compelling stories told from a child’s viewpoint that deliver a powerful emotional punch. Look Both Ways is a breathtakingly gripping collection of intertwined stories brimming with humour, empathy, and humanity. Each story has its own heart with deft characterisation and narrative voices that feel child-like and completely real and recognisable making it identifiable for children and adults alike. It’s such an innocent tale which covers hard hitting issues including bullying, homophobia and bereavement. The title sums up the way it challenges the reader to see differently in an engaging and fresh way.” For the Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration, Sydney Smith picks up the award for the second time, and his win is the 16th time a Walkers Books title has won in one of the CKG categories. Ellen said: “Small in the City is an evocative and immersive book which tells quite an ordinary story in such an extraordinary way that it surprises you. It conveys just how it feels to be small in an over-powering city. It’s under- stated whilst also managing to build to a moving emotional end with the themes of being lost, alone, and overlooked, taking on a much wider resonance. It’s a striking and atmospheric example of artistic storytelling skills, which is almost cinematic in its depiction of a child’s view of an imposing urban landscape.”
The winning books were chosen by an expert volunteer team of 15 librarians reading a total of 152 nominations. The winners each receive £500 worth of books to donate to a library of their choice, a specially commissioned golden medal and a £5,000 Colin Mears Award cash prize.
Jason Reynolds
Carnegie Medal 2021 winner Jason Reynolds has been writing poetry since the age of nine, inspired by rap. He con- tinued to write poetry for the next 20 years, but released his first novel When I Was The Greatest in 2014. His series of Run books are New York Times best sellers, and the first in the series, Ghost, has sold 33,000 copies in the UK. In 2017 he wrote the Marvel Comics Novel Miles Morales: Spider-man. He is the US National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Jason said: “In Look Both Ways I
wanted to explore who it is that children are when the watchful eye of adults aren’t around. So often, children’s literature takes place either at school or at home but there’s an in-between that is the journey home. And even though they all sit in the classroom together, when that bell rings they go separate ways and go through sep- arate things, as we all go through separate journeys in life, that influence and impact
30 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL June 2021
Jason Reynolds.
who it is that we are when we show up the following day.
“But the miracle of life is the idea that if we were to trust this process, believe in the power of humanity and speak to one another, no matter who you are or where you are from, all over the world there is a good chance that if we speak to each other long enough, we will probably have someone in common and that’s impor- tant, because it’s really difficult to hate someone when the two of you love the same person.
“That’s what this book is really about. It’s an examination of autonomy, it’s this idea that every child has a different jour-
Sydney Smith.
ney and it’s all about the fact that despite those journeys we are all interconnected. One people. One race. Having similar experiences and yet different experience altogether.”
Sydney Smith
Canadian author and illustrator Sydney Smith won his first Kate Greenaway Medal in 2018 for Town is by the Sea, written by Joanne Schwartz. Small in the City follows a young boy, navigating a busy and noisy city. It is the third time Sydney has been shortlisted (Pavement Flowers by Jon Arno Lawson in 2016), but the first time he has made it on to the list
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