2015 ALA Youth Media Awards

On February 2, the American Library Association announced the winners of their Youth Media Awards.  The oldest, most prestigious, and most well-known of these awards are the Caldecott Medal (given to, "the most distinguished American picture book for children") and the Newbery Medal (given to, "the most outstanding contribution to children's literature").  For a complete list of the medal and honor books for all 22 awards, please visit this website.

This year was a fairly landmark year when it comes to these awards.  Here are this year's winners:

Caldecott Medal

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat
Beekle is an imaginary friend.  All imaginary friends live together in a magical land until they are imagined by a child and join this child in the real world.  Unfortunately, Beekle's turn never seems to come.  So he takes mattes into his own hands and journeys all alone to the real world to look for a friend.  Eventually he finds a child, Alice, who is the perfect companion.  Dan Santat's signature style really shines in this story.

Honor Books:
Nana in the City by Lauren Castillo
The Noisy Paint Box:  The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky's Abstract Art by Barb Rosenstock, illisturated by Mary GrandPré
Sam & Dave Dig a Hole by Mark Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen
Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales
The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant, Illustrated by Melissa Sweet
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki

Newbery Medal

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
Josh and his twin brother Jordan are the best there is on their middle-school basketball court.  After all, they learned the game from their father, who once won a European championship and would have played pro for the Lakers had an injury not ended his playing career.  Josh narrates this story of his own potential championship season with fantastic poetry that really captures the movement and intensity both on and off the court.

Honor Books:
El Deafo by Cece Bell
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Wilson

Thoughts
What a year!  There's so much to say that I don't even think that I can do it properly with prose.  Bullet points it is.

• NONE of the Newbery award winners are written in traditional prose.  Two are written in verse and one is a graphic novel.  Wow.  Speaking of:
• A graphic novel (El Deafo) winning a Newbery Honor!  That's a big deal.  It's never happened before.  This is history in the making, folks.  I'd seen this book in the talks but wasn't sure if or how the committee could consider it because graphic novels rely so heavily on illustration (a factor that I think that the committee is not supposed to consider when awarding this honor).  But now we have our answer, and I think it's fantastic.  Nice to see graphic novels get a little credence.  Speaking of:
• Another graphic novel (This One Summer) winning a Caldecott Honor!  This is somehow less shocking since graphic novels rely on illustration and this award is given specifically for illustration.  But somehow it's never happened before until this year.  In retrospect, this is shocking.  More literary history!  What surprises me a bit more about this particular honor is that the Caldecott is specifically for books for children up to age 14, and I really think that this particular book really pushes that limit.  Fourteen is about the youngest I'd give this graphic novel too, and I kind of feel like that's pushing it a bit.  It's worth noting that this book also was graced with another silver medal, a Printz Honor, given to outstanding books for young adults.  Still, there's no denying that these illustrations are gorgeous.
• So many Caldecotts!  Six honor books, plus the medal.  And I did not see most of these books coming - only Sam & Dave Dig a Hole and Viva Frida were really on my radar.  Not sure if that speaks to my lack of reading this year, or to this year's field of published material.  

Mock Awards

Once again the children's librarians in my system gathered together to discuss the best books of 2014 and try and predict which books would win the prestigious Caldecott, Newbery, and Printz awards. Here are the books that we loved:

Mock Caldecott:

Medal:  
Sam and Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassan
Sam and Dave are sure they will discover something exciting if they just keep digging their hole.  Little do they realize that as they dig, they are constantly just missing the treasures that they search for.  As with so many book illustrated by Jon Klassan, the pictures in this book tell a whole other side of the story that is never mentioned in the book's text.

Honors:   
Where's Mommy by Beverly Donofrio, illustrated by Barbara McKlintock
Draw! by Raúl Colón

Mock Newbery:

Medal:   
The Night Gardener by John Auxilier
Irish orphans Molly, fourteen, and Kip, ten, travel to England to work as servants in a crumbling manor house where nothing is quite what it seems to be, and soon the siblings are confronted by a mysterious stranger and secrets of the cursed house.  This book is not only creepy, but is also characterized by superb storytelling.  All subplots are woven together seamlessly, and it's fascinating how the horror elements Besides, don't you think that a shiny Newbery Medal would just look lovely on this cover?

Honors:   
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd

Mock Printz:


Medal:   
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
Born with bird wings, Ava Lavender is well aware that love has long made fools of her family. When pious Nathaniel Sorrows mistakes her bird wings for angel wings, 16-year-old Ava faces the man's growing obsession, which comes to a head with the rain and feathers that fly through the air during a nighttime summer solstice celebration.  Lyrical prose makes this work of magical realism come to life.

