AT THE LIBRARY

January 30, 2009

What’s new in the Children’s Department

On January 26^th, the library community welcomed into its ranks the latest in children’s and teen’s award-winning books and media when the 2009 Youth Media Award announcements were made at the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in Denver, Colorado. Sixteen awards were handed out, the most prestigious among them being the John Newbery Medal, honoring the author of the year’s most outstanding contribution to children’s literature, and the Randolph Caldecott Medal, which honors the illustrator of the year’s most distinguished American picture book for children.

The Randolph Caldecott Medal has been awarded every year since 1938. This year’s winner is Beth Krommes for The House in the Night, written by Susan Marie Swanson and published by Houghton Mifflin. This simply-told bedtime poem is illustrated using a color pallet of only black, white, and a golden yellow to highlight the scratchboard images that have an old-fashioned appearance reminiscent of the technique used by Wanda Gag in Millions of Cats. The rounded edges reflect the quiet and reassuring tone of the story, which is told in the style of "The House That Jack Built": "Here is the key to the house. In the house burns a light. In that light rests a bed. On that bed waits a book…" A lovely book to share, especially at the end of the day. Preschool-Grade 1.

Caldecott Honor Books include: A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, written and illustrated by Marla Frazee ; How I Learned Geography, written and illustrated by Uri Shulevitz ; and A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams, illustrated by Melissa Sweet, written by Jen Bryant.

The John Newbery Medal has been awarded every year since 1922. This year’s winner is Neil Gaiman for The Graveyard Book, published by HarperCollins. Gaiman is perhaps best known for his graphic novel Sandman, and his audience may soon expand as filmgoers view Coraline, based on his Hugo Award-winning children’s novel. The Graveyard Book is a macabre gothic fantasy set somewhere in contemporary Britain. Young Nobody Owens, AKA "Bod", is brought up in a most untraditional fashion – he’s raised by the ghostly inhabitants of the graveyard across the street from his home after his family is murdered and he alone escapes. Like Harry Potter, the young Nobody is the true target of attack and like Harry, his new family tries to protect him from the evil Jack who is still on his trail. The book was cited for its "delicious mix of murder, fantasy, humor and human longing," and its "magical, haunting prose." Grades 5-8.

Newbery Honor Books include: The Underneath, by Kathi Appelt ; The Surrender Tree : Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom, by Margarita Engle ; Savvy, by Ingrid Law ; and After Tupac and D Foster, by Jacqueline Woodson.

Two other awards of note were presented. The Coretta Scott King Book Awards honor African American authors and illustrators of outstanding books for children and young adults. This year’s author winner is Kadir Nelson, for his book We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. Nelson also won a Coretta Scott King Honor for his illustrations. This year’s illustrator award was presented to Floyd Cooper, for the book The Blacker the Berry, written by Joyce Carol Thomas. The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for outstanding books for beginning readers was presented to Mo Willems, for his book Are You Ready to Play Outside?

Visit the Children’s Department at the library to see a display of all the winners.