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A funfair closes for the night. As darkness comes, forest creatures come up to the gates and soon they have found a way in. There are beautiful scenes of animals riding in carousels and dodgem cars, eating popcorn and candyfloss and having a great time. The Yoto Carnegie Medal is awarded to Katya Balen for her second novel October, October (Bloomsbury), illustrated by Angela Harding – her debut novel, The Space We’re In was longlisted in 2019. October, October is a “beautiful” and “captivating” story of a girl, October, who must learn to spread her wings after a childhood spent living wild in the woods changes dramatically the year she turns 11. The story was inspired by Balen’s father-in-law who lives off-grid, and her own love of mudlarking and the outdoors. She added: “I’m thrilled that our Yoto Carnegie shortlist showcases how friendship can help young people find the strength to navigate a path through challenging times. We’re also delighted to celebrate the power of pictures, not only on the Yoto Kate Greenaway list but in a couple of Carnegie titles too. Many of our shortlisted books remind us that art can help us to communicate and connect with young people when words sometimes fail us.” One of my favorite moments is towards the end (but I can't tell you..) something involving a wolf... Balen’s October, October has done the double and scooped this year’s Shadowers’ Choice Award for the Yoto Carnegie Medal, after tens of thousands of young people across the UK and internationally read and debated the shortlisted books before voting for their favourites. The winner of the Shadowers’ Choice Award for the Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal is The Midnight Fair (Walker Books ) illustrated by Mariachiara Di Giorgio – an illustrator, storyboard artist and concept designer from Rome, Italy – and written by Gideon Sterer. It is a heart-warming, immersive wordless picture book that uncovers the secret life of animals who prowl a fairground at night, featuring sumptuous use of colour and contrast, which invoke all the senses.
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Mariachiara Di Giorgio is an illustrator, storyboard artist and concept designer from Rome, Italy. She created her first picture book, the wordless Professional Crocodile, with writer Giovanna Zoboli in 2017. Hello Yellow - 80 Books to Help Children Nurture Good Mental Health and Support With Anxiety and Wellbeing - Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical Moments Captivating spreads by Di Giorgio ( Professional Crocodile) tell a wordless story about a night of magic for a forest’s animal denizens. . .Watching a whole forest full of creatures encounter the fair delivers a sheaf of unexpected delights—especially when they take pleasure in all the same things their human counterparts do.
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Both through the richness of its illustrations and through the book’s depiction of an ‘in-between’ liminal space, The Midnight Fair creates a magical world where the boundary between humans and animals is, for one splendid fictional night, suspended. Spread from The Midnight Fair by Gideon Sterer and Mariachiara Di Giorgio
The Midnight Fair | Centre for Literacy in Primary Education
I’m unsure how the collaboration between the writer and illustrator works on a wordless picture book. But that’s what The Midnight Fairis – a story told entirely through fantastic illustrations by Mariachiara Di Giorgino. A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
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In my book, October is saved by stories. She is isolated, unusual, angry, friendless, lost, displaced, wild. But through stories she is able to connect to the world around her, and to the people around her. Stories make her who she is, but they also help her to see who other people are too. Stories make her a part of a new world, and keep her old life alive. They connect everything and everyone, and that’s what is so magical about stories. They build us, they anchor us, they let us be wild. They are everything.” Despite all the merriment, The Midnight Fair is much more than a cute story about animals having fun. It’s entertaining and clever, but it never devolves into flippancy or silliness. Unhampered by the solidity and clarity of text, it maintains an ethereal aura of mystery and a sense of quiet dignity not often found in picture books with anthropomorphic animal protagonists. Unsurprisingly, then, this particular story thread has received complaints. But The Midnight Fairis pure fantasy. We should give kids credit for being able to enjoy a storyline while holding the truth that treating goldfish in this way is unkind.
The Midnight Fair by Gideon Sterer: 9781536211153
The Midnight Fair by Gideon Sterer, illustrated by Mariachiara Di Giorgio (Walker Books, 2020) Good to Read for: This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by At the story’s heart (for me) is a message about the difference between the worlds of human and animal, where sometimes the human world encroaches so much on the animal world that interaction is inevitable. Sterer and Di Giorgio take a light hearted look at this idea in this book, but I feel like the story has a deeper message to send.
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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. This was a short, sweet, beautifully illustrated story about animals who decide to visit a fair once all the humans go home. Like The Arrival by Shaun Tan, this is a book where the pictures tell the story. It’s shorter and less complex than Tan’s book, but very enjoyable. I could see getting a copy to share with my little nephews and niece. Porcupines as sweet carriers, animals aboard animals on the merry-go-round, Deer and Kangaroo preparing for the ghost ride, Fox at the palm reading, Bear serving hot dogs; it seems as though the possibilities are endless. Furthermore, it seems that the animals have been waiting for this moment, or are familiar and practised in the attractions available. South London-based author Katya Balen has spent her career working in SEND schools and is the co-director of Mainspring Arts, an organisation which runs creative workshops for neurodivergent people. The judges called her winning book an “evocative exploration of what it means to be truly alive and wholly human” and said that main character October was “expertly written with an incredibly authentic narrative voice, leaving the reader feeling great empathy towards her”. Meanwhile, The Times felt it “deserves classic status.”
The Midnight Fair by Gideon Sterer | Goodreads
Since childhood, author Gideon Sterer has been fascinated by those places “where human civilization bumps up against the natural world…. The edge of a cornfield against the woods. A shed overtaken by vines. An old stone staircase disappeared by time.” [Interview with Picture Book Party] With the help of a pair of crafty racoons, the funfair is suddenly brought to life. As if casting off their ‘wildness’ for one magical evening, the animals, now anthropomorphised, do everything the humans did earlier: buy popcorn, doughnuts, sweets and take part in the games and attractions, chase sugar-addled cubs and win huge cuddly versions of themselves. A young wolf cub, who looks slightly befuddled when it wins a goldfish, is particularly humorous, and a bearer of a poignant message for later. Take turns with your child to tell the story by looking at the pictures. Wordless stories like this are empowering – there are no rights or wrongs! Thursday 16 th June 2022: The winners of the UK’s longest running and best-loved book awards for children and young people, the Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards were announced today in a ceremony at The British Library. As with many wordless picture books, The Midnight Fairunfolds over a sequence of panels that recall comics/graphic novels. The fact that it is told without words is a great leveller: Pre-readers may be unable to handle the written word, but that doesn’t disqualify them as storytellers. And there’s plenty of detail in the visually stimulating Midnight Fairto spark the imagination. (The wordless nature of the story can also be considered an extension of the ‘silent spreads’ you sometimes find in picture books (for example, Where the Wild Things Are).)
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The Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Awards celebrate outstanding achievement in writing and illustration for children and young people respectively and are unique in being judged by librarians. Alongside Yoto as the headline sponsor, the Awards are sponsored by Peters and ALCS. I am honoured and humbled to receive the Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal. Working on Long Way Down, interpreting Jason Reynolds’ beautiful text into images, was a dream project for me and its own reward, but I am thrilled to find that the graphic novel has resonated with readers as well. What happens when a fair is set up and then is left overnight? The magical answer is that all sorts of woodland animals take it over, open it up and enjoy all its attractions. LoveReading4Kids exists because books change lives, and buying books through LoveReading4Kids means you get to change the lives of future generations, with 25% of the cover price donated to schools in need. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks. Home >
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