MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
January 17 – January 24, 2008 Edition

Caldecott, Newbery
Medal Award
Winners Announced

PHILADELPHIA, PA/1/14/08–Writer and illustrator Brian Selznick has been awarded the prestigious 2008 Randolph Caldecott Medal for the artwork in his book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Scholastic). The award is given annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, for the most distinguished American picture book for children published that year. The book, uses a series of pencil sequences and text to tell a story set in early-20th-century Paris. Cabret’s mission to restore an automaton salvaged from the ruins of a museum.

The ALSC also awarded Laura Amy Schlitz the John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding American book for children, Good masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village (Candlewick).

The awards were announced January 14 at the American Library Association’s midwinter conference in Philadelphia.

Newbery Honor Books (runners-up for the Newbery award), went to: Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic/Scholastic Press); The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion);

Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam/GP Putnam’s Sons).

Caldecott Honor Books this year include: Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Ellen Levine (Scholastic/Scholastic Press); First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Roaring Brook/Neal Porter); The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtin by Peter Sís (Farrar/Frances Foster); Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems (Hyperion)

Other awards include these: 2009 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecturer, Walter Dean Myers; Mildred L. Batchelder Award, VIZ Media, publisher of Brave Story, by Miyuki Miyabe, translated from the Japanese by Alexander O. Smith; Batchelder Honor Books Milkweed Editions, publisher of The Cat: Or, How I Lost Eternity, by Jutta Richter, illustrated by Rotraut Susanne Berner, and translated from the German by Anna Brailovsky; Phaidon Press, publisher of Nicholas and the Gang, written by René Goscinny, illustrated by Jacques Sempé, and translated from the French by Anthea Bell; Pura Belpré Author Award, The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Sean Qualls (Holt); Belpré Author Honor Books: Frida: ¡Viva la vida! Long Live Life! by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand (Marshall Cavendish); Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale, retold by Carmen Agra Deedy, illustrated by Michael Austin (Peachtree); Los Gatos Black on Halloween, written by Marisa Montes, illustrated by Yuyi Morales (Holt); Pura Belpré Illustrator Award, Los Gatos Black on Halloween, illustrated by Yuyi Morales, written by Marisa Montes (Holt);Belpré Illustrator Honor Books; My Name Is Gabito: The Life of Gabriel García Márquez/Me llamo Gabito: la vida de Gabriel García Márquez, illustrated by Raúl Colón, written by Monica Brown (Luna Rising); My Colors, My World/Mis colores, mi mundo, written and illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez (Children’s Book Press) ; Andrew Carnegie Medal, Kevin Lafferty, producer, John Davis, executive producer, and Amy Palmer Robertson and Danielle Sterling, co-producers, of Jump In: Freestyle Edition.

Other awards are: Theodor Seuss Geisel Award, There Is a Bird on Your Head! by MO Willems (Hyperion); Geisel Honor Books: First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Roaring Brook/Neal Porter); Hello, Bumblebee Bat, written by Darrin Lunde, illustrated by Patricia J. Wynne (Charlesbridge); Jazz Baby, written by Lisa Wheeler, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie (Harcourt); Vulture View, written by April Pulley Sayre, illustrated by Steve Jenkins (Holt); Odyssey Award, Jazz, Live Oak Media; Odyssey Honor Audiobooks: Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy, Listen & Live Audio; Dooby Dooby Moo, Weston Woods/Scholastic; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Listening Library; Skulduggery Pleasant, HarperCollins Audio;Treasure Island, Listening Library; Sibert Medal, The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtin by Peter Sís (Farrar/Frances Foster); Sibert Honor Books: Lightship by Brian Floca (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson); Nic Bishop Spiders by Nic Bishop (Scholastic/Scholastic Nonfiction)