{"id":45521,"date":"2025-07-18T16:18:58","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T20:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=45521"},"modified":"2025-07-18T16:19:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T20:19:35","slug":"newbery-caldecott-legacy-banquet-ala-annual-conference-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=45521","title":{"rendered":"Newbery\/Caldecott\/Legacy Banquet – ALA Annual Conference 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nCherry Mo, for Home in a Lunchbox<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nC. G. Esperanza, for My Daddy Is a Cowboy<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nGracey Zhang, for Noodles on a Bicycle<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nAnd Yuko Shimizu for Up, Up, Ever Up! Junko Tabei: A Life in the Mountains<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And then we got to hear from Caldecott Winner Rebecca Lee Kunz, who won for her beautiful work in Chooch Helped<\/a><\/em>. My notes from her remarks:<\/p>\n

[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.]<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

She went to photography school – but the camera began to feel limiting. She could have given up a thousand times.<\/p>\n

When she had new children, she gave herself time in her Tree of Life studio one day a week. “Old scars became my swords.”<\/p>\n

Cherokee Sky Vault<\/a> – She began to weave in Cherokee symbols.<\/p>\n

Maybe she just said Yes when the path came before her.<\/p>\n

Books give children a chance to slow down.<\/p>\n

Children’s Books and Art are a wonderful reason to be gathering.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Next the Newbery Honorees were recognized. Ruth Behar was first for Across So Many Seas<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Then came Chanel Miller for Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lesa Cline-Ransome received Honor for One Big Open Sky<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And the fourth Honor went to Kate O’Shaughnessy for The Wrong Way Home<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Then it was time for Erin Entrada Kelly to give her second speech as Newbery winner, this time for The First State of Being<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Most of the speech, I was too enthralled to take notes, but here’s what I got:<\/p>\n

Her book is about living in the present moment. It’s a tribute to When You Reach Me<\/a><\/em>. [Which is in turn a tribute to Newbery winner A Wrinkle in Time<\/a><\/em>.]<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

She got mountains of care packages from readers…. People who knew her because of librarians.<\/p>\n

The world is full of loving, compassionate, empathetic people.<\/p>\n

She recognizes the way each one of us influences the present moment.<\/p>\n

She urged all of us: When people offer you love and care and support, accept it, embrace it with open arms.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And the final speaker of the night was Carole Boston Weatherford, winner of the Children’s Literature Legacy Award.<\/p>\n

She noted that the award can be given posthumously – so she’s grateful to be alive to accept it.<\/p>\n

After her first book, she was told, “Carole, you just need more books.”<\/p>\n

Her earliest aspiration was to be a librarian. As a child, she pasted pockets into her books.<\/p>\n

Her books are hard to place – Thank you for your service!<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

A slight from a teacher kept her writing.<\/p>\n

Children aren’t too tender for tough topics. Her books enlighten children – and adults.<\/p>\n

For her, Black History is: “Let it shine!”<\/p>\n

“Poetry is not what I do, it’s who I am.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[427],"class_list":["post-45521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conf-corner","tag-alaac25"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45521"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45532,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45521\/revisions\/45532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}