The CILIP Carnegie Medal is awarded annually to the writer of an outstanding book written in English for children and young people. This is the award's 80th year.
Here are the eight authors on the 2017 shortlist (click on them to view their shortlisted book). We have copies of all eight books here in the Blackstone Library for you to enjoy.
Which one do you think should win the Carnegie Medal this year?
The official winner will be announced on Monday 19th June 2017.
The Carnegie Medal was established in 1936, in memory of the great Scottish-born philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919). Carnegie was a self-made industrialist who made his fortune in steel in the USA. His experience of using a library as a child led him to resolve that "if ever wealth came to me that it should be used to establish free libraries."
Carnegie set up more than 2800 libraries across the English speaking world and, by the time of his death, over half the library authorities in Great Britain had Carnegie libraries.
First awarded to Arthur Ransome for 'Pigeon Post', the winner receives a golden medal and £500 worth of books to donate to a library of their choice.
49-year-old music manager turned novelist Ruta Sepetys wins the CILIP Carnegie Medal for the first time for Salt to the Sea (Puffin), a New York Times-bestselling novel that explores the events leading up to the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, the worst maritime disaster in history in which over 9,000 people, mainly refugees, perished. The daughter of a Lithuanian refugee, with a family connection to the disaster, Ruta spent three years researching the book, walking the path of some of those refugees who saw the boat as their salvation but who ultimately lost their lives.