CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus » NewberyMedal

Newbery 1946-style

judij — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 01:49:17 +0000

Controversy generated by children’s book awards is pretty familiar territory in recent times, but consider the courage of the judges who awarded a Newbery Honor to The Moved-Outers (Florence Crannell Means) just after the end of the Second World War in 1946.

Peter Sieruta at Collecting Children’s Books tells the story.

Neil Gaiman watch

judij — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 05:56:25 +0000

He’s having a great week. A few links:

Articles from The Guardian, New York Times and the Washington Post
Short video interview on MNSBC (with Caldecott winner Beth Krommes). Note: advertisements
His blog and Twitter
His reading (on video) of The Graveyard Book. Yes, the whole book (and hasn’t he the most delicious voice!)
The news about the film
Where he gets his ideas

It couldn’t happen to a nicer bloke.

Neil Gaiman on winning the Newbery

judij — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:32:00 +0000

From The Guardian:

Yesterday’s news that Neil Gaiman won the Newbery Medal, America’s most prestigious award for children’s literature, was a welcome surprise for a number of reasons. There was Gaiman’s high-spirited, profanity-laced reaction to the news on his Twitter feed – two qualities not commonly associated with children’s book authors of yore. There was the more measured and amusing take on his blog (Merrilee-my-agent: “You didn’t start swearing, did you?” Me: “No.” Her: “Oh good.”). But Gaiman’s win for The Graveyard Book, about a boy raised by ghosts who faces the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead, also appears to put to bed the notion that the Newbery Medal is out of touch with what people are reading.

A familiar refrain?

judij — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 08:06:14 +0000

‘Snubbed by kids, disappointing to librarians, the recent winners have few fans’ …

Not an Australian award this time, but a prestigious US award. From School Library Journal.

ALA Awards

cmiseval — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 05:58:22 +0000

The first literature awards of the year have been announced. The American Library Association presents a number of prestigious awards each January, notably the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott Medal. The Young Adult section of ALA (YALSA) presents the Michael L. Printz Award for the outstanding Young Adult novel of the year.

Winners for 2008 were:

Newbery Medal : Laura Amy Schlitz (a school librarian) for Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village.
Honor Books: Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson
Caldecott Medal: Brian Selznick for The Invention of Hugo Cabret
[See the video interview with Brian Selznick, courtesy of the AdLit site]
Honor Books: Henry’s Freedom Box : a true Story from the Underground Railroad, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Ellen Levine
First the Egg, written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
The Wall : Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, written and
illustrated by Peter Sis
Michael L. Printz Award: Geraldine McCaughrean for The White Darkness
Honor Books: One Whole and Perfect Day by Judith Clarke (Australia)
Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox (NZ)
Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins
Your Own, Sylvia : a Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephanie Hemphill