Jon Klassen/Photos courtesy of The CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Organization

Grim, honest stories prevailed to win the 2014 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals on June 23. Caldecott-winning Jon Klassen’s This Is Not My Hat (Candlewick, 2013; Walker Books in the UK) and Kevin Brooks’s The Bunker Diary (Puffin UK, 2013) took top honors in the UK’s longest running and most prestigious awards for children’s literature. Both creators are first-time winners, having been shortlisted previously, and beat out illustrious past recipients. The award presentation was livestreamed for the first time from the Unicorn Theatre in London, and the winners mentioned that children benefit from stories don’t end happily. The Greenaway, awarded by children's librarians for an outstanding book in terms of illustration for children and young people, went to Klassen’s humorous tale of a thieving fish that suffers fatal consequences for his crime. Klassen is the first Canadian and his title is the first Caldecott Medal-winning book to win the Greenaway. He was also nominated twice this year for his illustrations in Lemony Snicket's The Dark (Little, Brown, 2013). Klassen shared with the audience via livestream: “Storytelling is an act of community, of looking at one another afterward and agreeing that we enjoyed it or not. Whether the story itself portrays happiness or doom, the hope is found when we agree we liked it, and I'm so glad you liked this one." As the winner of the Greenaway Medal, he is also awarded the £5,000 Colin Mears Award cash prize.

Kevin Brooks

The Carnegie is awarded by children's librarians for an outstanding book for children and young people. Brooks’s Carnegie-winning The Bunker Diary is the fictional diary of a kidnapped boy held hostage in a bunker. After being rejected for its lack of hope, the author struggled for a decade to get the novel published. Speaking at the awards ceremony, Brooks said, "There is a school of thought that no matter how dark or difficult a novel is, it should contain at least an element of hope. As readers, children—and teens in particular—don't need to be cossetted with artificial hope that there will always be a happy ending. They want to be immersed in all aspects of life, not just the easy stuff. They're perfectly aware that in real life things aren't always all right in the end. To be patronizing, condescending towards the reader is, to me, the worst thing a young adult fiction author can do." Published in the UK by Puffin,The Bunker Diary will be available for American readers in the spring of 2015. Andrew Karre, publisher at Carolrhoda Lab, an imprint of Lerner Books known for its boundary-pushing and experimental fiction, first became interested in the manuscript at the Bologna Fair and acquired it last year. Already garnering some controversy in the UK because of its stark portrayal of abuse, Karre, a longtime fan of Brooks’s work, believes that this novel will add to the ongoing “Is YA too dark?” conversation. “It is a dark book. It is not an easy read. However, it’s well written—grim but provocatively so. In the tradition of Andrew Smith’s Marbury Lens (Feiwel & Friends, 2010), it’s the kind of work that you will find yourself thinking about for long time." In response to the backlash since the awards were announced, Brooks added, "I've got no problem with anyone having their opinion, but this just doesn't stack up. The Bunker Diary is a book about dark and disturbing subjects—it has to contain dark and disturbing things. And it is aimed at teenagers, who I know from personal experience are perfectly capable of dealing with that.... I'm not writing about this in a provocative, gratuitous, glamorizing way—it's all written about realistically and thoughtfully. And I disagree that it lacks redemption—yes it doesn't have a happy ending, but within the story there is genuine kindness and love and protection, and if that is not a positive look at how humans can behave in a desperate situation, I don't know what is," the Guardian reported. Brooks and Klassen each received £500 worth of books to donate to their local library. Past winners include C. S. Lewis, Terry Pratchett, Philip Pullman, and Sally Gardner for the Carnegie and Lauren Child, Quentin Blake, and Anthony Browne for the Greenaway. CILIP Carnegie Medal 2014 shortlist in full:

• All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry (Templar)
• The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks (Puffin)
• The Child's Elephant by Rachel Campbell-Johnston (David Fickling Books)
• Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper (Bodley Head)
• Blood Family by Anne Fine (Double Day)
• Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell (Faber & Faber)
• Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead (Anderson Press)
• The Wall by William Sutcliffe (Bloomsbury)

The CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2014 shortlist in full:

• The Paper Dolls by Rebecca Cobb (illustrator) and Julia Donaldson (author) (Macmillan Children's Books)
• Where My Wellies Take Me by Olivia Gill (illustrator) and Michael Morpurgo and Clare Morpurgo (authors) (Templar)
• The Day the Crayons Quit by Oliver Jeffers (illustrator) and Drew Daywalt (author) (HarperCollins Children's Books)
• This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen (Walker Books)
• The Dark by Jon Klassen (illustrator) and Lemony Snicket (author) (Orchard Books)
• Mouse, Bird, Snake, Wolf by Dave McKean (illustrator) and David Almond (author) (Walker Books)
• Oliver by Birgitta Sif (Walker Books)