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With all the Newbery and Caldecott talk and predictions out there I thought it would be nice to take a look at not only what may be the next winner, but what has won in the past. If you have a favorite title you are rooting for post it in a comment. I would love to hear about it! Next week I will post my favorite book of the year that I think is Caldecott deserving in every facet of picture book brilliance.

PAST

From Publishers Weekly, with great interviews of winners from the past 5 years.
The Call That Changes Everything- or Not.

From The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) a look at the past.

Newbery Honor and Medal Books, 1922- Present
Caldecott Medal & Honor Books, 1938-Present
2012 Newbery-Caldecott Awards Banquet

From Through the Studio door, an interesting look at what PW dubbed in 1963 "...a pointless and confusing story."
Before They Were Classics

PRESENT

For predictions for this years award winners check out:
ShelfTalker
A Fuse #8 Production
100 Scope Notes
The Horn Book- Calling Caldecott 
Country Bookshelf
Random Acts of Reading

FUTURE

75th Anniversary Logo by Brian Selznick

Mark your calendar for the Caldecott Medal 75th Anniversary!

The ALA will announce all the awards at 8 a.m. PT on Jan. 28 from the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. The awards include the esteemed John Newbery Medal, Randolph Caldecott Medal, Coretta Scott King Book Awards and Michael L. Printz Award.

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) announced that John Rocco will participate in a Caldecott 75th Anniversary Facebook Forum at 1 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Rocco won a Caldecott Honor in 2012 for his picture book Blackout.

Want to learn more about the logo 2008 Caldecott Medal winner Brian Selznick created especially for the 75th Anniversary celebration and the characters in it? Just click here.


And for a little more fun, read Brian's acceptance speech for The Invention of Hugo Cabret  here and watch the illustrated sequence that played on huge video screens during the speech here.

 

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This Christmas card was sent in by Gwen Connolley.

Names All Children’s Writers Should Know How To Spell: A Tribute to Kidlit Greatness 

Though the below descriptions/explanations are mine, this list is from a lecture by Shelley Tanaka, an award-winning nonfiction children’s author, Canadian children’s book publisher and editor (link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelley_Tanaka). 

In preparation of starting my studies at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in pursuit of an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults in less than a month from now, I came across a handout from one of my teachers, Shelley Tanaka, which, with her gracious permission, I would like to share with you. This list is more than a checklist of names with tricky spellings – although it’s that too. It is a reminder of our roots as children’s writers. These are the names of the great kidlit warriors, whose shoulders we are all trying to stand on.

(Note: Don’t feel bad if you don’t know all of them. I had to look up a couple!)

1. Newbery Medal. Named after an  English bookseller John Newbery, the medal aims to recognize excellence in      young people’s literature.
2. Hans Christian Andersen. Yes, we all know the wonderful andwhimsical storyteller from Denmark – author of  numerous fairytales, novels, poetry and more — but some of us sometimes confuse his name with Anderson, as in M.T. Anderson, another name to know in young people’s literature, by the way).
3. Noel Streatfield. A Carnegie-medal winning English author.
4. Katherine Paterson. The beloved author of many young adult and children’s novels, including my personal      favorite, Newbery-winning “Bridge to Terabithia.”
5. Stephenie Meyer. Some in kidlit circles like to look down on this author of the wildly popular “Twilight” saga. But she has definitely proved herself a force to be reckoned with, luring millions of girls to her romance with a vampire. Did you know that in addition to writing, Meyer is a film producer?  Her production company is behind a movie based on Shannon Hale’s adult work, “Austenland.” (Yes, Shannon Hale’s another great one.)
6. Kate DiCamillo. Best known as theNewbery-winning author of  sometimes tender, sometimes whimsical fiction for children, DiCamillo has also written picture books, early chapter books and published stories for adults.
7. Diana Wynne Jones. Born in London in 1934 and having passed away just last year, Jones was best known for her numerous fantasy novels for children and adults.
8. Ursula K. Le Guin. This author of  several popular children’s series (as well as standalone stories), was a huge influence on many of the fantasy and science-fiction novels we read today.
9. Kenneth Grahame. This Scottish author wrote such children’s classics as “The Wind and The Willows,” and “The Reluctant Dragon,” both of which became Disney films.
10. Rosemary Sutcliffe. This British novelist was best known for her exciting historical fiction for young readers – especially her Arthurian stories (some of which were for adults).
11. Arthur Ransome. Another Englishman, considered one of the classic children’s authors, best known for his “Swallows in Amazons” adventure series set in between two world wars.
12. J. R. R. Tolkien. Though he didn’t write for children specifically, one could easily call him one of the founding fathers of fantasy, influencing such modern works as the “Harry  Potter” series by Tolkien’s fellow Englishwoman J. K. Rowling (and yes, I trust we’ve all heard about her, and know her name’s spelling). Though of course fantasy was written before his time, it seemed his “Lord of the Rings” series resurrected the once-dying genre.
13. Madeleine L’Engle. Much beloved and missed, this American Newbery-winning author passed away in 2007. In her obituary, the New York Times described her work as “childhood fables, religious meditations and fanciful science fiction” that “transcended both genre and generation, most memorably in her children’s classic ‘A Wrinkle in Time.’”

