The Midnight Fair

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YLG has 12 regional committees covering all of the UK, and each committee advertises and democratically recruits a judge to represent them on the panel of judges. Each judge serves a two-year term and each year the panel is a unique mix of new and experienced judges led by the Chair of Judges. Following the independent diversity review of the Awards, CILIP introduced a co-opting procedure so that if this recruitment process does not result in a sufficiently diverse and representative judging panel, up to two judges will be co-opted to join the panel. Milo Imagines the World illustrated by Christian Robinson, written by Matt de la Pena (Two Hoots, Macmillan Children’s Books) Ask 100 children what might happen if you put wild animals in charge of a country fair in the middle of the night—there's a good chance that variations of their answers appear in this gloriously imaginative wordless picture book by Gideon Sterer (From Ed's to Ned's) and Mariachiara Di Giorgio (Professional Crocodile). . .Lush watercolor, gouache and colored pencil artwork by Di Giorgio is spectacular not just in its liveliness and beauty but in its remarkable depth and perspective. . .Surprise after surprise emerges for the keen-eyed reader, and not a detail is neglected, including what happens to the goldfish prize at the end of the night. The Midnight Fair—like a ride on a Ferris wheel—will likely elicit entreaties of "Again, again!" I am honoured and humbled to receive the Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal. Working on Long Way Down, interpreting Jason Reynolds’ beautiful text into images, was a dream project for me and its own reward, but I am thrilled to find that the graphic novel has resonated with readers as well. The two medal winners were chosen from a shortlist of 16 – eight for each medal – by an expert team of volunteer judges, featuring 14 librarians from CILIP’s Youth Libraries Group based across the UK.

The Midnight Fair by Gideon Sterer | Goodreads

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. A funfair closes for the night. As darkness comes, forest creatures come up to the gates and soon they have found a way in. There are beautiful scenes of animals riding in carousels and dodgem cars, eating popcorn and candyfloss and having a great time. Yoto is an interactive audio platform for kids. Yoto offer a catalogue of stories, songs, activities and more to inspire creative play and learning without a screen. The carefully connected audio players – the Yoto Player and the Yoto Mini – put kids safely in control. No cameras. No microphones. No ads.A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature. Balen’s October, October also scooped this year’s Shadowers’ Choice Award for the Yoto Carnegie Medal, after tens of thousands of young people across the UK and internationally read and debated the shortlisted books before voting for their favourites. While some may criticize the book for its use of animals eating human junk food and humans taking over aka deforestation, the books' focus is on the FUN of the fair, the imagery and sensory thoughts that will fill the readers' head without so much as a word spoken, and how they co-habit (in a sense). It also opens up endless questions and conversations including what flavor of ice cream would a bear eat? Are nocturnal animals afraid of haunted houses? what is your favorite theme park ride? What animal would you ride on the carousel?'

The Midnight Fair | Centre for Literacy in Primary Education

In 2022, the judging panel includes 14 volunteer judges from CILIP’s Youth Libraries Group. Find out more about this year’s judges here Gideon Sterer and and Mariachiara Di Giorgio’s The Midnight Fair may be a wordless picture book, but its story is clear, compelling and utterly enchanting. . .Through clever use of framing and perspective, Sterer and Di Giorgio invite readers to be a part of each moment...Every inch of illustrator Di Giorgio’s art is captivating, from a scene in which the silhouetted creatures’ eyes glow in the dusk as they emerge from the woods to a poignant moment by the lake near the story’s end. But when the carnival lights come on, her illustrations become truly spellbinding. Gleaming and golden, The Midnight Fair radiates magic. It’s truly exceptional. In this wordless picture book, with BEAUTIFUL illustrations by Mariachiara Di Giorgio, between the animals and their food and fun, its easy to be swept away in their night of fun. My other problem with the message of this goldfish liberation is that you should never introduce a non native species anywhere, I think in some places this would be illegal. Sadly England has virtually no red squirrels left because of the non native grey squirrels that were introduced, they are also threatening our door mice. Goldfish are also a very fragile specie of fish, unlike the more hardy shubunkins you can introduce them to de-chlorinated, established ponds with UV filters, water fountains for oxygen and they will still die because they are very sensitive to change, stress and a change in water temperature. Goldfish treated as fair prizes will almost certainly die. The Awards celebrate outstanding achievement in children’s writing and illustration respectively and aim to inspire and empower a new generation of readers.And for that, I’m thankful. Because out of that curious fascination came the most fantastic picture book, The Midnight Fair. Despite all the merriment, The Midnight Fair is much more than a cute story about animals having fun. It’s entertaining and clever, but it never devolves into flippancy or silliness. Unhampered by the solidity and clarity of text, it maintains an ethereal aura of mystery and a sense of quiet dignity not often found in picture books with anthropomorphic animal protagonists. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by Once a year, like so many rural places in the United States, a County Fair came to town,” recalls Sterer. “I remember always wondering as a kid what the animals thought about this disruption.” Despite being only just published this book includes a scene where the animals win a goldfish in a bag. I was really surprised and saddened to see this, as there has been much campaigning to bring legislation to stop this cruel and thoughtless act of using a living creature as a prize. The fish that is won in this book is carried about the whole night and the next day the animal that won the fish tips the fish into a lake. Anyone with knowledge of fish will know that they are delicate creatures that are severely effected by temperature change and when introducing a fish to a new pond the bag should be floated for some time in the new habitat so the water temperature can gradually change.

The Midnight Fair by Gideon Sterer | Goodreads The Midnight Fair by Gideon Sterer | Goodreads

In 2021, the Carnegie Medal was won by Jason Reynolds for Look Both Ways, and the Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice was awarded to Manjeet Mann for Run, Rebel. The Kate Greenaway Medal was won by Sydney Smith for Small in the City and Sharon King-Chai was awarded the Greenaway Shadowers’ Choice for Starbird. A spectacular, surreal and cinematic wordless picture book about the secret life of animals. Far from the city, but not quite in the countryside, lies a fairground. When night falls, and the fair is empty, something unexpected happens. The winners were revealed in a lunchtime in-person ceremony at The British Library for the first time since 2019. It was hosted by award-winning poet and novelist Dean Atta and featured Chair of Judges, librarian Jennifer Horan, alongside a selection of the young people who officially shadowed the 2022 awards.Thursday 16 th June 2022: The winners of the UK’s longest running and best-loved book awards for children and young people, the Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards were announced today in a ceremony at The British Library. Gideon Sterer is an award-winning American author whose books include Not Your Nest!, illustrated by Andrea Tsurumi, From Ed's to Ned's, illustrated by Lucy Ruth Cummins and The Christmas Owl, co-written with Ellen Kalish and illustrated by Ramona Kaulitzki. Gideon grew up in the woods of upstate New York, where his parents owned a little zoo where he would run around after-hours and let the animals out. Find him online at gideonsterer.com. Mariachiara Di Giorgio is an illustrator, storyboard artist and concept designer from Rome, Italy. She created her first picture book, the wordless Professional Crocodile, with writer Giovanna Zoboli in 2017. Find Mariachiara online at cargocollective.com/mariachiaradigiorgio. With the help of a pair of crafty racoons, the funfair is suddenly brought to life. As if casting off their ‘wildness’ for one magical evening, the animals, now anthropomorphised, do everything the humans did earlier: buy popcorn, doughnuts, sweets and take part in the games and attractions, chase sugar-addled cubs and win huge cuddly versions of themselves. A young wolf cub, who looks slightly befuddled when it wins a goldfish, is particularly humorous, and a bearer of a poignant message for later.