Students Present Braille Book at Carnegie Awards
The Carnegie Medal is awarded every year for the best book written for children and young people and it is the one which every author wants to win. The prize is awarded each year in a prestigious ceremony at the BAFTA headquarters in London and to our great excitement, two students from NCW were included in this year’s ceremony and invited to present a Braille copy of the winning book to the author as part of the ceremony.
The medal ceremony is the culmination of the Carnegie Shadowing scheme. The winning book is chosen from a shortlist nominated by librarians, and thanks to the wonderful RNIB National Library, NCW students get copies of the books in large print, Braille and Daisy allowing readers with a visual impairment to join in with the Shadowing scheme alongside their sighted peers. Students read as many of the books as they can, deciding for themselves which one they think should win the coveted medal.
No one from NCW was disappointed with this year’s winner, Neil Gaiman, for “The Graveyard Book” about an orphaned boy brought up in a graveyard by ghosts. And the highlight of our day at BAFTA was when our students were able to talk to Neil about his book and the difficulties that readers with visual impairment usually have when they try and get a book in an alternative format.
A huge ‘thank you’ must go to Pat Beech, the Manager of the RNIB National Library, and Hazel Sharrock and Liz Farrell, the Children’s Librarians, for making all these wonderful books available to us, and then donating them to our school library. We should also thank the people at CILIP and the Carnegie/Greenaway Awards for inviting us to the ceremony and making us so welcome!
