Sharon Creech has become the first American to win the CILIP Carnegie Medal for children's writing, for her book Ruby Holler. This also makes her the first author to win both the Carnegie and its US equivalent, the Newbery Medal, for her previous book, Walk Two Moons.

The shortlist for the 2002 Carnegie Medal for children's fiction pits a first-time novelist, Kevin Brooks, against the children's laureate, Anne Fine. The list also includes two previously shortlisted authors, Sharon Creech and Alan Gibbons.