Eleanor Farjeon! It redeemed itself
slightly by being the only one of the three to carry a quote about
the winning book from Sarah Wilkie: "The book has everything."
"It is an outstanding novel. It involves the young reader
in the characters and their situation in a way they can relate
to."
The Financial Times’ article by Damien Kelleher was very
different; it mentioned, not only the judging process and children’s
librarians, but the books on both the shortlists. The opening
is a good one: "It is hard to believe that librarians would
so consciously court controversy. But the Carnegie medal, the
UK’s most coveted prize in children’s fiction, the one
that is chosen solely by a panel of librarians, is no stranger
to column inches." Damien then goes on to talk about the
Carnegie winner, listing the issues that have been tackled by
previous winners. He raised with Sarah the question of whether
"the emotional issues surrounding the book, and the death
of Damilola Taylor in particular, may have influenced the Carnegie
Judges?" Sarah’s answer was a well-balanced one: "It’s
hard to separate the fact that the subject matter has an influence
on how you feel about a book. But the bulk of the debate did focus
on the quality of the writing. It’s a very well-crafted novel."
He introduces his round up of the Carnegie shortlist with this
comment on the judging process: "The absence of J.K. Rowling’s
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on the shortlist of eight
was less surprising than the winning choice. Traditionally, the
Carnegie panel eschews the popular, commercial face of children’s
books." The rest of the article goes through each book on
the two shortlists commenting on their particular appeal.
The Guardian’s interview with Lauren Child, by Julia Eccleshare,
in their ‘Saturday’ supplement came as a welcome contrast
to the focus by the other papers on the Carnegie winner. It was
also a fascinating insight into Lauren’s influences and career
to date. It told us of her addiction to American television as
a child and her three-year stint as colour mixer and spot painter
for Damian Hurst! Julia describes Lauren’s books as a combination
of "sophisticated cartoon-style illustrations with witty
snatches of text, allowing words and pictures to have equal weight
in the telling of the story." She ends the piece with the
comment, "Lauren Child has put imagination and fun back into
the real worlds of childhood."
The following week…
The interview with Beverley Naidoo, which appeared in the Times
on the following Monday (16th July) was primarily
concerned with her views on "why books are the key to a good
education." It quotes Beverley’s desire "for schools
to recognise the central importance of children’s literature
in education". She goes on to express her opinion of teacher
training courses, one that I am sure is shared by public and school
librarians alike: "The national curriculum has one reference
to literature," she says. "My great fear is that there
is no space in training for teachers to understand and respond
to children’s literature themselves." The article also
commented that "The book [The Other Side of Truth] may compound
the reputation of the Carnegie judges for favouring "issue"
books. Previous winners include Melvin Burgess’s book about
heroin addiction, Junk, and Robert Swindells’ novel about
homelessness, Stone Cold. However it did go on to say that "
Naidoo is adamant that political conviction is no excuse for neglecting
your craft. She drafts and redrafts her books, setting herself
high standards."
The article in Time Out magazine came out on the following
Wednesday (18th July) and its emphasis was on the Carnegie Medal
and Beverley Naidoo. However it did make some interesting comments
on the judging process and the accusation that the ‘issues’
can compromise the craft of storytelling. The article starts with
a wonderful statement: "The judges of the Carnegie Medal,
aka the children’s Booker, don’t court controversy.
They are, after all, children’s librarians, whose primary
commitment is to ensure that the young people they deal with have
continuing access to compelling, readable books of literary merit.
However, recently there’s been a trend for the winning book
to tap into the zeitgeist". It goes on to list the controversial
issues tackled by previous winners, concluding that this year’s
winner is no exception. After commenting on the plot of The Other
Side of Truth and discussing the background to it, the article
turns its attention to the question of whether an ‘issue
book’ can be a good book. "While Naidoo’s background
and her passionately held beliefs inform all her work, they don’t
spawn worthy books. ‘The Other Side of Truth’ is gripping
and moving, ruthlessly drafted and redrafted, rigorously crafted.
