Children's Book Awards

This is an exciting time of year for Librarians!  Every January awards are given for books published the previous year.  There are dozens of different awards given for the best story, the best picture book, the best science fiction, etc.  The ones I am most interested in are the John Newbery Award (for the most distinguished children’s novel) and the Randolph Caldecott Award (for the best picture book).  Several of the authors we have hosted at the Lower School have been award winners* and have related some interesting stories about being notified and the subsequent ceremonies.  The Newbery committee, in particular, enjoys calling the recipient writer in the early morning hours and waking them up with the news.  (To see a picture of Grace Lin, last year’s DLS visiting author, in her pajamas getting the news that her book Where the Mountain and the Moon, won this year’s Newbery Honor Award, check out her blog at https://www.outergrace.blogspot.com/)

This year’s Newbery winner is When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.  Newbery Honors went to Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Philip Hoose, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly, and The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick.

The Caldecott Award went to The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney.  The Caldecott Honors books are All the World by Marla Frazee and illustrated by Liz Garton Scanlon, and Red Sings from the Treetops: a Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski.  For a complete list of awards and winners visit https://www.ala.org/ala/awardsgrants/index.cfm

*Lower School visiting Authors who have won the Newbery, Newbery Honor, Caldecott or Caldecott Honor include David Wisniewski, Mordicai Gerstein, Robert San Souci, Patricia Reilly Giff, Jack Gantos, Grace Lin, and Eric Kimmel.