Honors:   
I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart 

2014 Youth Media Awards

On Monday the American Library Association announced the winners of the 2014 Youth Media Awards.  These awards are given to the best of the best in children's literature in a variety of categories.  Today I'm going to focus on the two oldest and, arguably, most prestigious awards:  The Caldecott and Newbery Medals.  To see a full list of the awards and this year's winners, click here.

Caldecott Medal

The Caldecott Medal is awarded each year to, "the most distinguished American picture book for children."  This year the award goes to a lovely piece of picture book nonfiction:  Locomotive, written and illustrated by Brian Flocca.  This book will transport readers back to the sepia-toned days of the old West, when travel by train was new and exciting.  Plenty of details about trains and train travel are provided.  For example, did you know that back in 1869 toilets on the train were nothing but a hole in the floor?  Even the text of this book is rendered beautifully, with certain words printed in a special typeface with a scale and color that really makes the text move along with the train.  This book was graced with another awards, the Sibert honor, for its roles as a great work of nonfiction for children.  Nonfiction does not often win other awards, so Locomotive's receipt of the Caldecott Medal is especially notable.

Three Caldecott Honor books were also named:

• Journey, written and illustrated by Aaron Becker
• Flora and the Flamingo, written and illustrated by Molly Idle
• Mr. Wuffles! written and illustrated by David Weisner

Newbery Medal

The Newbery Medal is awarded each year to, "the most outstanding contribution to children's literature."  This year the award goes to the book Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures, written by past Newbery winner Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by K.G. Campbell.  This this unique novel, Flora is a cynical young girl who also happens to be a fan of the comic series Terrible Things Can Happen to You.  When her neighbor accidentally vacuums up an unsuspecting squirrel, Flora discovers that Ulysses has been born anew with powers worthy of the comics, including flight, super strength, and the ability to write poetry.  Flora takes Ulysses under her wing and with the help of her squirrel friend, her unusual yet kind-hearted neighbors, and her father, she learns to overcome her cynicism and once again feel hope and love.  This novel is written mostly in lovely prose, though periodic comic-style illustrations show readers the action from Ulysses' viewpoint.  This is a fantastic book for readers of all types.

Four Newbery Honor books were also named:

• Doll Bones, by Holly Black
• The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes
• One Came Home by Amy Timberlake
• Paperboy by Vince Vawter

My Thoughts

This was a good year for picture books, and I know that I had an especially hard time predicting who the winner of the Caldecott Medal would be.  Despite this deep pool of talent I am not at all surprised to see most of the books that were granted Caldecott Medals or Honors on this list!  I'd expected Aaron Becker's Journey (which is a wordless story reminiscent of the classic Harold and the Purple Crayon but with tons of lush detail) to take the shiny gold medal, but Locomotive's charm makes it easy to accept the committee's final listing.  David Weisner's Mr. Wuffles! is also a delight, and it's definitely my favorite book from this outstanding author in quite some time.  The only real surprise for me on this list comes in the form of Flora and the Flamingo, which though certainly charming took me by surprise when it was named an honor book.  Still, it's sure to be a hit with young girls everywhere.

There were actually very few truly stand-out children's novels this year in my mind, so I was thrilled to see that my favorites from the year were all graced with awards of some kind.  I'd really expected the Medal to go to either Doll Bones or The Year of Billy Miller, both of which I found to be outstanding books.  Looking back on it, I can definitely see how Flora and Ulysses's style and charm won over the committee.  Its elegant prose, whimsical characters, and even the comic illustrations all work well together and make this novel stand out from the pack.  Time and energy permitting, reviews for these three great books may be forthcoming on this blog.  Authors Amy Timberlake and Kevin Henkes are both Wisconsin-born authors, and it's nice to see my home state represented so well at this year's awards.  Paperboy, however, was not even on my radar.  I'll need to explore this one on my own to discover what exactly it was that made this book a winner during what I felt was a off year for children's novels.  

2013 Youth Media Awards

Yesterday the American Library Association (ALA) announced the winners of the 2013 Youth Media Awards.  Nineteen different awards were given to the best of the best in children's literature.  As I have done for the past several years I will document the biggest, oldest, and most prestigious of these awards:  The Caldecott and Newbery Medals.  A full list of today's awards and their recipients can be found here. 

