Everybody Wins!

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.)

For Newbery Fans

Every January at their mid-winter meeting, the American Library Association (ALA) announces the Newbery Medal winner. The author of the winning title appears on national tv the very next day. Sales of the winning book escalate. Enter any library or bookstore and you’ll see Newbery winners set aside, waiting for you to realize you need these books. They have been adjudged and acclaimed quality literature. That’s how I discovered THE DARK FRIGATE by Charles Boardman Hawes whose book won the 1924 Newbery. Alas! The author died in 1923.

Two Newbery medalists are related. Do you know the only father and son authors to win the Newbery? They are the Fleischmans, Sid and Paul. Sid is the father and of course, the older, but his energy and his continued outpouring of lighthearted and humorous books make him seem ageless. Both have written many books and won numerous awards. Sid Fleischman’s Newbery winner was THE WHIPPING BOY, 1987. Only two years later, Paul, the son, won for JOYFUL NOISE, 1989.

My bookshelves are home to a Fleischman section.

By Sid: HUMBUG MOUNTAIN, MR. MYSTERIOUS & COMPANY, and the hilarious McBroom series which kept my children giggling for many hours.
By Paul: WHIRLIGIG, GRAVEN IMAGES (Newbery Honor), SEEK,

and many others from both writers.

Both published new books in 2009:
THE DREAM STEALER (Sid)
THE DUNDERHEADS (Paul)

Check your own shelves for Fleischman favorites. If your children are grown but haven’t yet moved their books, you might find you already have several written by this father and son duo. And if you don’t have any, you have lots to discover.

To me, father and son do not write alike. The common thread is talent. Everything else is a great story told well by master craftsmen. What do you think?