Naidoo, who has so much to say about the ways in which ideas are
subtly conveyed through language, chooses every word with consummate
care. Reading her work, you are wholly caught up in the intensity
of the moment, in the emotional life of the characters."
In-depth interviews with Beverley Naidoo
Of the two in-depth interviews I read, one on the Independent’s
Book page on July 14th and the other in the TES
on July 20th, the latter was the more detailed and
informative. Both charted Beverley’s formative experiences
in South Africa that inspired her novels and career: the death
of two of her black nanny, Mary’s, three children from diphtheria
while Mary was working 150 miles away from them; her ‘schooling’,
not education she insists, at an all white convent at the time
of the Sharpeville riots; and how the first time she really talked
to black people was when she was sitting on the lawn outside Witwatersrand
University eating her sandwiches! They both tell of her involvement
with Kupugian, a non-profit making food distribution organisation,
which led to her arrest and 8 week detention in Pretoria Jail;
the bullying and racist Head Teachers she encountered once she
was teaching in England; and how she found herself teaching a
remedial class where the "majority of my pupils were from
the Caribbean; some of them certainly should not have been in
the remedial stream and I resented it greatly"[TES]. Her
views on the education system in England, especially the National
Curriculum, are made clear in both articles, but I felt this quote
from the Independent summed them up most effectively: "Literature
is being turned into comprehension exercises," she says.
The National Curriculum has "done a huge disservice to books
and reading … Yet fiction deals with the whole of human experience.
This functionalist box-ticking approach won’t help anyone
to make connections." The TES also quotes Sarah Wilkie on
the question of ‘issue’ books and the Carnegie Medal:
"The Carnegie is not a prize for the book that fuels the
most discussion in classrooms on a burning issue — if it
were, The Other Side of Truth would still have won — but
the judges were impressed by its strong characters and its ability
to tell its heart-breaking story without being didactic."
"This book has everything" concluded chairman of judges
Sarah Wilkie."
And finally, what did the CKG Working party think of the
media coverage?
Jean Plaister, who has chaired the working party for ten years,
felt that this was the "best coverage we've ever had", a feeling
echoed by Louisa Myatt of the Library Association - "Absolutely
excellent!" From YLG's perspective, it was very rewarding to see
the awards getting such wide-spread attention. Sarah Wilkie
commented that: "This demonstrates how we are both reaping the
benefits of, and helping to create, an new environment, in which
children's books are at last being taken as seriously as those
written for adults, and the work of our best authors and illustrators
getting the recognition it truly deserves."
Articles quoted:
"Asylum story wins prestigious children’s book prize"
Guardian 13.7.01
"Elaine Williams meets the LitCritters" TES 13.7.01
"Asylum seekers’ tale wins ‘young Booker’"
by Nigel Reynolds, Times 14.7.01
"Winning author attacks Blair’s policy on race"
by Dalya Alberge, Telegraph 14.7.01
"Children’s author hears echo of apartheid in ‘hostile’
treatment of asylum-seekers" by Richard Garner, Independent
14.7.01
"Balanced diet, anyone? Damien Kelleher on the serious politics
and quirky humour of contenders for this year’s prizes."
Financial Times 14.7.01
"From spot painter to fussy eater" by Julia Eccleshare,
Guardian 14.7.01
"Wordly Wise" by Nicolette Jones, Times 16.7.01
"Out of Africa: Carnegie-winning book tackles asylum"
Time Out 18.7.01
"The long journey from Jo’Burg: Beverley Naidoo, Carnegie
Medal winner, brings the pain of exile home to young readers"
by Susan Elkin, Independent 14.7.01
"Long journey out of darkness" by Geraldine Brennan,
TES 20.7.01
Other Carnegie/Greenaway
articles
Acceptance Speech Beverley
Naidoo, winner or the Carnegie Medal 2000
CKG Co-ordinator's Report
Teresa Scragg
Revised Criteria for the
Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals
First Time Judge Angela
Noble
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