Caldecott Medal

The Caldecott Medal is awarded each year to, "the most distinguished American picture book for children."  This year the award goes to This Is Not My Hat, written and illustrated by John Klassen.  In this follow-up to last year's I Want My Hat Back, which was the recipient of a 2012 Theodore Seuss Geisel Honor, Klassen has crafted a similar story involving an animal's stolen hat.  This latest offering had a new cast of characters, a new color scheme, and plenty of clever humor to keep audiences happy.  One of the coolest things about this picture book is the way that the illustrations really do tell the story, adding plenty of detail that the text alone cannot provide.

A whopping five books were given Caldecott Honors:

• Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds, illustrated by Peter Brown
• Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett, illustrated by John Klassen
• Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
• One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo, illustrated by David Small
• Sleep Like a Tiger by Mary Logue, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski

Newbery Medal

The Newbery Medal is given every year to, "the most outstanding contribution to children's literature."  This year the award goes to The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.  This poetic, lyrical novel tells the story of Ivan, a silverback gorilla who lives in an exhibit at a mall.  Ivan has never really questioned his existence there and is happy enough drawing pictures with the crayons provided by his caretaker.  When a baby elephant is added to the mall's menagerie, Ivan suddenly realizes that he needs to find a better home for his new friend.  The language in this book really makes it stand out from the crowd as it brings Ivan's story to life.  The emotional story - based on real-life events - will warm your heart and bring a tear to your eye.

Three books were awarded Newbery Honors:

• Splendors and Gloom by Laura Amy Schlitz
• Bomb:  The Race to Build - and Steal - the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin
• Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

My Thoughts

This year the Youth Media Awards has yielded a varied crop of winners, some of which I expected and some of which were complete surprises.   The Caldecott, with its unusually large pool of recipients, was especially filled with surprises.  I didn't expect either This Is Not My Hat or Creepy Carrots to make the cut, though both books are full of humor and real appeal for all sorts of audiences.  I had expected that John Klassen would win the Caldecott Medal this year, but not for the book that got the big prize.  Still, it pleases me to see Extra Yarn on the list of honor books.  And how cool is it that Klassen came away with two Caldecott awards for two different books this year?  This has only happened once before in the history of the award, when Leonard Weisgard won both a Caldecott Medal and Honor in 1947.

I'd read so many good, worthy children's novels this year that it was very difficult to predict which ones would come away with the Newbery.  There are a couple of titles that I was sad to see neglected - The Unfortunate Son and The Lions of Little Rock come to mind - but generally the recipients seem to be worthy.  I was somewhat surprised to see Three Times Lucky come away with a Newbery Honor.  Personally, I just wasn't terribly enchanted by this book and might have preferred to see another "plucky girl" story (Summer of the Gypsy Moths) come away with an award instead.  But that's just me.

Mock Awards 2013

Every year my new library system does a Mock Awards day, where children's librarians from throughout the system gather to discuss the best books of the year.  Using a weighted scale, we then vote for our favorite three books in each category in an attempt to predict the upcoming winners of the Caldecott, Newbery, and Printz Medals.

Here's how our Mock Awards program worked:

Any children's librarian in the system could nominate any books she/he felt was worthy in any category.  In November a small committee of librarians, myself included, looked at the nominations and selected the 37 books that we would consider on the day of the Mock Awards program.  The 37 books broke down as follows:

20 Picture Books
11 Chapter Books
6 Young Adult Books

The books and participating librarians were then divided into five groups, with each group assigned four picture books, two chapter books, and one YA novel.  A third chapter book and a second YA novel were each assigned, one each to two different groups, due to their brevity.  It was most important that each librarian be sure to read the books assigned to his/her group, but we were encouraged to take a look at all books if we could. 

On the day of the Mock Awards program our groups met and, one category at a time, spent 15-20 minutes discussing the books assigned to our group.  We started with the picture books nominated for the Mock Caldecott category.  After discussion we then went around the room.  Each group, generally assigning a spokesperson to do so, would then share what they loved about the books they were assigned.  After hearing about each book, everyone then voted via written ballot for their first, second, and third place picks for the Caldecott award.  We then all moved on to the next award and repeated the process.

When the votes were counted, each first place vote was weighted with four points.  Second place votes received three points, and third place votes received two points.  At the end of the day the votes were tallied and the winners announced.  We named the first place vote-getter the "Mock Medal" winner, and the second and third place finishers as "Mock Honor" winners.  Since the third and fourth place finishers in this year's Caldecott group were separated by only a single point we named a third "Mock Honor" in this category.

All in all, we finished this program in a little under four hours, which included a short break period for lunch.

