The CILIP Carnegie Medal

 

An historic moment in children's literature as Patrick Ness A Monster Calls wins the 2012 CILIP Carnegie Medal and has also won the Kate Greenaway Medal with Jim Kay taking the prize for his illustrations for A Monster Calls.

The Carnegie medal, which is chosen by librarians, has been running since 1937. A Monster Calls was written by Ness from a set of notes left behind by the Carnegie-medal winning Siobhan Dowd before she died of cancer in 2007. "I felt like I'd been handed a baton and told to run with it," said Ness. "It was a small start, not much, but what was there was potent, and suggested to me where I would take the story."