Doing a bit of housecleaning on the blog; archiving CKG14......

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Our #CKG14 book adventures

(scroll right down for our guide to shadowing and the judging criteria)

The 2014 nominations list + our initial thoughts on it.

The shortlist - we predicted 7 of the 8!

M favoured All the Truth That's In Me to win.

CILIP Carnegie Medal 2014Winner: The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks: a brave choice by the judges; a chilling novel for older readers - and an excellent book for plenty of discussions!

The 2014 Carnegie Shortlist
(links are included for reviews and author interviews)

1. All the Truth That's in Me - Julie Berry (Templar, 14+)

2. The Bunker Diary - Kevin Brooks (Puffin, 14+)

3. The Child's Elephant - Rachel Campbell-Johnston (David Fickling Books, 11+)

4. Ghost Hawk - Susan Cooper (Bodley Head, 11+)

5. Blood Family - Anne Fine (Doubleday, 14+)

6. Rooftoppers - Katherine Rundell (Faber & Faber, 11+)

7. Liar & Spy - Rebecca Stead (Andersen Press, 9+)

8. The Wall - William Sutcliffe (Bloomsbury, 11+)

The Shadowing site has interview videos with all the shortlisted authors.

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From 1-25 December 2013, we featured each of the 2014 Carnegie nominated titles on our Carnegie Advent Calendar.

Our Carnegie Shadowing Guide

The CILIP Carnegie medal award criteria are published on their website.

Our Shadowing aim was to have fun but we also wanted to judge the shortlist for ourselves. For shadowing purposes in 2013, we followed a guide that has been used by some schools. We tweaked it lightly, but it draws very heavily on John Mason School's Review Notes and the Rydens Book Review Form. After considering these points for each shortlisted book, we also drew up a spreadsheet and considered each point as listed in the original criteria.

For 2014, we will also draw on our findings from 2013 to amend our shadowing guide to focus on aspects that we found to be important:

- Flow

- Connection and Emotional Response

- Unanimity (among judges)

Considering all of these elements is fun but rigour can also be very time consuming. Feel free to alter it to suit your preferred needs.

Remember the 3 main criteria for the award: Character, Plot, Style.

1. The Characters
· What was your first impression of the major characters?
· Does the author make you believein them?
· Do any of the characters change or develop during the story?
· Are there any characters who have an important relationship?
· Does this relationship change during the course of the story?
· Are the characters’ conversations believable/using suitable language?
· What do you like or dislike about each of the characters?

2. Style
· Is the language difficult to understand or straightforward?
· Does the story build up slowly or dive straight into the action?
· Is there a lot of dialogue?
· Is there a lot of description?
· What did you like or dislike about the way the story is written?
· Is the story written from one character'spoint of view or from several?
· Does the author create a particularmood clearly e.g. mystery,
gloom, horror, evil, joy?
· Is the place or the time in which the story is set important?

- What kind of genre or theme does the book have ? What makes it this genre?

3. Plot
· Is the plot/story easy to follow?

- Is there a sub-plot? Does this add to the main plot?
· Can you sometimes guess what will happen next?
· Which do you think seemed more important to the author - the characters or the plot?
· Did you expect the ending the story gives?

- Did it tie up all the loose ends? Were there any unanswered questions at the end?

Overall impact

Did you enjoy this book? YES/NO

Was the book right for your age group? YES/NO

If not, which age group do you think would enjoy it?

After you finished the book did you feel as if you had lost something, as if

you wanted to pick it up again and carry on reading? YES/NO

Was it a relief to finish the book? YES/NO

Finally, you might think about some of these questions.

· Would you recommend this book to others?
· Did this book leave you feeling happy, sad, depressed, angry....?
· Did it remind you of any of your own experiences, or other people's?

Remember, the Carnegie awards are about outstanding literary contributions. It is not about how popular a book is. Even if you don’t like a book, it might still be making an outstanding literary contribution.

(What merits outstanding literature is a great and controversial discussion on its own!!! )

We Sat Down's Shadowing page: http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/grouphomepages/index.php?GroupID=10891

Please contact us if you would like to join our shadowing group. It's really good fun.

Why Shadow?

Open University research has shown that key benefits of shadowing include:

Increased pleasure and enjoyment in reading
An enhanced desire to read
Wider reading repertoires and an introduction to new genres and authors
Engagement in high quality texts and other resources (such as videos on the shadowing website)
Increased confidence in voicing views about texts
Potential for learning through dialogue
Improved discussion and debate skills
Skills of interpretation and analysis
A wider cultural and historical awareness
Working with a wider than usual range of young people in school (e.g. in mixed-age/ -ability groups)
A commitment to and interest in writing reviews, the quality of which is likely to be influenced by the shadowing scheme
The development of a strong reading community and positive reader-to-reader relationships between group members and between young people and adults.