Here are the winners we selected in each category:

Mock Caldecott:

More by I.C. Springman, illustrated by Brian Lies
A magpie hordes away more and more little objects in his nest.  But when does it become too much?  This book has very little in the way of text - only 44 words in total - and the story is really carried by Brian Lies' lovely illustrations.  There are so many little details to look at that readers can spend a long time getting lost in the pictures.  How could I possibly forget to include this book in my list of Picture Book Picks from 2012?  It's a real winner.

Honor Books:
Oh, No! by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Eric Rohman
Sleep Like a Tiger by Mary Logue, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski
Extra Yarn by Marc Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen


Mock Newbery:

Wonder by R. A. Palacio
This book tells the story of a boy born with a facial deformity.  When he decides to go to school for the first time when he begins the fifth grade, Augie finds that the transition is full of ups and downs.  Despite Augie's struggles, he does make friends and touches the lives of those around him.  Not only is this a great story about a boy with a serious medical condition, but it is also wonderful school story dealing with some of the pitfalls of middle school - bullying, friendship, and fitting in.  This book seems to be everybody's favorite this year, and it easily took the first place spot in our Mock Newbery voting as well.  But will it come home with the big prize in a few weeks?  Only time will tell.

Honor Books:
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
The Lions of Little Rock by Kristen Levine



Mock Printz:

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
When her plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France, Julie is captured by the Gestapo.  Desperate to end her torture, she tells the enemy what they want to know so that she will survive.  But also contained in Julie's tale is the story of Maddie, the pilot who got her into France and who became her friend under these extraordinary circumstances.  This book is a powerful tale of friendship and courage that will appeal to both adults and teens.  Personally, I will be sorely disappointed if Code Name Verity doesn't walk away with the Printz Award this year as we predicted.  Awesome writing, fascinating historical setting, and strong female characters make this an easy book to love. 

Honor Books:

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

2012 ALA Youth Media Awards

It's that time of year again! Earlier today the winners of the ALA Youth Media Awards were announced. These awards are given annually to the best of the best in children's literature in a variety of categories. On this blog I'll focus my efforts on the oldest and arguably most prestigious of these awards: The Caldecott and Newbery Medals. A full list of winners and honor books for all awards, however, can be found here.

Caldecott Medal

The Caldecott Medal is awarded each year to, "the most distinguished American picture book for children." This year's winner is A Ball for Daisy, written and illustrated by Chris Raschka. In this wordless picture book, Daisy is a sweet little dog who just loves her ball. She loves to play with it and chase it and fetch it, and even loves to curl up for a nap with it. One day Daisy's owner takes her to the park to play and tragically her ball is popped by another dog. Poor Daisy! She is so saddened by the loss of her favorite toy. But the next day when Daisy and her owner return to the park, the strange dog and his owner are also there, this time with a gift: A new ball for Daisy. All is well in the world again. What impresses me most about Raschka's illustrations is the way he is able to blend simplicity and unevenness to tell Daisy's story. I especially love the images of Daisy sleeping on the couch. Raschka paints a striped couch, but leaves out the lines that specifically detail the arms, cushins, ect. Only Daisy's presence on the sofa indicates where these dimension lines should be. The result is a cozy feeling that seems to reflect Daisy's mood perfectly.

Three Caldecott Honor books were also named:
-Blackout written and illustrated by John Rocca
-Grandpa Green written and illustrated by Lane Smith
-Me, Jane written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell

Newbery Medal

The Newbery Medal is given every year to, "the most outstanding contribution to children's literature." This year's award was given to Jack Gantos for his novel Dead End in Norvelt. A description of the book, taken from Gantos' website, follows: "Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is the story of an incredible two months for a boy named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation adventure are suddenly ruined when he is grounded by his feuding parents for what seems like forever. But escape comes where Jack least expects it, once he begins helping an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore—a chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, obituaries, Hells Angels, and countless bloody noses. Endlessly surprising, this sly, sharp-edged narrative is the author at his very best, making readers crack up at the most shocking things in a depiction of growing up in an off-kilter world where the characters are as unpredictable and over-the-top as they come."

Two Newbery Honor books were also named:
-Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
-Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin

My Thoughts

Predicting who will win the Caldecott Medal is, in my opinion, incredibly difficult given the number of beautiful picture books published every year. A Ball for Daisy is truly a worthy winner. I have a very soft place in my heart for wordless picture books so I was especially pleased to see this book take home the big prize. Quiet, sweet books that tug at your heartstrings, just as Daisy and the other Honor books do, have also been popular in recent years and it was interesting to see this trend continue.

