JUDGES CITE ‘POWERFUL EMOTIONAL PUNCH’ DELIVERED BY TWO BOOKS THAT EXPLORE LIFE THROUGH A CHILD’S EYES What is the most significant change you have seen within your work as your career has progressed? Did it surprise you?

Not all picture book illustrators write the story, nor do they need to. However, here is a book that essentially has a shared narrative in text and in illustration. At first it is unclear why the child, who I took to be a little boy, is travelling alone on public transport. It is a cold, dark, frightening city that he emerges into, rain lashes down, becomes sleet, becomes snow, but still the child marches on alone across traffic-heavy roads. He takes no notice of passers-by, and they ignore him. At first he appears to be about 4 years old, but is perhaps 8 or 9. Whatever, he’s a child alone.

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This year’s Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal winners are compelling stories told from a child’s viewpoint that deliver a powerful emotional punch. Look Both Waysis a breathtakingly gripping collection of intertwined stories brimming with humour, empathy, and humanity. Each story has its own heart with deft characterisation and narrative voices that feel child-like and completely real and recognisable making it identifiable for children and adults alike. It’s such an innocent tale which covers hard hitting issues including bullying, homophobia and bereavement. The title sums up the way it challenges the reader to see differently in an engaging and fresh way. Look Both Ways features 10 intertwining, interconnecting stories from the international bestselling author Jason Reynolds about those 15 minutes of unsupervised independence; the walk home from school. Setting descriptions, poems, diary entries, dialogue, letters of advice, lost posters Main Outcome: Things to do in La Rochelle Malaga’s Pompidou Centre modern art museum (Alamy) 6. Malaga, Spain (pop 591,000)

A girl is narrating the story for us telling us it's okay to feel small in the city, but we will make it. She gives tips on how best to survive the big city and how she does it. The girl is on the bus by herself and walking around the town by herself. Man, as a parent, I would think you have to have so much faith that your kid is going to be okay in such a big place. That would be tough knowing all that can happen.The first picture book that the award-winning Sydney Smith has both written and illustrated is a story about feeling small in the city — and finding your way home. Ellen Krajewski, Chair of the 2021 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals judging panel, comments: Centre for Literacy in Primary Education and the English and Media Centre create expert teaching resources for the shortlisted books. As the girl (or boy—it could be either) makes her way through dark and sometimes foreboding scenes, she describes the people “who don’t see you,” and the disorienting sights and sounds of the city.

As a writer, this book got me thinking about my approach to storytelling. Is there a way to incorporate something unexpected? To surprise the reader? Have I experimented enough? Being small can be overwhelming in a city. People don't see you. The loud sounds of the sirens and cyclists can be scary. And the streets are so busy it can make your brain feel like there's too much stuff in it. But if you know where to find good hiding places, warm dryer vents that blow out hot steam that smells like summer, music to listen to or friends to say hi to, there can be comfort in the city, too.Too often I have a problem that after the sketches are approved, I compare the quality of the finals to that of the sketches. The sketches embody an impromptu quality that can’t be repeated. In some of those cases I changed the image altogether after realizing the sketches work not because of their merit as a plan for something bigger but as a complete piece on their own. Rough and loose. As a human, it got me thinking about the habitual thought patterns that lead us in certain directions, sometimes based on incorrect assumptions. I knew that before I got too carried away I needed to look at other books about snow and the city. But I was terrified that the story I was working on had been written before. Part of me was braced for that crushing discovery. In Look Both Ways I wanted to explore who it is that children are when the watchful eye of adults aren’t around. So often, children’s literature takes place either at school or at home but there’s an in-between that is the journey home. And even though they all sit in the classroom together, when that bell rings they go separate ways and go through separate things, as we all go through separate journeys in life, that influence and impact who it is that we are when we show up the following day. But the miracle of life is the idea that if we were to trust this process, believe in the power of humanity and speak to one another, no matter who you are or where you are from, all over the world there is a good chance that if we speak to each other long enough, we will probably have someone in common and that’s important, because it’s really difficult to hate someone when the two of you love the same person.