Last night The Graveyard Book won the Carnegie Medal.
Neil does an excellent job of explaining just how big a deal this is.
"For my seventh birthday I was given a boxed set of the Narnia Books by CS Lewis. The last of them, 'The Last Battle' had the words 'Winner of the Carnegie Medal' on it. I did not know what the Carnegie Medal was, but I knew it was something important. It was the first literary award I had ever heard of. And if the Narnia books had won it, then it had to be the most important literary award there ever was. Somewhere deep inside me, but not too deep, a seven-year old version of me is amazed and delighted that he's written a book that was given the most important literary award there ever was. And nothing you can say about Bookers or Nobels or Pulitzers will convince him otherwise... I am glowing and beyond happy right now. Thank you world... and librarians."
So, his newly minted Carnegie Medal is sure to go straight to the pool room, where it will sit very handsomely beside his Newbery Medal.* Colour us impressed, Mr Gaiman. Colour us impressed!
And plenty of colourful cheers too for Freya Blackwood who won the Kate Greenaway Medal. Outstanding.
And while we're on the subject of cheers and colour and all things impressive. Here's to Julia Gillard. Australia's first female Prime Minister. We suspect her inner seven-year-old is amazed and delighted too. To celebrate this historic event Fiction Focus has posted a list of Top 10 female protagonists in recent Australian YA literature. What a good idea that is. We love a list. Wish we'd thought of it!
*It's the first time an author has won both these prestigious awards for the same book. Yep, pretty impressive.
*It's the first time an author has won both these prestigious awards for the same book. Yep, pretty impressive.
2 comments:
oh - that is just awesome. My library has it in their catalogue - I'm off to reserve it!
And that top ten link is awesome. I am agreeing with some of them and others are in my to-be-read list. especially Raw Blue - which I have been trying to get my hands on for a while now...
oh - and your banner is very cool :) Love Terry Denton's work :)
I was only two days ago discussing the perfection of a self fulfilling prophecy with my son after he'd read the Graveyard Book. It's one of those books that spark comment long after you've stopped reading.
And I have been quietly in awe of the way a short story has become an entire book - new but without having lost its essence.
... big congratulations to Mr Gaiman.
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