Recent trends also continued to be seen in this year's Newbery award. Historical fiction remains popular, and every book granted a Newbery Medal or Honor this year was a work of this genre. Other Newbery surpises did make an appearance as well. Though I wasn't too incredibly shocked to see the big medal awarded to Gantos for Dead End in Norvelt (there had been plenty of buzz), I was rather surprised at the omission of Gary Schmidt's book Okay for Now from any kind of award. Breaking Stalin's Nose also blindsided this reader - this book wasn't even on my radar. Fortunately, the book sounds like an interesting read and I'm eager to get my hands on it.

Hugo

Not too long ago, I was given a copy of Brian Selznick's book The Invention of Hugo Cabret for Christmas. This coincided brilliantly with the release (and my subsequent viewing) of the movie "Hugo," based on this Caldecott Medal-winning book.



For those of you not familiar with the book that this movie is based on, please do yourselves a favor and track down a copy today. At 533 pages long, the books is certainly thick and heavy and may seem intimidating at first. But when you open up the book, you will quickly discover that more than half of the pages feature stunning pencil illustrations! Despite its heft, The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a fairly quick read that will keep readers turning the pages.

Hugo is a young boy living in the walls of a Paris train station in 1931. An orphan, his survival relies on his ability to remain hidden and keep the station's clocks in order. But soon Hugo crosses paths with an old toy seller and his secrets are slowly revealed. What follows is a fascinating mystery connecting Hugo's dead father, a mechanical man, a key, and silent movies.

Brian Selznick's acclaimed book is a fascinating piece of storytelling. The way that words and pictures are combined to create a sort of movie in book form is absolutely inspired. I was a tad anxious about the movie version as I feared that some of the magic would be lost on the big screen. Fortunately, in the end the movie did not disappoint.

Directed by Martin Scorsese, "Hugo" manages to capture all of the brilliance of the book. The cinematography is very well done and helps to set the tone and feel of the movie in the same way that the pictures did for the book. It is also worth noting that very little in the movie seemed to be obviously computer generated. This tone of realism is necessary for a film set in this time period and is especially important given its focus on early silent films - early filmmakers didn't have access to computer graphics, so it is fitting that "Hugo" uses such graphics very little and integrates what they do use seamlessly.

The film generally stays very true to the book in terms of story, the greatest notable change being the development of the station inspector's character. Hugo's interest in magic is also greatly glossed over, allowing the movie to focus more on his relationship to his father. Even with these alterations, the story is still completely absorbing and the setting atmospheric. I highly recommend the film to all fans of the book, as well as to anyone who is a fan of movies.

Overall Grade (Book): A+
Overall Quality of the Film: A
Overall Faithfullness to the Book: A-

*disclaimer* I saw this movie in 2D, not 3D. I debate if 3D would detract from the old-fashioned, magical tone of the film. Then again, what do I know?

Sandy's Favorites 2011 - Picture Books

With 2011 quickly drawing to a close, it's time once again for this librarian to share her favorite reads of the year!

According to my Goodreads.com account, I have read a grand total of 130 books this year. I also currently have two more in progress and reserve the right to finish them before the clock strikes midnight on December 31. Almost all of these books were written for children or teens, and most were written in 2011 (though several were published in late 2010, and a few were even older). But which of these books were my favorites?

In today's post we're going to take a look at books generally written for our youngest readers: Picture Books!

Though I did a better job of tracking the picture books I had read than in years past, only a fraction of the picture books that I read (generally the ones I loved) made it onto my Goodreads account. C'est la vie. But still, I'm confident enough to share what I think were the best of the best this year.

The Princess and the Pig by Jonathan Emmett, illustrated by Poly Bernatene
Such a clever story, and one that I'd give to my princess-loving preschoolers without any hesitation at all. Emmett does such a good job of incorporating little details from well-known fairy tales into the story, and the illustrations are just a lot of fun to look at.

A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka
Raschka's style is always fun to look at, and this wordless picture book about a dog and her favorite toy tugs at your heartstrings just enough. This is my hopeful pick for a Caldecott Medal next month.

Blackout by John Rocco
The stylized artwork found in this book really cool. Rocco does a pretty good job of playing with light in his illustrations and the book's message about making time for your family is sweet.

Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku by Lee Wardlaw, illustrated by Eugene Yelchin
I have a complicated relationship with haiku. Sometimes it's amazing, and other times I just think it's silly. Fortunately, the poetry in this particular book is just perfect. It seems to be the perfect way to give voice to a cat - brief, just a little snobby, but also regal and lovely.

