Roehampton Readers, who meet at the University of Roehampton to discuss the CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Children’s Book Awards shortlists as a shadowing group and post reviews to the shadowing site itself, are now in their fourth year. Former NCRCL subject librarian Julie Mills, who currently coordinates the group, reflects on their summer outing and introduces this year’s shadowing experience.
The University of Roehampton NCRCL Carnegie and Kate Greenaway award reading group recently overwhelmingly voted Geraldine McCaughrean’s Where the World Ends as their favourite Carnegie Award shortlisted title for the 2018 CILIP awards. This foreshadowed the announcement of this title as the official winner, revealed on June 18th.
The group particularly appreciated McCaughrean’s creation of an immersive, unfamiliar environment both in terms of historical time and sense of place and admired her strong imagery, though some found the language demanding and took a while to get involved with it. There was also strong support in the group for The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas which was awarded the Amnesty Honour prize by the CILIP committee.
Meeting weekly once the shortlist for the awards has been announced, the group discusses one title from each shortlist, with a different group member each week leading the discussion on the chosen titles. Discussion is often wide ranging, covering past winners and children’s literature themes and theory in general, but it is always informed by the criteria used by the judges when selecting the winners.
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