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The Blue Book of Nebo WINNER OF THE YOTO CARNEGIE 2023 MEDAL FOR WRITING

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Is that what you’d choose as a birthday present? If you could have anything you wanted?” Mam stared out over Anglesey and thought about it. She smelled like outside.

The Nottinghill Carnival takes central stage in this story about families, memories and the power of dance and festivals. Author Yaba Badoe tells... Rowenna is resourceful and has protected and nurtured her family since The End began. Dylan was only six when it happened and now aged 14, we find him a responsible, capable young adult. However, despite relying on, and only having each other, the relationship between mother and son subtly changes as Dylan must take on more adult responsibilities. The Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration, established in 1955, is awarded annually to a children’s book illustrator whose artwork creates an outstanding reading experience. You know, I’ve never traveled—never even lived outside Gwynedd—and I don’t have international experience to draw on, but the response to the Polish translation of the book showed me that each translation is a new and different work by default, proof that the reader finishes the author’s work. That book was translated directly from the Welsh, and yet the themes are somehow changed, the response so different to what it was in Wales. In Poland it was read as a feminist novel, and a lot was made of Rowenna’s experience as a single mother. I’d never considered the book from that perspective! Thinking about it, most of the books I write feature a single parent, but I’m not trying to make a point with it. It’s fascinating to see how broader political conversations and concerns—in this case women’s rights in Poland—feed into the story of the book. “I’ve never had an ambition to reach an audience outside of Wales.”Centre for Literacy in Primary Education and the English and Media Centre have created expert teaching resources for the shortlisted books.

MSR: It’s made me realize that other people share the same fears, and it’s forced me to confront them head on. We began working on a stage adaptation of the book about six months after its original publication, and I found aspects of that process very difficult. At the time I didn’t really want to think: “Why did I write this?” or “Why did I create these characters?” Walking into that greenroom was a big part of the journey of Llyfr Glas Nebo for me, having to meet the characters I’d created. My instinct was to run away, but it was beneficial in the long run. It’s a complex therapy—and a very public one! Despite their close understanding, the relationship between mother and son changes subtly as Dylan must take on adult responsibilities. And they each have their own secrets, which emerge as, in turn, they jot down their thoughts and memories in a found notebook - the Blue Book of Nebo. MSR: No, not at all. But the process has shone a light on the way that I’ve felt for a while about Welsh literature within a global context. Over the fifteen years I’ve been working as a writer I’ve become used to the comments: “When are you going to write it in English, then?” I understand it to an extent; people don’t really consider the historical context in which such responses are rooted, what it really means. I’ve always subconsciously felt that, as I write away in Welsh, no one outside of Wales has any interest in it. It’s a British thing, driven by London-centric publishing: things that aren’t written in English aren’t seen to have as much value. It’s never really bothered me: I’m happy to write things in Welsh forever, and I’ve never had an ambition to reach an audience outside of Wales. I was initially suspicious when I was approached by a New York–based agent about the rights for Llyfr Glas Nebo. “Is this guy for real?” I thought. “Why would someone from New York be interested in this?” It slowly dawned on me that, beyond the British context, there is huge interest in and respect for this work, that people want to read it. The same hierarchies don’t exist, and that’s been a real lesson for me. Manon Steffan Ros (MSR): I think in a way that the book had been there since I was a little girl. I was brought up going to protests almost every weekend—the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Cymdeithas yr Iaith [the Welsh Language Society]—and, as an anxious child, I remember the fear very specifically of nuclear disaster. I had a recurring nightmare about the start of a nuclear war and would ask questions about the nearby nuclear plant, Yr Wylfa. I remember thinking: “If there’s a nuclear disaster, it’s bound to be around Bangor (that was the closest town to me), and I wonder if I’ll have enough warning so that I have time to walk from my school in the village to mam so that we can die together.” When I had my children, my mind returned to those places in which I’d lingered as a child. They were irrational fears, in a way—or irrational, perhaps, until it happens! For Llyfr Glas Nebo it felt very natural for me to put that in the context of a mother and son, partly because I’m a mother to sons, but also because I’m interested in the relationship between parents and children and am always writing about that in one way or another. The longer I spend with Llyfr Glas Nebo—and I’ve lived with it for a long time now —I realize that it isn’t a book about nuclear disaster: it’s a book about the relationship between a mother and son. You could take that setting away, place them in a different context, and the relationship would remain the same.

Synopsis

From an incredibly strong shortlist, our panel of librarian judges have debated long and hard to choose our two worthy winners of the Yoto Carnegie Medals 2023.

CD: It was a revealing experience reading Llyfr Glas Nebo before the pandemic and The Blue Book of Nebo afterward, in a changed world. Do you wonder how all this might inform new readers’ responses? Curtains with tiny pink flowers on them, and the neatly made bed, the covers pulled tight and smooth. A wardrobe painted white, and little white tables on each side of the bed, books piled high but tidily on them. The winners of the medals were announced at a London ceremony on Wednesday hosted by Lauren Child, who won the illustration award in 2000 for her first Charlie and Lola book. And we agreed, Mam and me, to share The Blue Book of Nebo. She’ll write about the olden days and The End, and I’ll write about now, about how we live. And we’ve agreed not to read what the other has written, just in case. In case of what, I’m not sure. She smiled, a tight little smile I’d never seen before. “Good God, Rowenna, don’t overreact. We’ll be fine!”She was brushing the floor, a horizon of gray hairs stretching over the lino.I’ll go hunting tonight. Try to get hold of a rabbit or a wild cat so that Mam can have some meat on her birthday. There are traps down on the potato field already. She’ll have a good birthday this year. The Blue Book of Nebo is a bleak novel, but not without its glimmers of optimism. A thought-provoking exploration of isolation, familial relations and Welsh language and culture, for a book light on plot, it’s emotional weight is considerable. I regretted asking about her ideal gift then, because Mam goes quiet when we’ve talked about the olden days, and it’s not the kind of quiet you get when you work but it’s a kind of quiet when there aren’t any words that fit. CILIP is a registered charity, no. 313014. The Youth Libraries Group (YLG) is a special interest group of CILIP who work to preserve and influence the provision of quality literature and library services for children and young people, both in public libraries and school library services.

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