The highlight of ALA Annual Conference for me is the Newbery/Caldecott/Legacy Banquet. It’s a great big, grand celebration of children’s books in a giant ballroom full of happy people. What could be better?
It is disappointing that the Honor winners don’t give speeches, but it’s still a treat to get to applaud them. First up were Caldecott Honorees:
Cherry Mo, for Home in a Lunchbox.
C. G. Esperanza, for My Daddy Is a Cowboy.
Gracey Zhang, for Noodles on a Bicycle.
And Yuko Shimizu for Up, Up, Ever Up! Junko Tabei: A Life in the Mountains.
And then we got to hear from Caldecott Winner Rebecca Lee Kunz, who won for her beautiful work in Chooch Helped. My notes from her remarks:
[I want to note that I happened to see her in the restroom and learned that she designed the beautiful skirt she was wearing herself. It was gorgeous.]
When did she become an artist? Family and stories gave her the belief that what she did mattered. Her creative spark turned into a burning flame.
She went to photography school – but the camera began to feel limiting. She could have given up a thousand times.
When she had new children, she gave herself time in her Tree of Life studio one day a week. “Old scars became my swords.”
Cherokee Sky Vault – She began to weave in Cherokee symbols.
Maybe she just said Yes when the path came before her.
Books give children a chance to slow down.
Children’s Books and Art are a wonderful reason to be gathering.
Next the Newbery Honorees were recognized. Ruth Behar was first for Across So Many Seas.
Then came Chanel Miller for Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All.
Lesa Cline-Ransome received Honor for One Big Open Sky.
And the fourth Honor went to Kate O’Shaughnessy for The Wrong Way Home.
Then it was time for Erin Entrada Kelly to give her second speech as Newbery winner, this time for The First State of Being.
Most of the speech, I was too enthralled to take notes, but here’s what I got:
Her book is about living in the present moment. It’s a tribute to When You Reach Me. [Which is in turn a tribute to Newbery winner A Wrinkle in Time.]
She struggled with What-Ifs since childhood. So she started telling us about her journey with meditation… which shifted into her journey with very aggressive breast cancer and a lot of severe pain with chemotherapy.
She got mountains of care packages from readers…. People who knew her because of librarians.
The world is full of loving, compassionate, empathetic people.
She recognizes the way each one of us influences the present moment.
She urged all of us: When people offer you love and care and support, accept it, embrace it with open arms.
And the final speaker of the night was Carole Boston Weatherford, winner of the Children’s Literature Legacy Award.
She noted that the award can be given posthumously – so she’s grateful to be alive to accept it.
After her first book, she was told, “Carole, you just need more books.”
Her earliest aspiration was to be a librarian. As a child, she pasted pockets into her books.
Her books are hard to place – Thank you for your service!
Picture books her children read changed her trajectory. She aims to lift the ceiling off young people’s dreams, as her parents did for her.
A slight from a teacher kept her writing.
Children aren’t too tender for tough topics. Her books enlighten children – and adults.
For her, Black History is: “Let it shine!”
“Poetry is not what I do, it’s who I am.”