Winners' speeches from the 2019 CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Awards

Elizabeth Acevedo - CILIP Carnegie Medal speech, 18th June

I am so honored to be receiving the Carnegie Medal. I want to give thanks to my agents at Right People, who believed in my voice and have done such amazing work to bring my stories to a global market.

Thank you to the team at Egmont- Electric Monkey for bringing THE POET X to readers in the UK. 

I want to tell you a bit about the impetus for this novel.  

I was an eighth grade English teacher in Prince George’s County, Maryland, when I began writing The Poet X. And the impetus came from a student I had who I loved. She was slick at the mouth and always had something smart to say, and on the inside I would be laughing even as I had to remind her certain things were inappropriate. But I always appreciated her honesty. 

This student did not consider herself a reader. And I tried to put every exciting book at the time into her hands but she had no interest in sparkly vampires or teens playing survival games. Finally, I asked her, “What would you like to read?” And her reply took me aback. She said, “None of these books are about us. Where are the books about us?”

So, I went out and bought books by Jacqueline Woodson, Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez. Whatever I could get my hands on that seemed to reflect this “us” my student wanted to see: young, urban, characters of color. Within two weeks this student who was not a reader had sped through every book I put in front of her. And the she asked me “What’s next?” 

These two questions guided me towards writing The Poet X. Where are the books about us? What’s next? I felt like this student had given me a challenge, or at least permission to grab the baton. She gave me permission to write a story about young people who take up space, who do not make themselves small, who learn the power of their own words. 

I want to close with a poem. Because I think we should have poetry in every room as much as possible, and because I fundamentally believe in Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop’s words that children’s literature should be a mirror and a window. 

Jackie Morris - CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal speech, 18th June

They say the pen is mightier than the sword. But I say that the brush speaks across borders in ways the pen can only dream of. Images need no translation. 

There’s another saying, coined I think by Neil Gaiman, that a library without a librarian is just a room filled with books. I would take this further to say that a book without a reader is just a bundle of paper neatly bound. A book comes alive when the author, illustrator speaks into a reader’s mind and heart.

All books are a collaboration, between author and illustrator in our case. We were lucky enough to have a magnificent publisher in Simon Prosser of Hamish Hamilton , who read our proposal, immediately saw the need and value of the project ( and when I say value, I’m not talking about money, but real value). He and Hermione Thompson put our vision, Robert’s and mine, in the central space for creating The Lost Words, believed in us every step of the way as we struggled to explain what we hoped to create. It’s a rare thing these days when creativity takes centre stage, not marketing, but that’s another story.

We had the best of designers in Alison O’Toole, and as we worked I began to feel almost as if our book had a way of bringing together people who would breathe life into it, let nature speak. Alison took our vision and made it clearer and more elegant.

At the heart of our book was a desire for refocus the minds, eyes, hearts of children on the awesome, glorious beauty of the natural world of which humans are but a tiny part. If you like it was to ‘re-wild the child’, through spells both written and painted, and the magic lies in the space between the two, or maybe where they meet. We wanted to entrance. Never did we imagine how the book would take on such a wild life of its own. The spells are being sung, spoken, by single voices and many, in wild and urban places, learned by heart, shared with young and old, spoken at naming ceremonies and at funerals.

No one begins a book thinking of awards. This book, more than any other I have worked on was a soul song, a desire to share what I hold most treasured in the world, the miracle of life, the spirit of the green. To receive this award with such a history of excellence in publishing is such an honour, and I accept it for myself and for Robert, in a sure and certain understanding of the bond between words and images in picture books. And I also accept it on behalf of all those many people, too numerous to name, who have seen a value in our book, as a tool to reconnect humans and the wild, and who have taken it upon themselves to place a copy of the book in schools from Scotland to Cornwall, from Powys to Suffolk, by organising campaigns to raise money, or by giving pennies, pounds and more. We have grown into quite a community of friends. One of my favourite stories is the little girl who loved her copy so much she sent her pocket money to a crowdfunder, and her mum match funded it, because she wanted more children to be able to share the book.

