The Monstrous Child nominated for the Carnegie Medal

Francesca’s novel The Monstrous Child has been nominated for the prestigious CILIP Carnegie Medal. Every year children’s librarians award the Carnegie Medal for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people. The Carnegie Medal, and the Kate Greenaway Medal, which is given to an outstanding illustrated book for young people, are rightly considered the gold standard of children’s literature, and are highly coveted. The awards are unique as they are solely judged by librarians.

The longlist will be announced on 16th February, the shortlist on 16th March, with the winners at a very special ceremony on 19th June.

If you’re interested in finding out more, perhaps you’d like to know all of the nominated titles or previous winners, why not visit the awards website. You can also discover how to shadow the awards.

Next year CILIP will be celebrating 80 years of the Carnegie Medal, and 60 years of the Kate Greenaway Medal.

Fabulous Francesca Facts

"Families are great sources of comedy because they are about people trapped together. Only the parents chose to be there and the rest of you are stuck with these people that you might not necessarily like"

"Nobody feels emotions like children and with Henry, the war is constant and total. Anyone who has lived in a family has these shared experiences - the car journey from hell, nits or vomiting"

"I’ve never met a child who doesn’t love hearing stories. It’s a good way of introducing them to books and it’s a great way of getting them to understand stories that they might not be able to read themselves"

"We all love stories, it all helps making sense of the world"

"Horrid Henry speaks to the impish, rebellious child in all of us"

"My first book was called Papa Forgot and was published in 1993"

"I’ve written over fifty books"

"My birthday is 23rd February"

"I’m a bit scared of the dark"

"My hobbies are reading, cooking and going to the theatre"

"My favourite author is Anthony Trollope"

"My most disliked food is beetroot"

"My favourite colour is aquamarine"

"My favourite food is scallops"