What Did They Do To Deserve That?

Questions about the naming and changing of literary awards

A few months ago, I heard via a petition that the famous Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration had been renamed and that thousands in the book industry were against this change. Both awards are to be known as the Yoto Carnegies (Medal for Writing / Medal for Illustration). Yoto, now the headline sponsor of the awards, is a company that makes screen-free audio players.

I felt moved to write about Kate Greenaway, the Carnegies, and this decision. Not to decisively argue that the award should be called the Kate Greenaway Medal until the end of time, nor to write a hit-piece on the library professionals who run the awards and only want the same thing we all want — for books, their creators, and childhood readers to be celebrated and elevated — but to think about legacies and where we place value, and to examine the figures we preserve and those we quietly erase.