Introducing The Yoto Carnegies New Identity

yotocarnegies.co.uk | #YotoCarnegies23 | @CarnegieMedals

Wednesday 21 September 2022: CILIP, the libraries and information association, today unveiled new branding for the Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards, the UK’s longest running and best-loved children’s book awards.

Renamed The Yoto Carnegies, the rebrand, with its striking new logo, and strapline – ‘It starts with a spark’ – reflects the awards aim to inspire or ‘spark’ a lifelong passion for reading by connecting more children with the books that will change lives. The brand audit was undertaken by Agile Ideas and the Awards Working Party Chair in extensive consultation with past judges who are members of CILIP’s Youth Libraries Group.

With research revealing almost one in five children between the ages of five and eight do not have a book of their own at home (NLT, 2022), the role that libraries, and librarians, play in inspiring and empowering a new generation of readers has never been more important. Uniquely judged by librarians, the awards will continue to celebrate the most outstanding reading experiences of each year with the individual medals for Writing and Illustration, and the respective Shadowers’ Choice Medals, unified under The Yoto Carnegies name. This will give each medal equal focus while reinforcing the awards’ unique connection to libraries via the Carnegie legacy.

Nominations for The Yoto Carnegies 2023 open on Wednesday 21 September and close on Friday 30 September 2022. Information on nomination eligibility and the Medal criteria can be found here.

Jake Hope, Chair of the Carnegies Working Party, says:

“It’s exciting to be starting the 2023 awards with a fresh and engaging look and feel for The Yoto Carnegies. Bringing the awards together as categories under The Carnegies banner recognises their core history and relationship to libraries and will help to lead more young people to read all books recognised by the Medals. Our tagline for the awards is, ‘It starts with a spark’. Whether achieved through illustration or writing, every creative work begins with a spark of inspiration and every young reader feels that spark when they connect with a story. We hope that the tagline will unify readers, creators and libraries, starting the awards in 2023 with a celebratory spark of their own.”

Nicholas Poole, Chief Executive of CILIP, says:

“I am delighted that this rebrand gives The Yoto Carnegies a visual identity and presentation to match the energy and enthusiasm that has been building behind the awards in recent years. This is about much more than a new look – as the oldest and best-loved children’s book and illustration awards, we can never afford to rest on our laurels. Working with our partners at Yoto, we must keep moving and innovating to ensure that we retain our freshness and relevance in today’s book industry. Most of all, this rebrand creates opportunities for us to transform the visibility and profile of The Carnegies for book lovers everywhere, and in the process to inspire more children and young people to shape a better world through books and reading.”

Janet Noble, Chair of Judges for The Yoto Carnegies 2023, says:

“After my two years of judging the Medals, it’s an honour to be chairing the judging panel for the 2023 cycle. It feels particularly exciting to be chairing during the brand refresh. Having run for over 80 years, the revitalised visuals bring a vibrancy to the awards that will attract new audiences of children, young people and libraries.”

Ben Drury, Co-Founder and CEO of Yoto, says:

“Yoto’s mission is to inspire creativity and imagination in children. We’re absolutely dedicated to bringing the very best in children’s books to the widest audience through audio. Through the Yoto Carnegies we can celebrate the greatest children’s authors and illustrators each year. I am personally thrilled to have Yoto associated with the most prestigious children’s books awards in the UK, and we look forward to helping even more children reap the benefits.”

KEY DATES FOR THE YOTO CARNEGIES 2023:

Wednesday 21 September 2022: Nominations open

Friday 30 September 2022: Nominations close

Monday 7 November 2022: Nominations announced

Wednesday 15 February 2023: Longlist announced

Wednesday 17 March 2023: Shortlist announced and Shadowing begins

June 2023: Yoto Carnegie Winners announced

The Yoto Carnegies logo can be downloaded here.

For media and interview requests, please contact:

Annabelle Wright or Sabina Maharjan at ed public relations on
annabelle@edpr.co.uk or sabina@edpr.co.uk or 020 7732 4796.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

About The Yoto Carnegies

The Yoto Carnegies celebrate outstanding achievement in children’s writing and illustration respectively and are unique in being judged by librarians.
The Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing is awarded annually to a children’s book author whose writing creates an outstanding reading experience. It was established in 1936 in memory of the Scottish-born philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919).
The Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration, established in 1955, is awarded annually to a children’s book illustrator whose artwork creates an outstanding reading experience.
Each year thousands of reading groups in schools and libraries in the UK and overseas get involved in the Awards, with children and young people ‘shadowing’ the judging process. They read, discuss and review the books on the shortlists, get involved in reading related activity in groups, and vote for their favourite books to win The Yoto Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Medals for Writing and Illustration.
In 2022, Katya Balen won both the Yoto Carnegie Medal and the Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice for October, October. The Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal was won by Danica Novgorodoff for Long Way Down and Mariachiara Di Giogio was awarded the Greenaway Shadowers’ Choice for The Midnight Fair.

About CILIP, the library and information association

CILIP is the leading voice for the information, knowledge management and library profession. Our goal is to put information and library skills and professional values at the heart of a democratic, equal and prosperous society.
CILIP is a registered charity, no. 313014. The Youth Libraries Group (YLG) is a special interest group of CILIP who work to preserve and influence the provision of quality literature and library services for children and young people, both in public libraries and school library services.
YLG has 12 regional committees covering all of the UK, and each committee advertises and democratically recruits a judge to represent them on the panel of judges. Each judge serves a two-year term and each year the panel is a unique mix of new and experienced judges led by the Chair of Judges. Following the independent diversity review of the Awards, CILIP introduced a co-opting procedure so that if this recruitment process does not result in a sufficiently diverse and representative judging panel, up to two judges will be co-opted to join the panel.

About Yoto

Yoto is the audio platform that kids control. Our audio players let kids safely explore their favourite stories, music and more without a screen.
Inspired by Montessori principals, Ben Drury and Filip Denker founded Yoto in 2017. The very first Yoto Player launched on Kickstarter, then sold out in 2019. The second generation Yoto Player was designed with renowned design agency, Pentagram, and launched in early 2020.
Yoto Player has won awards and accolades from critics and toddlers alike. TIME Magazine even named it one of the Best Inventions of 2020.
Yoto Mini – our portable audio player – launched in late 2021.
Yoto’s platform features original content alongside audio licensed and co-created with partners. These include PRH, Macmillan, Sony, Disney, LEGO, Roald Dahl Story Company, HarperCollins, Hachette, Bonnier and Scholastic.