Best Books of the Year
Menu

CILIP, the Library and Information Association · award year

CILIP Carnegie Medals 2025

The 2025 CILIP Carnegie Medals went to Glasgow Boys by Margaret McDonald (Carnegie Medal for Writing) and Clever Crow by Chris Butterworth and Olivia Lomenech Gill (Kate Greenaway Medal for Illustration). 16 books made the shortlist across 2 categories.

Winners

Carnegie Medal for Writing

  1. Glasgow Boys by Margaret McDonaldsource (opens in a new tab)

Kate Greenaway Medal for Illustration

  1. Clever Crow by Chris Butterworth and Olivia Lomenech Gillsource (opens in a new tab)

Shortlist

Carnegie Medal for Writing

  1. All That It Ever Meant by Blessing Musaririsource (opens in a new tab)
  2. King of Nothing by Nathanael Lessoresource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Little Bang by Kelly McCaughrainsource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Play by Luke Palmersource (opens in a new tab)
  5. The Final Year by Matt Goodfellowsource (opens in a new tab)
  6. The Things We Leave Behind by Clare Furnisssource (opens in a new tab)
  7. Treacle Town by Brian Conaghansource (opens in a new tab)

Kate Greenaway Medal for Illustration

  1. Flying High by Cao Wenxuan and Yu Rong, translated by Simone-Davina Monnelly and Jake Hopesource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Grey by Laura Dockrill and Lauren Childsource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Homebody by Theo Parishsource (opens in a new tab)
  4. I Love Books by Mariajo Ilustrajosource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Letters in Charcoal by Irene Vasco and Juan Palomino, translated by Lawrence Schimelsource (opens in a new tab)
  6. The Invisible Story by Jaime Gamboa and Wen Hsu Chen, translated by Daniel Hahnsource (opens in a new tab)
  7. Wolf and Bear by Kate Rolfesource (opens in a new tab)

About the CILIP Carnegie Medals

Shortlists and winners of the Carnegie Medal for Writing and the Kate Greenaway Medal (Carnegie Medal for Illustration since 2023), kept as two categories. Year is the award year as CILIP labels it. Before 2007 CILIP labelled medals by publication year, so the medal presented in 2006 is CILIP's "2005" award and no award carries the 2006 label (count 0). 2007-2009 shortlists come from the archived carnegiegreenaway.org.uk site (Wayback Machine), whose pages also gave the ISBNs; 2010-2025 from carnegies.co.uk shortlist archives. Longlists and nomination lists are not included. Author names the writer, then the illustrator when different.

Organization: CILIP, the Library and Information Association. Years are award years, which can differ from publication years. Official site (opens in a new tab)

The most recommended books of 2025

Shares the most books with