The 2025 Carnegie Medals bring forward much-needed books themed on youth and masculinity, now in the program’s shortlists.

Four titles — a quarter of those now shortlisted for the 2025 Carnegie Medals — touch on issues of youth and masculinity, at a time when many are hoping that just such insightful jury work can bring to light more strong literature for boys and men

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

Winners To Be Named June 19

By pure coincidence, this information arrives on the same weekend that a campaign called “Hard as Nails” is opening in the United Kingdom, with an intent of bringing deeper, more honest conversations about men and masculinity to the fore.

Because of time constraints on getting this information out, we’ll repeat our longlist discussion of this unusual inclusion of a high number of books relevant to young male readers after our listing of the program’s shortlisted titles.

The winners’ ceremony is to be hosted live and streamed from the Cambridge Theatre on June 19.

The winners will each receive a specially commissioned golden medal and a £5,000 Colin Mears Award cash prize (US$6,240).

The winners of the Shadowers’ Choice Medals—voted for by children and young people—will also be presented at the ceremony. They will also receive a golden medal and £500 worth of books to donate to a library of their choice (US$624).

2025 Carnegie Medal for Writing Shortlist

• Treacle Town by Brian Conaghan (Andersen Press)
• The Things We Leave Behind by Clare Furniss (Simon & Schuster)
• The Final Year by Matt Goodfellow, illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton (Otter-Barry Books)
• King of Nothing by Nathanael Lessore (Bonnier Books UK)
• Little Bang by Kelly McCaughrain (Walker)
• Glasgow Boys by Margaret McDonald (Faber & Faber)
• All That It Ever Meant by Blessing Musariri (Head of Zeus)
• Play by Luke Palmer (Firefly Press)

2025 Carnegie Medal for Illustration Shortlist

• The Invisible Story by Wen Hsu Chen, written by Jaime Gamboa, translated by Daniel Hahn (Lantana)
• Grey by Lauren Child, written by Laura Dockrill (Walker)
• I Love Books by Mariajo Ilustrajo (Quarto)
• Clever Crow by Olivia Lomenech Gill, written by Chris Butterworth (Walker)
• Letters in Charcoal by Juan Palomino, written by Irene Vasco, translated by Lawrence Schimel (Lantana)
• Homebody by Theo Parish (Macmillan Children’s Books)
• Wolf and Bear by Kate Rolfe (Macmillan Children’s Books)
• Flying High by Yu Rong, written by Cao Wenxuan, translated by Simone Monnelly (UCLan Publishing)

Timely Takes on Youth and Masculinity

As we pointed out in our longlist report, the Carniegie Awards’ organizers have pointed out a welcome trend this year: a strong presence for books in its longlists themed on masculinity.

At a time when in so many world markets many boys and young men are struggling in social, educational, and vocational development, this is heartening news, helping to point up the potential of publishing to provide supportive and impactful literature, as the business has often done so well for girls and young women.

For anyone interested in learning the breadth of new research, the depth of the crisis in so many world publishing markets, and responses to this crisis, we can recommend the work of the American Institute for Boys and Men, founded by the British-American Brookings Institute fellow and author Richard V. Reeves.

Here is a quick look at some of the Carnegies’ longlisted titles on issues of being male and young.

• The question of what it is to be a young man is explored by Danielle Jawando in If My Words Had Wings (Simon & Schuster), the story of a teenage boy who finds his voice through the spoken word after being released from a young offenders’ prison.
• There’s also the debut publication by Margaret McDonald: Glasgow Boys (Faber & Faber) is a story about the precarious friendship between two boys growing up in foster care.
• Play (the independent Firefly Press) by Luke Palmer (the author of Grow, also from Firefly) is a story of disaffected youth as four boys navigate society’s expectations of what it means to be a man,.
• Nathanael Lessore’s King of Nothing (Bonnier Books UK) is a comedic take, in which a self-proclaimed “bad boy” forges a friendship that makes him reassess his priorities.
• Here’s a verse novel exploring disordered eating from the perspective of teenage boys. Louder Than Hunger (Walker Books) is by children’s librarian John Schu.
• And here’s another verse novel, Trigger (Little Island Press), by the Irish author CG Moore, a story about a teenage boy who is sexually assaulted in an attack he can’t remember.
• The perspectives of younger boys finding their places in the world are found in the fantastical/futuristic story I Am Wolf  (from Kate Wilson’s frequently awarded Nosy Crow) by Alastair Chisholm.
• A verse novel with illustration by Joe Todd-Stanton is here: The Final Year, written by Matt Goodfellow (from the wonderfully named Otter-Barry Press).
• Fallout (Bloomsbury) is a novel set in the 1980s by Welsh writer Lesley Parr—the story of a boy seeking a life free from his criminal family.

Related article:  London’s Swift Press’: Diana Broccardo and Mark Richards on Publishing Richard V. Reeves’ ‘Of Boys and Men.’ Image: Swift Press

The book publishing industry’s excellent, supportive work for young female readers continues, too, with examples found in titles longlisted here on societal pressures on teen girls, as explored by Kelly McCaughrain; Holly Bourne; Clare Furniss; Jenny Valentine; and Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick.

Also trending overall are topics including a search for self; grief; and recovery in these lists which show independent publishers dominant.

At 23 longlisted books, from independent houses, those represent 13 presses, including small ones such as Lantana, Firefly, Otter-Barry, Little Island, and UCLan Publishing.

Walker Books has the most longlisted titles for both medals, six in illustration and two in writing. Simon & Schuster has five titles, four in writing and one in illustration.

A Programming Note

At  Elena Pasoli‘s Bologna Children’s Book Fair (March 31 to April 3), Publishing Perspectives will moderate a panel discussion—the first of its kind at the Bologna trade show—designed to examine issues facing young male readers and how publishing and books may or may not come into play with needed literature.

All trade visitors to the Bologna show are invited to participate in seeing this session:

Where the Boys Are: The Right Books Can Make Them Heroes
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
11:30 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.
The Content Cafe (Hall 30)

Speakers are to include:

• Rebel Girls (and Future Boys) author Francesca Cavallo
• Quarto/Quarry editor Jonathan Simcosky (Yes, Boys Can!)
• Maria Russo, Hachette / Union Square (and formerly The New York Times)
• Michiel Kolman, International Publishers Association and Elsevier

More from Publishing Perspectives on children’s books is here, more on the Carnegie Greenaway honors—now called the Yoto Carnegies—is here, more from us on publishing and book awards programs is here, and more on the UK market is here.