The 2025 Carnegie Medal for Illustration has been awarded to Clever Crow illustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill and written by Chris Butterworth.  Olivia kindly took time out to answer some questions about illustration.

(1)  What books do you remember from childhood?

When I around seven or eight my dad read me The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.  I grew up with the illustrations from the calendars and also enjoying Tolkien’s own illustrations.  I also admired the works of E. H. Shepherd and Judith Kerr.  When my boys were young, I became interested in David McKee’s work and we exchanged a few cards.  We have some of his lovely envelopes!

(2) The first book you illustrated was Where My Wellies Take Me by Clare and Michael Morpurgo.  It was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway medal.  How did that come about?

I was on holiday in Brittany and was staying with my parents-in-law.  I always like to go out and see things and I’d seen a poster advertising a book festival for young people.  We took a picnic and went to visit the festival.  The organisers found out that Vincent had grown up down the road but that we were now living on the Scottish Borders.  It was exciting to them that we’d travelled so far and were at the festival.  The organiser said they had a very famous English author and that we should meet them.  She asked three times, it was like the rooster in the bible.  He asked about my son and what his name was, I explained that he was called Elzeard.  Michael was the first and last person to understand his name.  It’s from The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono.  We kept in touch ever since and Michael sent me the manuscript for Where My Wellies Take Me.

(3) How did you approach working on the book?

I saw that it was a story of a girl having a walk in the countryside in real time.  The poems just appeared throughout the story, so I began thinking about who put them there and why.  I thought this is a story written as a journal by the girl.  She’s chosen these poems and cut and copied them on her dad’s typewriter and stuck them in her journal to explain why they were there.  That’s how the book happened, although it probably all happened the wrong way round.

(4) Clever Crow is the winner of this year’s Carnegie Medal for illustration.  The relationship between people and nature is really fascinating.

Over the last thirty years I’ve retreated quite a lot from what might be considered normal society.  I’ve chosen to live in isolated rural places and I’ve been influenced by growing up on a smallholding, I’ve increasingly steered towards semi self-sufficiency.  We tend to think of civilisation as how far removed we have become from the land, the soil and the dirt.  But we are waking up to the fact that we’ve created an entirely unsustainable way of life.  All of the time I’m thinking about our interaction with the natural world. 

(5) You used a range of different artistic technique and media through the book.

I used collage here and there and I don’t really do anything digitally so it’s literally just how I work the paper.  I think maybe one of the differences is that I generally work on brown or ochre coloured paper which means any white areas I have to add so I work in a slightly back-to-front way.

Everybody loves old dictionary pages and the old typewritten print, so it just helped some of the themes in Clever Crow.  I enjoy when you can see the mark of the maker and the way the work is constructed. 

Thank you to Walker Books for allowing the creative freedom to embrace these techniques and approaches and for championing the roles that children’s book illustration can play.

(6) The Carnegie Medal for illustration seeks to recognise an outstanding reading experience created through illustration.  What do you think helps constitute this?

I’m not trained in illustration, but I still feel that a drawing that works as a drawing or a painting that works is going to work as an illustration.  I still don’t quite see the difference between making an artwork and creating illustration except and illustration is an artwork interpreting a bit of text by somebody else - or up until now for me it has always been by somebody else.  I approach it pretty much as making a picture as I would if there wasn’t text.  It’s still a composition and it still has to work on the page. 

(7) Your work is now added to the list of winners of the medal for illustration are there any past winners whose work you particularly admire?

Edward Ardizzone      Tim All Alone 1956

Brian Wildsmith           Brian Wildsmith’s ABC 1962

Charles Keeping           Charlotte and the Golden Canary 1967

Shaun Tan                    Tales from the Inner City 2020

Congratulations to Olivia Lomenech Gill and thank you for the opportunity for the interview.

Today the immediate answer is Google and Wikipedia. But perhaps these sources will not answer the sort of question that may be in a librarian’s mind. When I was training there were a variety of publications to guide my thinking in my work – Margery Fisher with Growing Point, Nancy and Aiden Chambers producing Signal, The Times Literary Supplement covering Children’s Books to name a few; today no more. But since 1980 there has been one source that continues to create articles of interest – and enjoyment – as well as introductions to authors and illustrators and, of course, useful reviews – Books for Keeps.

I was asked if I might like to highlight some of my favourite articles. I have found this almost impossible. In almost every one of the 245 issues there is something to attract, to reflect on, to interest. Indeed the current issue devoted entirely to Poetry is a real treasure trove with articles on introducing poetry to a class, poems to excite and to enchant, anthologies to add to the library, personal choices. However, looking back over the years Books for Keeps has always championed poetry. In 1981, Howard Sergeant was also giving advice on choosing poems for the classroom (BfK No 8) . We find Pat Triggs looking at ways into poetry in BfK No 21 and in 1996 Philippa Milnes-Smith poses Ten Questions and Some Answers. You might find some of these quite familiar.

As a judge of the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway awards, part of our training to judge the latter was to read the article by Joanna Carey on assessing a picture book – Words about Pictures (Bfk 146, 2004). There was so little to guide one on the subject of visual literacy. But looking back through the Books for Keeps archive, I am reminded of the articles that did look at so many aspects of the picture book. There is Jane Doonan’s “Analysing a Picture Book” in which she explores Helen Cooper’s The Bear Under the Stairs (Bfk No 86, 1994) I found this a real eye-opener – and I recommend it even now. Then more recently there is the series by Piet Grobler writing about visual literacy – another brilliant and accessible starting point.

Do you remember Picture Books for Older Readers? We are still pushing for this, trying to persuade parents and teachers that the description “picture book” does not automatically mean it is only of interest to the very youngest.  It is not new – in Janice Morris article Picture Books for Everyone (Bf k 174) she reminds us of that champion of the picture book, Elaine Moss and finds that, yes, the picture book is relevant to older readers. It is articles like this that chime with questions we still confront that pop up again and again, providing us with a history. Diversity so much embedded in recent issues through the challenging and accessible articles by Darren Chetty and Karen Sands-O’Connor, features throughout its history – raising awareness, challenging the failure of our publishers to create books reflecting the realities of our world, pointing to books that, however few, did exist.

Then there are all the lovely incidentals – Hal’s Diary, in which we are introduced to baby Jack and follow his reactions to books through the diary kept by his father; very good material for a children’s librarian. There is the Good Reads feature where real young people can present their favourite book. And, of course, the Authorgraph and Windows on Illustration. Where else can you meet such a range of authors and illustrators? These are true highlights – what a parade – Charles Keeping, Russell Hoban, Betsy Byers, Elizabeth Acevedo...

Of course when thinking of Books for Keeps it is the reviews that come to mind – an increasingly important feature. But don’t forget the Archive through which you can explore everything – ten best books in the 80’s? It might just answer that tricky query... What is not to love. It truly is a resource and we need to look after it. So please as a Christmas present to yourself (or a colleague) donate to help it continue to grow. (The button is on the front page – so easy!)

A big thank you to Ferelith Hordon for sharing some of her top picks.  Ferelith is Editorial Advisor for Books for Keeps and is our very own editor of the Youth Library Review and the YLG Newsletter.