Thursday 21st June was a double celebration for the Greenaway and Carnegie Children's Book Awards.

At an event held at the British Library, Mini Grey triumphed with her revisioinst nursery rhyme picturebook, The Adventures of The Dish and The Spoon. Accepting the award, Grey recalled being on the shortlist the previous year and at  eight months pregnant was thankful that her name wasn't announced in case the excitement brought on  early labour. A year on she spoke eloquently about how much the award meant. to her. Last year's winner Emily Gravatt was among the shortlisted illustrators along with Chris Riddell, Ross Collins, Catherine Rayner, Cathy Tincknell and John Kelly.

Meg Rosoff was awarded  the Carnegie Medal  for her novel Justin Case. Rosoff told the audience how the book had been a difficult one to write and Justin had not been an easy character to live with. She paid tribute to the shortlisted writers and acknowledged that they were sure to be future recipients of the award. The other contenders were Ally Kennen, Kevin Brooks, Siobhan Dowd, Marcus Sedgwick and Anne Fine. Debut novelists Kennan and Dowd are also shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award.

Later in the evening a party was held on the terrace at the British Library to celebrate 70 years of the Carnegie and 60 years of the Greenaway awards. The highlight of the event was the announcement of the public's favourite books from previous award winners. Following the announcement of the shortlist earlier in the year, the public had been invited to vote for their top title. Philip Pullman's Northern Lights was chosen as the best novel. Although Philip was unable to attend the ceremony to receive the medal, his literary agent and friend, Caradoc King, read some moving words in which Pullman humbly suggested that the public had got the initials, PP,  right but the wrong winner - he was of course referring to Philippa Pearce and Tom's Midnight Garden. A moving tribute to a revered writer, who sadly died in December last year.

Shirley Hughes'  Dogger was the public's favourite picturebook. appearing on stage in a wide brimmed hat and long string of beads, she recounted a story about an early interview on a radio programme when the presenter had made a comment about children's writers being strange  ladies in hats and beads. Leaning forward to refute the stereotypical image, Shirley was aware of a tapping noise  - she looked down to see her beads tapping against the

Special guest Mariella Frostrup talked about what she perceived as the  problem of the crossover book and the need for children  to be able to reclaim their own reading territory.

Before the music and conversation resumed the audience were treated to the release of 70 balloons into the early evening London sky. 10 balloons attached with tickets offering a prize win of the books int he shortlist. So check your streets and gardens! We'd be interested to hear from anyone lucky enough to find one of these balloons on its return to earth.

Carnegie 2007 Times Online Article

Carnegie of Carnegies Times Online Article