Newbery Medal:
“Dead End in Norvelt,” written by Jack Gantos, is the 2012 Newbery Medal winner. The book is published by Farrar Straus Giroux.
Two Newbery Honor Books also were named: "Inside Out & Back Again," written by Thanhha Lai and published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers; and "Breaking Stalin’s Nose,” written and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin, and published by Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
Caldecott Medal:
“A Ball for Daisy," illustrated and written by Chris Raschka, is the 2012 Caldecott Medal winner. The book is published by Schwartz & Wade Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
Three Caldecott Honor Books also were named: “Blackout,” illustrated and written by John Rocco, and published by Disney · Hyperion Books, an imprint of Disney Book Group; "Grandpa Green" illustrated and written by Lane Smith, and published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership; and “Me … Jane,” illustrated and written by Patrick McDonnell, and published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Michael L. Printz Award:
“Where Things Come Back,” written by John Corey Whaley, is the 2012 Printz Award winner. The book is published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.
“Why We Broke Up,” written by Daniel Handler, art by Maira Kalman and published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group; “The Returning,” written by Christine Hinwood and published by Dial Books, an imprint of Penguin Group Young Readers Group USA; “Jasper Jones,” written by Craig Silvey and published by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc.; and “The Scorpio Races,” written by Maggie Stiefvater and published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.
Coretta Scott King (Author):
Kadir Nelson, author and illustrator of “Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans,” is the King Author Book winner. The book is published by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Two King Author Honor Book recipients were selected: Eloise Greenfield, author of “The Great Migration: Journey to the North,” illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist and published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers; and Patricia C. McKissack, author of “Never Forgotten,” illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon and published by Schwartz & Wade Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award:
Shane W. Evans, illustrator and author of “Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom,” is the King Illustrator Book winner. The book is a Neal Porter Book, published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership.
One King Illustrator Honor Book recipient was selected: Kadir Nelson, illustrator and author of “Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans,” published by Balzar + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
See the rest here. Congrats everyone!
Showing posts with label ALA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ALA. Show all posts
Letting go
This is (I think) the first time I've ever posted done two posts, one about something I planned to do AND one about what happened when I actually did it.
Some of you may remember when I decided to go to ALA. Everything about it was a new way of doing things: first, partly because I hadn't flown anyplace in three years, I packed really carefully, even measuring my bag to make sure I could carry it on! Perhaps because of this, I actually liked the clothes I brought and felt appropriately dressed the whole time.
I also spent quite a long time making business cards -- or rather, I made one (the red one below, taken from the jacket flap of THE HOUSE BABA BUILT) and an old friend, who said,
"You should go armed," made the other. I love it!
The top card is from our fortune teller. Grace said I could go first, adding (as a joke) that if my fortune was good, she would get one. The fortune teller looked alarmed:
"Hey, I'm just the messenger!" she said.
The reading was, I thought, uncannily accurate - and to for once have a record of these things, I'll tell it here.
She began by asking me to choose a deck: one of the many fun things about her was that she had 5. I chose a variation on the classic Rider deck; Grace chose the fifties retro one (the red convertible in her post below represents the card The Lovers! Very cool!). Other fun things about our fortune teller were her sparkly green eyeshadow, cool glittery nail polish, deep laugh, and warmth.
First, she gave some explanations -- including that the time period for the reading was about a year.
In this next year, I will have a whole new beginning--money will be easier and STAY easier; I'll take a long vacation (already planned -- I had just told Grace about it that morning). For my projects to come to fruition (and they will, though it may take the full year), I will need to "think outside the box" and do things in a completely different way than I have before.
That is what will lead to the completely new beginning, shown in the last card (the Ace of Wands). I also got one of my favorite cards in the deck, and one that has I think come up almost every time I've had my Tarot cards read -- The Fool. This does NOT mean that you're an idiot, but rather -- well, you can look up all the meanings of the cards in the previous link.)
After our reading, we went to lunch at NOLA, where I had one of the best meals of my life -- Grace unfortunately had to leave before she could even finish her crabcake, as she had a signing.
But although that was sad, it was like everything else at the conference: it had its upside.On my way out, I praised the meal in some detail -- and the person I was talking to turned out to be the chef who had created it!
His whole face lit up, and he gave me a card. At the conference, I got to meet Joyce Sidman (someone I've long admired), Russell Freedman (whose work I have often read aloud to a child who loves American history --I admire him a lot too!), and too many other people to list here. Little, Brown gave me buttons for and a copy of a new book I love -- ME...JANE by Patrick McDonnell. It's about Jane Goodall's childhood and is one of the most perfect picture books I've ever seen. TWO of Anna's books were on display in the same booth -- DISAPPEARING DESMOND, shown in Grace's post Wednesday, and
A PHOTO FOR GRETA, which the NY TIMES called "a paean to paternal love."
The whole conference was like that: things just seemed to happen as they were meant to, even when I thought I was making foolish choices. As it turned out, I only spent a few hours at the actual conference (a friend's child was there and we spent nearly all of Saturday sight-seeing: she got HER fortune told, too, and said it was "similar" -- to reality. It did seem to accord with what I know of her life -- and when the fortune teller read her palm, she burst out laughing at how stubborn she was). In the evening, we watched CASABLANCA -- her choice -- and we both laughed a lot and loved it, though she was disappointed in the ending.
Maybe I was just in a really good mood from spending time with friends and seeing a city I loved and eating great food and just having so much fun. Maybe the meditating I've been doing really is changing my point of view, and making me worry less and see the positive side of things more. But the fact that she loved Casablanca so much made me think that the classics, in all the arts, will always matter: and that is encouraging. Sometimes seeing all the YA and paranormal that is so popular and so different from what I write myself is discouraging -- but one of the many things I took away from this conference is that there is room for all kinds of writing. A person (eg, my young friend) can love TWILIGHT and CASABLANCA.