Horray for Amanda and her Alligator by Mo Willems
I don't know how Mo Willems manages to be so brilliant, but he really did an amazing job with his latest picture book. One part picture book and one part easy reader, this book will be accessable to a lot of different kinds of readers. And we just haven't been able to keep it on the shelf here at the library!

What were your favorite picture books this year? Discuss in the comments.

Edit 1/23/12: I was right - congratulations to Chris Raschka for winning the 2012 Caldecott Medal for A Ball for Daisy! Further congratulations to John Rocco for winning a 2012 Caldecott Honor Medal for Blackout.

ALA Youth Media Awards

It's that time of year again! On January 10, the eyes of readers, teachers, librarians, and the publishing world were turned toward the American Library Association (ALA) as they announced the winners of their coveted awards. Nineteen awards were given including the Coretta Scott King Awards (given to African-American authors and illustrators), the Theodore Seuss Geisel Award (given to the most distinguished books for early readers), and the Robert F. Siebert Medal (given to the most distinguished informational books for children). Congratulations to this year's award winners! For a full listing of the awards given and their recipients, click here.

But of course everyone especially wants to hear about the two oldest and most prestigious awards, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals. Let's take a moment to recognize the winners of these awards:

Newbery Medal

The Newbery Medal is given every year to, "the most outstanding contribution to children's literature." This year's winner was Moon over Manifest written by Clare Vanderpool. Set in 1936, Abilene feels somewhat abandoned as her father puts her on a train to his boyhood home of Manifest, Kansas while he goes off to work a railroad job. She quickly makes friends and the trio uncovers a mystery surrounding a spy named Rattler. Through they are warned to leave well enough alone, Abilene and her friends keep digging, hoping to uncover exactly what Abilene's father's role in the historic mystery is. Moon over Manifest was a bit of surprise to many. Published somewhat late in the year, the book had yet to be recognized by many Newbery predictors. Still, the book has been touted by reviewers for its colorful characters, historic details, and believable dialogue.

Four other books were recognized as Newbery Honor books:
-Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm
-Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus
-Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman
-One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Caldecott Medal

The Caldecott Medal is awarded each year to, "the most distinguished American picture book for children." This year's winner is A Sick Day for Amos McGee, written by Philip C. Stead and illustrated by Erin E. Stead. In this quiet tale, zookeeper Amos McGee always makes time for his five animal friends the elephant, tortoise, penguin, rhinoceros, and owl. But when he is sick and unable to come to work, the animals decide to visit their friend, taking the bus trip that distinctly mirrors Amos' daily ride. Amos is delighted when the animals arrive, and together the friends share a delightful day. This is a beautiful tale of kindness returned and the bond between Amos and his animal friends is simply lovely. Illustrations have been created using soft colors and woodblocking prints, which along with the story's themes give this book a timeless quality.

Two other books were recognized as Caldecott Honor books:
-Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave, written by Laban Carrick Hill and illustrated by Bryan Collier
-Interrupting Chicken, written and illustrated by David Ezra Stein

My Thoughts

This year's award winners include a number of lovely selections. Given the amount of hype that had surrounded One Crazy Summer I, like many other children's literature geeks, had expected this book to walk away with the top Newbery prize. I'm curious to see how the surprise Moon Over Manifest measures up. Dark Emperor's exciting Newbery Honor is also worth noting. The poetry in this book is lovely, and it isn't often that you see a picture book-style work given a Newbery award of any kind.

If you haven't checked out A Sick Day for Amos McGee, do yourself a favor and track it down. This is a picture book that is, I hope, destined to stay with us for quite some time. Some also complain about a lack of humor to be found in award-winning books, and it was very nice to see this rule overthrown with Interrupting Chicken's award.

I also think it's worth noting that one book from each of these two big awards was also recognized with a Coretta Scott King award. Such cross-overs have happened in the past, and it's nice to see so many high-quality multicultural books garnering the extra attention that comes from the Newbery and Caldecott Medals.

2010 ALA Youth Media Awards

It's that time of year again! Just a few days ago the ALSC, the children's division of the American Library Association, announced their choices for their prestigious awards. I'd like to take a moment to recognize the great titles that won the two big awards, the Newbery and the Caldecott Medals. To see a full list of winners for all of the awards, including the awards for easy readers, non-fiction, and audiobooks, check out this link.

