American Library Association Award Winners

Congratulations to all ALA winners, especially to Margarita Engle who won a Newbery Honor Book Award. This is the first time a Hispanic author has earned Newbery recognition. Also congratulations to all my friends and teachers who won an award this year. You deserve it!

The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

Winner
*The Graveyard by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins).

Honor Books
*The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle (Henry Holt)
*The Underneath by Kathi Appelt (S&S/Atheneum)
*Savvy by Ingrid Law (Dial/Walden Media)
*After Tupac & D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam).


The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

Winner
*The House in the Night illustrated by Beth Krommes (Houghton Mifflin), written by Susan Marie Swanson.

Honor Books
*A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee (Harcourt)
*How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz (FSG)
*A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams, illustrated by Melissa Sweet, written by Jen Bryant (Eerdmans).


The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.

Winner for Illustration
*Just in Case by Yuyi Morales (Roaring Brook/ Porter)

Honor Books for Illustration
*Papá and Me, illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez, written by Arthur Davis (HarperCollins)
*The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos, illustrated by Lulu Delacre, written by Lucia Gonzalez (Children’s Book Press)
*What Can You Do with a Rebozo?, illustrated by Amy Cordova, written by Carmen Tafolla (Tricycle).

Author Book Winner
*The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle

Author Honor books
*Reaching Out by Francisco Jimenez (Houghton Mifflin)
*Just in Case by Yuyi Morales (Roaring Brook/Porter)
*The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos by Lucia Gonzalez, illustrated by Lulu Delacre (Children’s Book Press).


The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a Topeka, Kansas school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association.

Winner
*Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta (HarperTeen)

Honor Books
*The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson (Candlewick)
*The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau- Banks by E. Lockhart (Hyperion)
*Nation by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins)
*Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan (Knopf)

Given to African American authors and illustrator for outstanding inspirational and educational contributions, the Coretta Scott King Book Award titles promote understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples and their contribution to the realization of the American dream. The award is designed to commemorate the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to honor Mrs. Coretta Scott King for her courage and determination to continue the work for peace and world brotherhood.

Author Book Winner
*We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun)

Author Honor Books
*The Blacker the Berry by Joyce Carol Thomas, illustrated by Floyd Cooper (HarperCollins/Amistad)
*Keeping the Night Watch by Hope Anita Smith, illustrated by E.B. Lewis (Henry Holt)
*Becoming Billie Holiday by Carol Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Floyd Cooper (Boyds Mills/Wordsong).

Winner for Illustration
*The Blacker the Berry illustrated by Floyd Cooper, written by Joyce Carol Thomas (HarperCollins/ Amistad).

Honor Books for Illustration
*Kadir Nelson for We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun)
*Before John Was a Jazz Giant, illustrated by Sean Qualls, written by Carol Boston Weatherford (Henry Holt)
*The Moon Over Star, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, written by Dianna Hutts Aston (Dial).


The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award, established by the Association for Library Service to Children in 2001 with support from Bound to Stay Bound Books, Inc., is awarded annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished informational book published in English during the preceding year. The award is named in honor of Robert F. Sibert, the long-time President of Bound to Stay Bound Books, Inc. of Jacksonville, Illinois. ALSC administers the award.

Winner
* We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun).

Honor Books
*What to Do About Alice? by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham (Scholastic Press)
*Bodies from the Ice: Melting Glaciers and the Recovery of the Past by James M. Deem (Houghton Mifflin).

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award is given annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished American book for beginning readers published in English in the United States during the preceding year. The winner(s), recognized for their literary and artistic achievements that demonstrate creativity and imagination to engage children in reading, receives a bronze medal. The award is named for the world-renowned children’s author, Theodor Geisel a.k.a. Dr. Seuss.

Winner
Are You Ready to Play Outside? by Mo Willems (Hyperion).

Honor books
*Chicken Said, “Cluck!” by Judyann Ackerman Grant, illustrated by Sue Truesdell (HarperCollins)
*One Boy by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Roaring Brook/Porter)
*Stinky by Eleanor Davis (Raw Junior/Little Lit)
*Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator by Sarah C. Campbell, photographs by Sarah C. Campbell and Richard P. Campbell (Boyds Mills Press).


The Mildred L. Batchelder Award honors Mildred L. Batchelder, a former executive director of the Association for Library Service to Children, a believer in the importance of good books for children in translation from all parts of the world.

Winner
*Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashida, translated by Cathy Hirano (Scholastic/Levine).
Honor Books
*Garmann's Summer by Stian Hole, translated by Don Bartlett (Eerdmans)
*Tiger Moon by Antonia Michaelis, translated by Anthea Bell (Abrams/Amulet).


Schneider Family Book Award honors an author or illustrator for the artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.

Winners
*Piano Starts Here: The Young Art Tatum by Robert Andrew Parker (Random/Schwartz & Wade) won for best children’s book

*Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor (HarperCollins) won for best middle school book

*Jerk, California by Jonathan Friesen (Penguin/Speak) won for best teen book.