Monday, January 26, 2009

Caldecott , Newbery & more

Falling under the category of better late than never, here are the Caldecott and Newbery Medal announcements from ALA:


John Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to children’s literature. Neil Gaiman, author of “The Graveyard Book,” illustrated by Dave McKean and published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, is the 2009 Newbery Medal winner.


Four Newbery Honor Books were named: “The Underneath” by Kathi Appelt, illustrated by David Small, and published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing; “The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom” by Margarita Engle and published by Henry Holt and Company LLC; “Savvy” by Ingrid Law and published by Dial Books for Young Readers, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group in partnership with Walden Media, LLC; “After Tupac & D Foster” by Jacqueline Woodson and published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, a division of Penguin Books for Young Readers.


Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children. Beth Krommes, illustrator of “The House in the Night,” written by Susan Marie Swanson and published by Houghton Mifflin Company, is the 2009 Caldecott Medal Winner.


Three Caldecott Honor Books were named: “A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever,” written and illustrated by Marla Frazee and published by Harcourt, Inc.; “How I Learned Geography,” written and illustrated by Uri Shulevitz and published by Farrar Straus Giroux; “A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams,” illustrated by Melissa Sweet, written by Jen Bryant and published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.


- American Library Association Announces Literary Award Winners, 1/26/09


A quick look at the library catalog from home reveals we have the Newbery award winner and all but one of the honor books (After Tupac and D Foster); all are currently checked out and three of them have had holds placed on them. It never takes long for word to get out and requests to appear in the catalog. I've seen the Neil Gaiman title but not had the opportunity to read it.

We have the Caldecott winner and all but one of the honor books (River of Words). I have to admit though we have The House in the Night, I do not remember even seeing it come through technical services and cataloging. I will be interested to see it tomorrow (unless the person who checked out the book was not the cataloger).

YALSA announced their Alex Award winners as well and I will be ordering those tomorrow. Alex award winners are a bit harder to add into the collection as they fall in to several purchasing/budget categories, recreational, literature, and juvenile, some of which overlap. With general money I have opportunity to look at books for older young adults and starred reviews for recreational, but some lines within the purchasing hierarchy are not to be crossed. We do have Just After Sunset and Over and Under in the recreational collection. I have a bit of general funds remaining and will be able to purchase the other Alex winners.

Lastly, I will need to verify which of the Coretta Scott King winners need to be added to reserves, the author or the illustrator award titles. My best guess is the illustrator title, but it will take time as The Blacker The Berry was ordered just this morning. All of these titles were checked out today; if they are not being held for course reserves, the instructor made a quick trip to the library and checked out the books for her class today. Either way works as then she will be able to make the determination what gets added to her course reserve collection.

Not having read any of the above, at this point I can only report the winners. I guess those months of library web site work exacted it's toll in regard to my reading habits. Tomorrow I will post the results on the resource center and library blogs with links to our catalog.

Wonder what the children's literature blogosphere will have to say?

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