October, October: WINNER OF THE YOTO CARNEGIE MEDAL 2022

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This is the beautifully told second novel of a remarkable new writer - Best children's books of the year 2020, The Times {Saturday Review}

I love owls - who doesn't?! The book begins with October finding a dead owl, and this is actually based on something that happened in real life. My father-in-law lives totally off-grid in his own woods, just like October and her dad. One day he found an owl that had sadly been blown out of a tree during a storm, and a story started in my mind. 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.October has an idyllic life in the forest with her father. She is a wild child, independent and free, at one with the creatures of the forest. ‘Whenever I find a new secret in the earth I put it in my treasure box and it’s like my head is full of other lives.‘ These secrets are bones and ‘feathers of a bird that could mend burns with its song’. When she finds an orphaned baby owl, Stig, she nurtures it with total commitment and determination. October and her father live in a house in the forest, and thi I am a mudlark! It's the most wonderful thing to do. You are guaranteed to find something that's hundreds of years old. I've got little jars of clay pipes and pottery on a shelf in my study. I think my favourite find is probably a whole clay pipe, a little gold button from a child's coat, and a musket ball. You can't help but wonder who they belonged to and how they ended up in the water. They're little fragments of a life. Her MA also points to another very important theme – the importance of the stories we tell ourselves and each other. ‘Stories give you a greater connection to other people. Either you understand them more or you have all shared the same story and you connect on that level. We are all part of each other’s stories.’ Stories are essential to October and it is often the objects that she finds that inspire the stories in her head. This is based very much upon Katya’s own recollections of childhood collecting. ‘Children are like magpies; they take all this stuff and incorporate it into their games… The excitement of finding a piece of green glass that you can say is The Philosopher’s Stone…’ It is only when her mother introduces her to the possibility of mudlarking, searching for objects on the shore of the Thames, that October is able to reconnect with nature, to find herself and to start to create a more hopeful story for them all. October, October, illustrated by Angela Harding, is Balen’s second novel and is about an 11-year-old called October who must learn to spread her wings after a childhood spent living wild in the woods. The world is not a simple place, and Balen draws a touching, spikey, sparky, dangerous, heartful portrait of a girl slowly learning that. - A.F. Harrold

This book feels like a secret treasure found in the woods ... earthy and magic and beautiful. I want to buy a copy for everyone I know. - Sophie KirtleyThis was the first book in which you have employed dual narrators. At what point did you decide this was necessary? Longlists Announced for 202 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals". The Yoto Carnegies. Archived from the original on 3 March 2023 . Retrieved 7 June 2023. Balen perfectly shows how easy it can be for neurotypical people like October’s mother not to understand, and that it’s (normally) due to ignorance, not malice. And although October’s situation and relationships do improve, she doesn’t “get over it”, as I imagine some stories would be tempted to end with – that wouldn’t be right. Whether she is neurodivergent or not, the story shows that it is a part of her and always will be, and shouldn’t be treated as something to be “fixed”. Balen shows us that she just requires a little more patience and consideration, which October’s mother starts to realise as the story progresses. Awards: Branford Boase Shortlist". Shelf Awareness. 6 May 2020. Archived from the original on 10 May 2023 . Retrieved 7 June 2023. He is a tutor for Arvon and Poetry School, and a Keats 2020 Poet in Residence at Keats House. Dean is based in Glasgow, and is Co-director of Scottish BAME Writers Network.

Awards: YOTO Carnegie, Kate Greenaway Winners; Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel Shortlist". Shelf Awareness. 17 June 2022. Archived from the original on 10 February 2023 . Retrieved 7 June 2023. O’Connell, Alex (12 September 2020). "October, October by Katya Balen review — a future wild classic". The Times . Retrieved 15 June 2023. Danica Novgorodoff’s illustrated edition of Jason Reynold’s 2019 Carnegie-shortlisted book, Long Way Down (Faber) wins the Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal – the first graphic novel to win since Raymond Briggs’ Father Christmas in 1973. It is her debut children’s book published in the UK and is an “innovative” adaptation of the original verse novel of gun violence and grief written by 2021 Yoto Carnegie Medal winner, Jason Reynolds ( Look Both Ways). The book features hundreds of “stunning” watercolours depicting the decision that 15-year-old Will must make when his brother is shot.Yoto, the innovative, screen-free audio platform for children, is the headline sponsor for the awards. The awards are also proudly sponsored by Peters, the official book supplier; and ALCS, champions of authors’ rights. That is until October’s eleventh birthday; until she finds the owl, and until her dad is rushed into hospital. October is pulled away from the woods, from her home, and into the care of “the woman who is her mother”. Confused and alone, trapped in a tiny house in busy London with a woman that she hasn’t seen in years (and has no interest in), October struggles to understand this new world. But maybe, if she and her mother are both willing to try, she might find that there are some good things outside of the woods after all… She wanted me to go to school and spend my weekends with her far away, but then when would I ever be wild and free and climb trees and scavenge for treasure and tell stories by a fire? a b "Balen, Novgorodoff win Carnegie, Greenaway medals". Books+Publishing. 20 June 2022. Archived from the original on 29 September 2022 . Retrieved 20 June 2022. One of this year’s shadowers, Luna from Runnymede Librarians, described The Midnight Fair as “one of a kind… a sublime book to read”, while Zion, Chioma and Jayda from St James Hatcham Book Club said, “this book will allow the reader’s imagination to run free”, and another reader, Jemima from St Margaret’s Prep added “the way the light makes everything glow is magical.” One fan of October, October, Eve from Larkmead commented: “It’s so well written, you really see the experience through her eyes”, and Lyla from Teignmouth Community School said: “I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys an adventure, is seeking a book to cry and smile over and anyone who wants a really good read”.