Monday, July 02, 2007

And now for the 'Carnegie of Carnegies'

From the Guardian Unlimited

Philip Pullman has won the poll to choose book lovers' favourite winner from the Carnegie medal's 70-year history. Pullman's Northern Lights (Carnegie winner 1995) beat off all competition from other previous Carnegie winners to win the Carnegie of Carnegies.

The report says that in an online public poll Pullman took 40% of the total votes cast and also received the highest number of votes from overseas - a total of 36% from North America, Europe, Asia and Australia combined. His books have been translated into 37 languages and have sold over 12m copies worldwide.

The "Carnegie of Carnegies" celebrates the 70th birthday of the medal. For the annual Carnagie librarians across UK nominate titles for the longlist. For the "all time" award a list of 10 previous winners were offered for the online poll by a group of 'experts'.

Northern Lights is the first in Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. In 2001 The Amber Spyglass, the final book in the series, became the first children's prize winner to take the overall Book of the Year Whitbread award.

The following 10 Carnegie Medal Winners were in contention. (This is a good place to start if you have always wanted to get into children's books, but you were afraid to ask.)

Skellig David Almond (1998)
Junk Melvin Burgess (1996)
Storm Kevin Crossley-Holland (1985)
A Gathering Light Jennifer Donnelly (2003)
The Owl Service Alan Garner (1967)
The Family From One End Street Eve Garnett (1937)
The Borrowers Mary Norton (1952)
Tom's Midnight Garden Philippa Pearce (1958)
Northern Lights Philip Pullman (1995)

Full story: http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2108541,00.html

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