Newbery Medal
The Newbery Medal is awarded every year to, "the most outstanding contribution to children's literature." A few weeks ago I tried to predict who the winners in this category would be. Exciting news - I called the big winner! The gold medal went to Rebecca Stead's wonderful novel When You Reach Me, a story of a girl in 1979 who goes through a strange series of events involving her former best friend, a mysterious letter, and perhaps even time travel. This was definitely a great choice for the award as it was captivating and beautifully written, giving a bit of a nod to well-loved favorite A Wrinkle in Time.

While I did not manage to predict ANY of the honor books (and in fact somehow managed to miss reading several of them) the books selected are, from what I've heard through the grapevine, worthy choices. The honor books are:

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick

Caldecott Medal
The Caldecott Medal is given every year to the, "most distinguished American picture book for children." This year's big winner is a stunning piece of work - The Lion and the Mouse by highly acclaimed author and illustrator Jerry Pinkney. This wordless retelling of Aesop's popular fable features gorgeous pencil and watercolor illustrations and invites readers to tell the story in their own words.

The honor books are:

All the World, illustrated by Marla Fraze and written by Liz Garton Scanlon.

Red Sings from the Treetops: A Year in Colors, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski and written by Joyce Sidman.

My Thoughts
This year's selection of winners are all excellent. The one big surprise that I saw was in awarding the Newbery Honor to The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg. While an excellent book in its own right, I really thought that certain other books were better written and more worth of the award. But oh well - surprises like this keep things interesting.

Congratulations to the winners!

Wordless Picture Books

Not too long ago I posted about the Owly series of graphic novels and talked a bit about how these books are so accessible because of the fact that they contain almost no words and tell the story using only pictures and symbols. There are plenty of other books that use similar techniques, telling the story with art instead of words. Here are a few of my favorites:

David Wiesner is a master of the wordless picture book. He has numerous awards under his belt for such stories, including a whopping three Caldecott Medals and two Caldecott honors. While many of Wiesner's books are wordless and all are equally worth checking out (seriously, go and get your hands on Tuesday and Flotsam), my favorite is The Three Pigs, which won the Caldcott Medal in 2002. The book opens seeming to be the traditional story that we all know and love, but when the Big Bad Wolf arrives he huffs and puffs and blows the pigs right out of their story! The pigs find themselves in a place that seems to be behind their tale, and the three wander - and even fly - from story to story meeting other characters along the way. What few words there are in this book seem to be more of a part of the illustration to be explored along with the drawings, rather than a text that needs to be read aloud. Perhaps it's the former English major in me, but I love the way that this book explores the narrative process, seeming to discuss ways that the imagination brings together tales that don't initially seem to have any real connection. Just like we all do, the pigs float from story to story, exploring as much as they like and taking the parts that they really need with them back to their own lives. Besides, the illustrations themselves are pretty darn awesome, and I love the way that Wiesner uses different styles for each story that the pigs enter.

Overall Grade: A+

This year, one picture book that's been getting some Caldecott talk for 2010 is Jerry Pinkney's wordless retelling of The Lion and the Mouse. This beloved Aesop's Fable is told in gorgeous pencil and watercolor illustrations that portray both the Majesty of the lion and the Serengeti, but also the beauty and detail of smaller creatures like the mouse. The illustrations are simply stunning and will demand your full attention as you page through the story. Part of the beauty of illustrating this very familiar story wordlessly is that it becomes nearly effortless for children and their parents to put words to the story themselves as they look at the illustrations - and narrative retelling is one of the necessary skills that a child needs to have in order to be able to read effectively!

Overall Grade: A

You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum is an interesting tale by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman. A girl visits the famous gallery with her grandmother and ties her yellow balloon to the railing. However, the balloon escapes anyway and floats off to have its own series of adventures. Reproductions of paintings featured at the Met are included with Weitzman's pencil drawings as the girl and her grandmother look at them at the museum. The action in these paintings always seems to reflect the balloon's adventures, giving viewers two separate but parallel stories. Weitzman has created two other picture book that follow the same format where other art galleries are visited: the Museum of Fine Arts, and the National Gallery.

Overall Grade: A

Black and White

I've been meaning to do a post like this for a few months now, ever since it was announced that this year's Caldecott Medal was given to illustrator Beth Krommes for her work on the book The House in the Night. Often when we think of picture books, we imagine books filled with vibrant colors that will attract kids' attention. But there are lots of great books done in black and white as well! Here are just a few:

The House in the Night, written by Susan Marie Swanson and illustrated by Beth Krommes, is a cumulative rhyme (think of songs like "The Farmer in the Dell" and "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea" for other example of cumulative rhymes). As the story progresses, we follow a child through the house to her bedroom and watch her open a book and journey out into the night sky on the backs of the birds that emerge from it. This is a quiet, soothing bedtime story, and the black and white illustrations, which look like woodcuts, show the darkness of the night. However, some objects (the key, a lamp, the moon) glow with golden light, shining brightly against the blackness and creating a cozy space within this house.