As a child who comes from a home where there were few books I understand the importance of books in schools, and of school libraries. I’m living proof of how access to books can change lives, open minds, broaden horizons, and I would say, even save lives. We need diverse books, and let’s not forget that diversity spreads beyond the mere human, and many of us have, for years, tried to give voice to the non-human. It’s important to see yourself in books, in the library, yes, and it’s also important to learn about the sanctity of all life, to learn about, respect and celebrate the glorious diversity found in the human species, and in all life on earth. Not merely, only, simply human. 

The times ahead are challenging. It seems to me that artists, writers, musicians have one job at the moment- to help to tell the truth about what is happening to this small and fragile world we inhabit, to re-engage with the natural world, to inspire and to imagine better ways to live. Because there is no Planet B and we are at a turning point. And because in order to make anything happen it first needs to be imagined. And as writers and illustrators for children we grow the readers and thinkers of the future. 

It has been amazing seeing work produced by children all over Britain, guided by inspirational teachers, seeing children finding their own voices through words and images. So thank you to all the crowd-funders, to Penguin who have helped with the discounting of books to move them into schools, to Simon, Hermione, Anna and Rosie, and Jessica, special agent with amazing superpowers. And to Robin for putting up with me and all my moods.

I’m learning so much as I watch our young people call politicians to account. Together we can make a change. And we must. While politicians nod and pretend to listen to Greta Thunburg, declare Climate Emergencies, then continue with ‘business as usual’ finding money always for bombs and seldom for books we need to stand beside these children and hold our deceitful leaders to account. 

Meanwhile, I will continue to paint.
Thank you, from the heart.

Serena Jemmett, Amnesty youth activist speech - 18 June

At the ceremony we also heard from youth activist, Serena Jemmett, representing Amnesty International. In the year of the 30th Anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Serena spoke about all children's right to a voice. Please find her speech below.

Good afternoon,
 
I’m Serena and I’m 17. I’m here on behalf of amnesty and I’m a youth activist and on the committee of the children’s human rights network. Human rights are vital. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights as stated as article 1 in the un déclaration of human rights and We must protect our rights. Being an activist allows me to share my view and campaign on specific issue I believe in and am passionate about. Every single activist is important, no matter their age.
 
2019 is an important year as it’s the 30th anniversary the United Nations Convention on rights of the child, the CRC. This treaty is the most widely ratified convention in the world with only one country not signing it... the United States of America. One of the pillars of this convention is children’s right to a voice. Everyone under the age of 18 has the right to participate in all decisions that affect us, but not many people know this. It is the right to a voice that is the reason I’m on this platform today instead of amnesty’s director Kate Allen. Amnesty believe I can speak for myself and represent my peers.
 
Amnesty has had a partnership with CILIP on the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals for 4 years now. You may have seen the helpful human rights teaching notes for all the shortlisted books. For the last 3 years Amnesty awarded the Amnesty CILIP honour - this was an extra human rights commendation for one book on each shortlist. However, the new Shadowers’ choice award so strong,y upholds children’s right to a voice that the honour isn’t as necessary.
 
Amnesty place so much value on books for children and young people because great stories develop knowledge and awareness, they build empathy and help give young readers the confidence to stand up for themselves and there. Books can be a creative journey from empathy to activism. One of my favourite books is Anne Franks diary, I was extremely moved by it. Last Wednesday would have been her 90th birthday and she said herself “even if People are still very young, they shouldn’t be prevented from saying what they think.” This shows how children have been wanting their voices heard for such a long time, and we are finally making progress.
 
Today we would love for all of you in the audience to use your empathy and turn it into practical action in support for child refugees.
In the foyer is an amnesty stall campaigning for Families Together - the right of refugee children to be united with their parents. Were asking you to help us create a collaborative poem about the importance of family life.
We will send this to the Home Secretary, calling on him to unite refugee children and parents - to bring families together. All children have the right to grow up in a safe and loving environment with their family.
 
So please take action before you leave because children’s rights are human rights.
 
Thank you and enjoy the rest of the event.

You can take part in Amnesty International's online creative action for the #FamiliesTogether campaign here.