It was a good ALA (Midwinter 2011)
Yes, it was a good ALA:
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| Jen and I celebrate with the honored books* |
This year, since I was already in Southern California for the holidays, I arrived in San Diego early to help a little with setup:
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| boxes everywhere |
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| Zoe and I are proud of our tower of power. And no, we did not match on purpose. |
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| enjoying our post set-up treat at Ghirardelli |
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| fish tacos! |
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| Malinda Lo's HUNTRESS |
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| 13 CURSES by Michelle Harrison |
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| FALLING FOR HAMLET by Michelle Ray (the original pile was bigger, but these piles are prettier.) |
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| chocolate souffle |
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| tater tot nachos! |
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| bouillabaisse |
But it wasn't all food and building. We also hosted a preview breakfast bright and early Saturday morning (7:30 am!) where we highlighted around 25 of our upcoming titles for 2011. This is what the room looked like:
And now, on to the awards. ALA Midwinter is always buzzing all weekend with people speculating on and trying to predict the winners of the Caldecott, Newbery, Printz, and more. To be perfectly honest, aside from having fairly high hopes for a Geisel medal of some color for Grace's Ling & Ting, we weren't expecting anything else this year. Not that we ever expect awards, but we've had a little more buzz going into a conference in prior years. (Well, make that last year, and no other year before that....)
A few weeks prior, the Morris finalists (for debut YA) had been announced, so we knew going in that we would have at least one medal for Karen Healey's Guardian of the Dead (yay Karen!).
We found out Sunday morning that we had won the Printz Medal for Ship Breaker. Amazing. Well, I didn't find out till a little later, but suspected when our library marketing director Victoria Stapleton and the editor of Ship Breaker, Editorial Director Jennifer Hunt ran out of the booth together...
We heard about Grace's silver Geisel honor later that afternoon evening. Happy, good news. Of course, we were not to reveal any of this news before the press conference on Monday, so we had to keep poker faces at the booth and not look too happy. But it was a good day, and my colleagues and I celebrated with champagne and Karaoke later that night (speaking of poker faces, I sang Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" up on a stage. Thankfully, there is no video or photo evidence, to my knowledge.)
On Monday morning, as per tradition, we were to gather in Victoria's hotel room at 6:30 am to see if we were getting any additional calls. At 6 am, as I was getting ready, I received a call from Victoria.
"You should sit down" she said. For some reason, I thought this meant there was bad news of some sort, although what kind of bad news she could share with me at that day and hour is beyond me.
"Dave the Potter has just won the Caldecott Honor," she tells me.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think the first words out of my mouth were "Holy f*ck" which is saying a lot because I really hardly ever curse. But I think that wrapped up what I was feeling at that moment. For whatever reason, that possibility hadn't been on my radar, not because I didn't think Bryan Collier's absolutely breathtaking art wasn't deserving, but because there had been very little buzz on the book. But...wow.
"Get here as soon as you can!" she said. I hurried to get ready, and while I was in the elevator, she called again. "Dave the Potter has also won the Coretta Scott King Medal for illustration," she informed me. I wasn't alone in the elevator, and in the off chance the woman was a librarian or in publishing, I couldn't give anything away. "That's very interesting. I'm in the elevator. I'll be there in a minute." and then I went to the hotel room and proceeded to jump up and down in glee.
We also found out that Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes had won a Coretta Scott King honor for text. Woo-hoo! Room service delivered bagels, pastries, coffee, juice, and champagne, and we toasted our wonderful books with mimosas.
And then it was on to the press conference for the announcements of the awards. We actually got lost trying to find the ballroom in the conference center and missed the very beginning, but we soon settled in. One of the first awards announced was the Stonewall Children's and Young Adult Literature Award. And SURPRISE! Freaks and Revelations by Davida Wills Hurwin won an Honor! The committee hadn't informed us in advance. And, as I found out later when I called Davida, they hadn't called her, either. I was double surprised because the book was published in 2009--but it had published in November, so was eligible. I love this special book so much--read more in my Beyond the Book post. It hasn't seemed to find its audience, so I hope this award will bring a new readership to this powerful book.Our other winners, adorned with their fancy medals:
For a complete list of the winners, go here.
To be honest, I'm still in shock. After the amazing conference we had last year, this feels a little bit...greedy, somehow. I also can't believe that I've almost achieved my pie-in-the sky goal for 2011 that I posted two weeks ago:
-Win an award for books I've edited in every category: picture book, early reader, MG, and YAWith Dave the Potter, Ling & Ting, Freaks and Revelations, and Guardian of the Dead all winning honors, I "only" have a MG award left to attain. That doesn't seem as daunting a goal as when I first stated it! I can't help but wonder if this is a case of me throwing a wish out into the universe and having it answered.
I do want to say that these awards really are a crap shoot, or, as another editor said, winning is like winning the lottery--who knows what each committee is going to think about any book. There are so many deserving and wonderful books out there, and authors and illustrators who weren't honored last Monday shouldn't feel disappointed. As one author on Facebook said, "we're in good company!" So true. But for those books that do win, it's wonderful when the hard work of the authors, illustrators, editors, designers, production people, copyeditors, proofreaders, marketers, publicists, etc. etc. is rewarded.
And of course winning is happy and giddy--all in all, not a bad start to the year!
*As Freaks and Revelations was published in 2009, we did not have a copy in the booth to display
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