CILIP Carnegie shortlist brings together seven outstanding ‘rites of passage’ novels

The complicated business of growing up, particularly as experienced by teenage boys provides a unifying theme for the seven books on this year’s CILIP Carnegie Medal shortlist.

Employing a breadth of styles from the comic novel to fantasy fiction, historical adventure to contemporary gritty realism, the seven shortlisted authors have also chosen widely diverging periods and settings for their novels.  The writing moves from imaginary islands off 19th century Ireland to contemporary Liverpool, and from 1980s Ulster to a future time on another planet.

“What really stands out in all the novels on our shortlist  is the capacity of each author, in their very different ways to empathise with young people, and really get inside their heads”, comments Joy Court, Chair of the 2009 Judging Panel.  “Each book lays bare the thorny process of turning from child to adult and the moral dilemmas, ambivalent relationships and confusing feelings that characterise the business of growing up.  These are characters young readers will identify with and books that really do have the power to influence young lives.” 

The Carnegie Medal and its sister award, the Kate Greenaway Medal, are awarded annually by CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.  The winners will be announced at a ceremony at BAFTA in central London on Thursday 25 June.

The shortlist author's this year are:

FRANK COTTRELL BOYCE     
Cosmic                                   
Macmillan (8+ years)

Liam Digby, a boy who is very tall for his age in a world where everyone wants to grow up fast and then stay young forever, finds that a rather a lot is expected him, particularly when he finds himself lost in space.

 
KEVIN BROOKS                      
Black Rabbit Summer             
Penguin (14+ years)

Pete Boland discovers that meeting up with old friends for old times’ sake can unlock lots of old tensions, secrets, jealousies and a whole heap of trouble.

 
EOIN COLFER                         
Airman                                   
Puffin (9+ years)

Conor Broekhart dreams of flying and escaping the terrible nightmare he finds himself in, but his rite of passage is to realise that he must become a man, save his family and right a terrible wrong.

 
SIOBHAN DOWD          
Bog Child                                
David Fickling (12+ years)

Fergus McCann must try to make sense of the world around him: his brother on hunger-strike in prison, his growing feelings for Cora and his parents’ arguments over the Troubles in 1980s Ulster.

 
KEITH GRAY                           
Ostrich Boys                           
Definitions (12+ years)


Blake embarks on a life-changing journey across Britain with his friends Sim and Kenny. Having stolen the urn that contains the ashes of their best friend Ross, they travel 261 miles to southern Scotland, in a bid to give their friend a proper send-off.
 

PATRICK NESS                       
The Knife of Never Letting Go 
Walker (14+ years)


Todd Hewitt grows up in a world where everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts. There is no privacy and there are no secrets. One month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd makes a discovery which means he has to run for his life.

 
KATE THOMPSON                   
Creature of the Night               
Bodley Head (14+ years)


Bobby leads a wayward teenage existence, stealing cars and racing them round the city streets at night. But a move to the country leads to new preoccupations, and new realisations about himself.