The Newbery Caldecott Awards Banquet

Sunday evening was the lovely Newbery Caldecott Awards Banquet.  Before we get into the awards, I just want to commend whoever is doing the organizing of the banquet that I really appreciate the effort they have been putting in to accommodating people with dietary restrictions.  I have a lot of dietary restrictions, and it's really nice to be able to go the banquet and actually be able to eat a full meal.  It's gotten better every year, and this year they had it pretty much down.  

The banquet started with a cocktail hour.  Then around 6:30, people began gathering at the doors so everyone can have a mad dash inside and try to claim tables so you can all sit with all your friends.  Seriously, it can be a little dangerous.  You either need to step back and let the crazy people dash in, or be prepared to stick your elbows out.

 The Caldecott this year is going to Locomotive, by Brian Floca, so the program had this very cool pop out of a train.  Things started out by acknowledging the members of both the Newbery and the Caldecott committees.  We were asked to hold our applause until all names had been said.  Unlike a high school, where such an announcement would immediately have been followed by applause and hooting after every name, we were actually able to follow directions and applauded at the end.  Nice job adults, nice job.  We are an example to all.

ALA Youth Media Awards 2014

It's that time of year again.  The Oscars of the book industry.  The time when we find out which books we've never even heard of have won prestigious awards.  The ALA Youth Media Awards!  The really only interesting thing that happens at Midwinter!  Here we go!

Let's start off with the big one!  The Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to American Literature for children went to Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by K.G. Campbell.

There were four Newbery Honor books:
Doll Bones by Holly Black
The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Hankes
One Came Home by Amy Timberlake
Paperboy by Vince Vawker

The Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children went to Locomotive, written and illustrated by Brian Floca.

There were three Caldecott Honor books:
Journey, written and illustrated by Aaron Becker
Flora and the Flamingo, written and illustrated by Molly Idle
Mr. Wuffles, written and illustrated by David Wiesner

The Printz Award for the best book written for young adults went to Midwinter Blood by Marcus Sedgwick.

There were four Printz Honor books:
The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Coral
Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner

Oh Printz awards.  The only one I read was Eleanor & Park.  I've never even heard of Navigating Early.  I'm sure they're all lovely books.

Other winners:
The Belpre Award goes to Meg Medina for Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass
YALSA Nonfiction Award goes to The Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb
The Morris Award goes to Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn
The Coretta Scott King Author Award goes to P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia

You can see the full list of all wniners at ala.org/yma.  When they get around to putting them up, that is.

Newbery Caldecott Wilder Awards Banquet

 Sunday evening we got ourselves all fancied up (I mean, comparatively speaking) and off we went to the Newbery-Caldecott-Wilder banquet.  Before they let us into the ballroom where the banquet was held, they entertained us with cocktails and Caldecott bingo.  The bingo sheet was full of questions about the history and past winners of the awards.  It was a special year, because it was the 75 anniversary of the awards.  We got special cookies for the occasion.
Anna, Alana and I were able to answer far less questions than we'd like to admit.  We had to resort to looking things up.  Hey, we're librarians.  We may not know everything, but we can find anything out!

The banquet was delightful, although due to dietary restrictions I was getting a special meal, and the server seemed uninformed that there were special meals.  And he was kind of rude about it.  But other than that, delightful.  They were showing some interviews with the illustrators and authors of the honor books, and there was a fabulous short film from Jon Klassen called "This is Not my Caldecott" which showed the little fish from the book swimming off with an award around his neck.

Newbery Caldecott Award Banquet

Jamie, Ari, and I were lucky enough to go to the Caldecott and Newbery Banquet that's hosted by the Association of Library Services for Children, Jamie and I went for the banquet (where we met some lovely librarians) and Arianna joined us later for the actual speeches. Sidenote: did you know that the books that are nominated for the Caldecott and Newbery are first selected by the publishers? Also that the fifteen ladies and gentlemen on the committees must keep all discussion absolutely secret? Fascinating.

In case you didn't know the Caldecott Honors went to Blackout by John Rocco, Grandpa Green by Lane Smith, and Me... Jane by Patrick McDonnell. They had a little introduction and went up for their pictures, I was quite excited to see Patrick McDonnell and Lane Smith.

Chris Raschka was the winner for this year, and spoke for about twenty minutes. He had some rather delightful anecdotes about drawing and what it takes to be an artist. His speech was quite inspiring for artists and children with the dream of becoming artists. There were some funny bits, especially when he described feeding goldfish to his pet turtle, and some charming bits, like having a sit down meal with his good friends, and overall it went rather well. I will say this though, I think there's a rather clear delineation of why artists draw/paint/create and writers write, and this was made quite clear to me as Chris Raschka spoke.

The Newbery Honors went to Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai and Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin. This was interesting because I hadn't heard of either of these books, but they both sound quite intriguing which I don't always think when hearing about the Newbery books.

Of course Jack Gantos was the winner of the Newbery, and I would just like to point out that he has a very distinctive voice. I'm pretty sure that you would never guess that Jack Gantos's voice was anything but his own. Anyway, needless to say he was hilarious and riveting. I eventually had to stop taking notes because I just wanted to soak up what he was saying. He is a brilliant and accomplished speaker, and it was an absolute pleasure to hear him speak. Bonus, did you know that Daniel Radcliffe bought the rights to Jack Gantos's memoir?

Book Awards!

Today is the day that many librarians absolutely live for: ALA book award announcements. I have to admit that I don't play the whole guessing game, following who might be up for awards, but I do enjoy learning who the winners are. This year I've only heard of a few of the titles, and I'm pretty excited to find and read the rest:


Caldecott Winner: A Sick Day for Amos McGee illustrated by Erin E. Stead and written by Philip C. Stead
Caldecott Honors: Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave illustrated by Bryan Collier, written by Laban Carrick Hill and Interrupting Chicken written and illustrated by David Ezra Stein





Newbery Winner: Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
Newbery Honors: Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night written by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen; Heart of a Samuri by Margi Preus; One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garci and Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm





Printz Winner: Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Printz Honors: Stolen by Lucy Christopher, Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King, Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick and Nothing by Janne Teller







Other notable awards
Coretta Scott King Award - One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
YALSA Excellence in nonfiction award - Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing by Ann Angel
Pura Belpre Award - The Dreamer by Pam Muñoz Ryan and illustrated by Peter Sis
Theodor Suess Geisel award - Bink and Gollie by Kate diCamillo and Alison McGhee, illustrated by Tony Fucile