And The Winners Are... 2009 Newbery, Caldecott Awards Are Announced

As is usually true, the American Library Association's Youth Media Awards committees had more than a few surprises for readers eagerly awaiting the winners of the 2009 awards.


Receiving the 2009 Newberry Award is Neal Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, a dark story of a boy named Nobody, or Bod, for short, who is safe from a mysterious assassin only within the confines of a a graveyard, where he grows up under the tutelage of many mentors, some of whom are ghosts.

A trailer for this book may be viewed here.


Newbery Honor Awards go to Kathi Appelt for The Underneath, Ingrid Law for Savvy, Jacqueline Woodson's After Tupac and D Foster, and Margarita Engle's The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom.

Taking top honors for illustration is the 2009 Caldecott Award winner, Susan Marie Swanson's gorgeously and serenely illustrated The House in the Night.

Receiving Caldecott Honor Awards were Marla Frazee for A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, Uri Shulevitz for How I Learned Geography, and illustrator Melissa Sweet for A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams.

The Carnegie Award has been presented to Weston Woods' film based on Christine King Farris' book March On!: The Day My Brother Martin Changed The World, reviewed here on January 10.

Mo Willems has again walked away with the Theodore Seuss Geisel Award for easy reader books with his latest installment in his popular series, Are You Ready to Play Outside? (An Elephant and Piggie Book).

For my review of Kathi Appelt's The Underneath , see my post of August 14 here. Ingrid Law's Savvy, was also reviewed here in my post of June 2.

Kadir Nelson has won the Coretta Scott King Author Award for We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, reviewed here on February 7, 2008. The King Illustrator Award goes to Floyd Cooper for his work in The Blacker the Berry.

The Printz Award for Young Adult Literature has been given to Melina Marchetta's Jellicoe Road.

The Pura Belpre Award for Hispanic literature goes to author Margarita Engle for The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom and illustrator Yuyi Morales for Just In Case: A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for lifetime achievement went to Ashley Bryan, illustrator, known for many award-winning books, including Beautiful Blackbird (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Winner).

The Odyssey Award goes to the audiobook of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, written and read by Sherman Alexie.

Alex Awards for adult books suitable for young adult readers go to the following:

City of Thieves, by David Benioff, published by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group.

The Dragons of Babel, by Michael Swanwick, a Tor Book published by Tom Doherty Associates.

Finding Nouf, by Zoë Ferraris published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

The Good Thief, by Hannah Tinti, published by Dial Press, a division of Random House.

Just After Sunset: Stories, by Stephen King, published by Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster.

Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan, published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.

Over and Under, by Todd Tucker, published by Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press.

The Oxford Project, by Stephen G. Bloom, photographed by Peter Feldstein, published by Welcome Books.

Sharp Teeth, by Toby Barlow, published by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins.

Three Girls and Their Brother, by Theresa Rebeck, published by Shaye Areheart Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House.

The William Morris Award, given for first-time authors, went to Elizabeth C. Bunce for A Curse Dark as Gold.

January Madness: Newbery and Caldecott Awards Coming Soon!

The American Library Association will be handing out their annual medals on January 26. Topping the awards list will be their award to the authors of the best American work for children and/or young adults--the John Newbery Medal and Newbery Honor Medals--and the award given to the artist for the best book illustrations of the year--the Randolph Caldecott Medal and Honor Medals.

Of the books I've reviewed recently, two titles, Kathi Appelt's The Underneath, a unique and moving magical fiction work for middle readers (reviewed here on August 14, 2008), and Laurie Halse Anderson's historical fiction National Book Award finalist Chains, (reviewed here on November 10, 2008) have appeared in several lists of potential winners or among the nominees for the many "mock Newbery Awards" contests held around the country.

Among the books reviewed here, my favorite for the Caldecott is Kadir Nelson's extraordinarily illustrated We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, posted here on February 8, 2008. A solid piece of historical nonfiction, Nelson's text is strikingly illustrated in his unique style.

For lists of books speculated to be under final consideration from the super-secret award committee check out this blog with a great track record for predictions.

I'll be watching for the announcements as soon as they are made, beginning at 7:45 p.m. on January 26, and will post them as soon as I can get the information. Last year's National Book Award winners were reported from members of the audience first on Twitter. Perhaps that will again be possible this year for the American Library Association's list of various award winners.