Patrick Ness, who was last week shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke award for Monsters of Men, is in the running for another prestigious prize - the Carnegie medal.
Ness's Monsters of Men is the final volume of his Chaos Walking trilogy, set on the planet New World, and joining it on the Carnegie shortlist are five other stories of danger and adventure. Theresa Breslin's Prisoner of the Inquisition is a tale of pirates, explorer Christopher Columbus and the menacing Spanish Inquisition, while Geraldine McCaughrean's The Death Defying Pepper Roux sees its hero take off on a series of wild escapades, including a stint with the Foreign Legion.
Meg Rosoff's The Bride's Farewell sees a bride-to-be flee from her house on the morning of her wedding, while Marcus Sedgwick's The White Crow is a gothic tale of experimentation into the afterlife set in the 17th century (both books were shortlisted for the Guardian children's fiction prize). The only debut on the list, Jason Wallace's Out of Shadows, which won the 2010 Costa award for children's fiction, is a coming-of-age tale for older teens set in Zimbabwe during the early years of Mugabe's rule.
Ferelith Hordon, Wandsworth children's librarian and chair of the Carnegie judging panel, said each of the shortlisted novels offered "a compelling narrative of its time", adding "the quality of their writing ensures that the big questions are always treated in a way that is both thoughtful and completely absorbing."
Meanwhile the Kate Greenaway illustrators' award has a stellar shortlist featuring five former winners of the prize. Children's laureate Anthony Browne is shortlisted for Me and You; having won the medal twice before, he could become the first illustrator ever to win it three times.
Also shortlisted are previous winners Bob Graham, for April Underhill, Tooth Fairy; Mini Grey, for Jim; and Catherine Rayner, for Ernest.
Juan Wijngaard, shortlisted for Cloud Tea Monkeys, first won the medal a quarter-century ago in 1985. Also in the running are Graham Baker-Smith for Father, Oliver Jeffers for The Heart and the Bottle, and Norwegian illustrator Kristin Oftedal with her first published picture book, Big Bear Little Brother.
The winners of both awards will be announced on 23 June.
