The 2013 winners of the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals — the UK’s Newbery and Caldecott equivalents — were announced yesterday. The awards are presented annually by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP).

Sally Gardner was awarded the Carnegie Medal, recognizing "the writer of an outstanding book for children," for her novel Maggot Moon (Hot Key; reviewed and starred in the March/April 2013 Horn Book Magazine).

Levi Pinfold and his picture book Black Dog (Templar; reviewed in the September/October 2012 Horn Book Magazine) received the Greenaway Medal "for distinguished illustration in a book for children." Black Dog was also awarded a Boston Globe–Horn Book Award Picture Book Honor earlier this month.

    

Both winning books are tales of triumph over terror. In Gardner's Maggot Moon, the unlikely young hero Standish who, like his creator, is dyslexic, stands up to a sinister dictatorship whilst friends and family around him 'disappear'. Pinfold's Black Dog sees a little girl called Small Hope facing fear head-on in the form of a monstrous giant black dog. Both Gardner and Pinfold are entering the children's books hall of fame as first-time winners of the coveted golden medals.