Focusing a spotlight on “the best of the best” as the American Library Association calls its awards presentation at its annual mid-winter conference benefits everyone. The awards announcement brings to the fore books a committee of thoughtful, bleary eyed–from all that reading--librarians judge to be quality, literary books. Before and after the awards are announced Newbery “buzz” inspires discussion among writers, teachers, librarians, parents, avid readers of children’s books, and authors, the ones who won, the ones who were considered on the short list, and the ones who look to the winners as models for making their own work better. Young readers become the ultimate winners because the bar for quality literature is kept high.
For a complete list of winners announced this past Monday see the website for the American Library Association!
Happily, I reviewed a number of those honor and medal winners, and they are linked here. Others that I haven’t read are now on my to-read list so I'll know what everybody else is talking about.
Coretta Scott (Author)Book Award recognizing an African American author of outstanding books for children and young adults
Winner: One Crazy Summer by
Rita Williams-Garcia
YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults finalist:They Called Themselves the K.K.K.:The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Literature Written for Young Adults honor book: Stolen by
Lucy Christopher
Pura Belpre (Author) Award honoring a Latina writer whose books best portray, affirm, and celebrate the Latino cultural experience.
Winner: The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan,Illustrated by Peter Sis
Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picturebook for children
Honor Book:
Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature
Honor Books:
Dark Empire by Joyce Sidman
One Crazy Summer by
Rita Williams-Garcia
Heart of a Samurai by Marji Pieres (Read weeks ago and to be blogged along with several books relating to Samurai warriors and their code of honor.)
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Hillview School Library
I'm going to have to get cracking on my reading list!
ReplyDeleteOver 20,000 children's books were published last year. No wonder we are surprised when we see "best" lists and discover titles we never heard before. And now the 2011 titles are flooding in. Speed reading, anyone?
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