I got up early on my day off to watch the webcast of the ALA Award winners in Boston. You can find out all the winners at www.ala.org/yma. I’ll mention books I’ve reviewed that were honored:
Stitches, by David Small, won an Alex Award for an adult book that appeals to Teens.
Marcelo in the Real World, by Francisco X. Stork, won the Schneider Family Book Award for the Best Teen Book dealing with disabilities. (My biggest disappointment of the morning was that this book didn’t get any Printz attention.)
Walter Dean Myers won the first Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, by Philip Hoose, won an Honor for the new YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award. (The Award winner was Charles and Emma, by Deborah Heiligman.), as well as Sibert Honor. (The Sibert Medal winner was Almost Astronauts, by Tanya Lee Stone.)
The Michael L. Printz Award winner was Going Bovine, by Libba Bray. I’m afraid I haven’t read the winner or any of the Honor books.
For maybe the first time since its inception, Mo Willems was not included in the Geisel winners (Too bad!). The Award winner was Benny and Penny in the Big No-No! by Geoffrey Hayes.
However, I’m in complete agreement about the winners of the Caldecott and Newbery Medals.
The Caldecott Honor Books were All the World, illustrated by Marla Frazee, written by Liz Garton Scanlon, and Red Sings from Treetops, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, written by Joyce Sidman.
The Caldecott Medal, no surprise and well-deserved, went to Jerry Pinkney for The Lion and the Mouse.
The Newbery Honor Books were Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, by Philip Hoose; The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, by Jacqueline Kelly; Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin; and The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg, by Rodman Philbrick.
The Newbery Medal, also no surprise and well-deserved, went to When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead.
Congratulations to all the winners!