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Search for favourite children's book begins

Two of the books on the Carnegie 2007 shortlist
Two of the books on the Carnegie 2007 shortlist 

Adults have played the game for years but now it is the turn of children, or anyone who has memories of childhood, to have a go. A readers' poll was launched yesterday to find the nation's favourite children's book.

Votes for the most loved adult book over the decades have usually resulted in a win for Jane Austen, a Bronte or J R R Tolkein. But they are not in the running.

The new exercise is confined to finding a favourite from among the annual winners of the 70-year-old Carnegie Medal, regarded as the premier award for children's literature largely because it is judged by the nation's librarians rather than celebrities.

J K Rowling, the Harry Potter author, has never won the medal and cannot win the poll, but voters have plenty of titles to chose from.

Arthur Ransome was the first winner in 1936 for Pigeon Post from his Swallows and Amazons series.

C S Lewis won in 1956 with The Last Battle, the seventh and final novel in The Chronicles of Narnia series.

The prolific poet and novelist Walter de la Mare won in 1947 with his Collected Stories for Children and Mary Norton's much-beloved The Borrowers won in 1952.

Younger readers can pick from more hard-edged books such as Melvin Burgess's Junk (winner in 1996) about teenage heroin addiction, squatting and alcoholism, and Northern Lights (winner the year before), the first in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials anti-C S Lewis trilogy about the falsities of Christianity.

Contentiously, a panel of librarians and other children's experts has already picked its Top 10 from the past 70 winners, naming David Almond's Skellig, about a boy whose sister is dying having his life changed by a magical creature. The panel rated Burgess's Junk its second favourite book, but did not find room for Ransome, C S Lewis or de la Mare.

"We want readers to choose what they consider a classic," a spokesman for the Carnegie Medal said yesterday. "We're not saying that the panel is right. Their selection was to raise debate. People can vote for any of the winners from the past 70 years."

Carnegie also announced its six-title shortlist for the 2007 prize yesterday with Anne Fine's latest 12+ novel, The Road of Bones, pitched against two debut novels, Siobhan Dowd's A Swift Pure Cry and Beast, by Ally Kennen.

One nominated book, The Road of the Dead, by Kevin Brooks, has been described by critics as one of the most violent books ever written for children. Aimed at the 14+ age group, it is the story of a girl raped and murdered in the West Country and the search for revenge by her two brothers from London's East End.

Defending their selection of the book, the judges says: "The violence is never gratuitous. It warns about the dangers of violence."

The shortlist

The Road of the Dead
Kevin Brooks

A Swift Pure Cry
Siobhan Dowd

The Road of Bones
Anne Fine

Beast
Ally Kennen

Just in Case
Meg Rosoff

My Swordhand is Singing
Marcus Sedgwick

Top 10 previous winners

The 10 best past winners selected by a panel of library experts were:

Skellig
David Almond (1998)

Junk
Melvin Burgess (1996)

Storm
Kevin Crossley-Holland (1985)

A Gathering Light
Jennifer Donnelly (2003)

The Owl Service
Alan Garner (1967)

The Family From One End Street
Eve Garnett (1937)

The Borrowers
Mary Norton (1952)

Tom's Midnight Garden
Philippa Pearce (1958)

Northern Lights
Philip Pullman (1995)

The Machine-Gunners
Robert Westall (1975)

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