Overall Grade: A

Another Caldecott Medal goes to author and illustrator Kevin Henkes for his book Kitten's First Full Moon. In this story, a kitten sees the full moon for the first time. Not understanding what it is, the kitten imagines that the moon is a giant bowl of milk and sets off to find it. The intrepid kitten unfortunately can never seem to catch up to the moon, and it is always out of reach. Will she ever find her bowl of milk? The illustrations in this story are done in gouache and colored pencil, which allows some absolutely brilliant shading that shows the dark of the night along with the light of the moon. Something about the big illustrations and the use of white space on the pages with words also makes this book feel very large, just like the world that Kitten finds herself exploring. This is a very sweet picture book that makes for a soothing read-aloud.

Overall Grade: A+

Chris Van Allsburg has done a lot of great picture books over the years, many of which are done in black and white. Among my favorites of his books is Zathura, the sequel to the award-winning book Jumanji. This this story, Walter is a young boy who is fed up with his younger brother Danny. But when the two of them find the game of Jumanji and a hidden second board, the two find themselves in a wild outer space adventure filled with such challenges as evil robots and lots of trouble with gravity. Will the two be able to finish the game? These black and white illustrations are highly textured when showing the inside of Walter and Danny's house, but the sky becomes an even, milky black when showing the vastness of outer space. Unlike the other books previously mentioned, the black and white illustrations are not necessarily soothing and the textured surfaces add excitement and interest to this adventure story.

Overall Grade: A

ALA Award Winners

It's that time of year again! This morning, the American Library Association (ALA) announced the books selected by is subcomittee ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children) for its prestigious annual awards. I'm only going to focus here on the Newbery and Caldecott awards, but the ALA gives a large number of other awards in areas such as easy readers, non-fiction, and audiobooks. You can find a (mostly) complete listing of today's award winners here.

Other famous awards are granted by other ALA committees. Information about the Coretta Scott King award, given for works by African-American authors and illustrators, can be found here. Information about the Printz Award, given to books for young adults, can be found here.

Newbery Medal
This award is given annually to, "the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children". This year's big winner is The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. This award was a touch surprising. I wasn't terribly shocked to see this book recognized by the ALA, but I was surprised that it managed to win the Medal given the number of other great books this year. This is not an unhappy surprise, however - the book is very well put-together and will definitely appeal to children who are looking for a suspenseful scare.

The honor books are:

• The Underneath by Kathi Appelet
• The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle
• Savvy by Ingrid Law
• After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson

Caldecott Medal
This award is given annually to, "the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children". This year's winner is The House in the Night, illustrated by Beth Krommes written by Susan Marie Swanson. This book is done is beautiful black and white woodcuts. On each page, sources of light are done in a golden orange color, making them stand out against the otherwise dark night. This book would make a soothing bedtime story, and its unique artwork makes it a fairly worthy winner.

The honor books are:

• A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, written and illustrated by Marla Frazee
• How I Learned Geography, written and illustrated by Uri Schulevitz
• A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams, illustrated by Melissa Sweet and written by Jen Bryant

My Thoughts

Overall, I'm pleased with this year's award winners. I'm excited that at least two of this year's Newbery winners, The Graveyard Book and Savvy are books that I could comfortably recommend to children - heck, kids will probably actually pick these books off of the shelf on their own! While I'm not terribly enthralled with this year's Caldecott Medal, it is a fairly unique and beautiful book that is worthy of being recognized.

The biggest problem this year can be found in the books that got passed up! The Hunger Games, one of my favorite books of the year, was completely passed up by both the Newbery and the Printz committee. I'm just hoping that they're pulling a Lord of the Rings on us and saving an award in the expectation that the last book in the trilogy will be the best. I just hope that we're not disappointed in this.

Another book that really got passed up was We Are the Ship, a book about Negro League baseball that was on a lot of people's lists for both the Newbery and Caldecott. While it did get the nod from the Coretta Scott King committee, its quality was so great that the fact that is did not get recognized by the other awards was surprising. Perhaps the fact that this book qualified for an "ethnic" award boxed it in and made committee members reluctant to recognize it in other ways.

Anyone else have thoughts about this year's award winners? What did you like? What don't you like?