(link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/08/books/08lengle.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

I love the quote on her website: “You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” 

14. Horn Book. This magazine publishes articles about trends in children’s and young adult literature in print      and online, including its influential reviews. Each year, the staff chooses a list of what they considered to be the very best titles from among 500-plus books they have reviewed. (link: http://www.hbook.com/2012/12/choosing-books/recommended-books/2012-horn-book-fanfare/)

There are two more I’d like to add to this list:

15. Laurie Halse Anderson. Another great author name with literary spelling, this versatile YA giant writes books on difficult subjects spanning from rape and anorexia, to slavery.

16. SCBWI! Founded in 1971, by several Los Angeles writers, including the versatile Stephen Mooser, author of more than 50 works, including picture books and chapter books, and the middle-grade series author Lin Oliver, our beloved Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators is a source of knowledge and support, organizer of conferences and forger of great ties, and a promoter of children’s literature all around the world.

Of course this list only barely scratches the surface, and if she chose to Ms. Tanaka could probably have come up with a book filled with names of importance. But if there is anything you’d like to add to the list, please post a comment, below.

Katia Raina is the author of “Castle of Concrete,” a young adult novel about a timid half-Russian, half-Jewish teen in search of a braver “self” reuniting with her dissident mother in the last year of the collapsing Soviet Union, to be published by Namelos. On her blog, The Magic Mirror, http://katiaraina.wordpress.com Katia talks about writing and history, features interviews, book lists and all sorts of literary randomness.

Katia will start her MFA program in January 2013 at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, pursuing a degree in Writing for Children and Young Adults. (link: http://www.vcfa.edu/wyca)  

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Filed under: article, Author, list, need to know Tagged: Gwen Connolley, Horn Book, Katia Raina, Newbery Medal, Shelly Tanaka, Vermont College of Fine Arts

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The following books will receive starred reviews in the May/June issue of the Horn Book Magazine:

Animal Masquerade; by Marianne Dubuc; trans. from the French by Yvette Ghione (Kids Can)

Demolition; by Sally Sutton; illus. by Brian Lovelock (Candlewick)

The Drowned Cities; by Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown)

Dying to Know You; by Aidan Chambers (Amulet/Abrams)

A Confusion of Princes; by Garth Nix (Harper/HarperCollins)

Code Name Verity; by Elizabeth Wein (Hyperion)

Forget-Me-Nots:Poems to Learn by Heart; selected by Mary Ann Hoberman; illus. by Michael Emberley (Tingley/Little, Brown)

The President’s Stuck in the Bathtub: Poems about the Presidents; by Susan Katz; illus. by Robert Neubecker (Clarion)

A Black Hole Is NOT a Hole; by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano; illus. by Michael Carroll (Charlesbridge)

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The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester is on Horn Book's Summer Reading List.

Check out the others.

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The school and library world is a-buzzing with accolades for Thanhha Lai’s debut novel INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN!  Check out these reviews…and the shiny stars that accompany them:

“In her not-too-be-missed debut, Lai evokes a distinct time and place and presents a complex, realistic heroine whom readers will recognize, even if they haven’t found themselves in a strange new country.” ~ Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“An incisive portrait of human resilience.” ~ Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Based on Lai’s personal experience, this first novel captures a child-refugee’s struggle with rare honesty.” ~ Booklist (starred review)

“[...] the immediacy of the narrative will appeal to those who do not usually enjoy historical fiction.” ~ School Library Journal (starred review)

“Lai’s spare language captures the sensory disorientation of changing cultures as well as a refugee’s complex emotions and kaleidoscopic loyalties.” ~ The Horn Book

And here is what our teacher and librarian friends are saying:

• Monica Edinger at Educating Alice called this “a very moving verse novel.”
• Jonathan Hunt suggested INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN as 2012 Newbery Reading at Heavy Medal!

INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN (ISBN 9780061962783) is on-sale now.

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and a fine trip it was. Monday evening I had the chance to meet scads of people from the child_lit listserv including its creator Michael Joseph, whose glasses I want but don't think I could pull off (him or on me). The food was just-okay--wild boar shouldn't be as boring as this one was--but the conversation was lively even before Linda Sue Park showed up with a Colin Farrell story I'll let her tell.

The next day I had a commiserative--and tasty--lunch with FSG publisher Margaret Ferguson which was its own delight and came with the bonus of a gift from editor Wes Adams--Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader, a novella, Wes assured me, that would provide fine entertainment for my bus trip home. Concerning itself with what might happen should the Queen conceive a passion for reading, it did, hugely. I can already see Helen Mirren doing it as a Hallmark Hall of Fame Christmas Special.

I didn't know Lloyd Alexander but he certainly had enough friends without me, many of whom spoke warmly at the celebration in his honor hosted by Cricket's Blouke and Marianne Carus. Did you know Lloyd was "Old Cricket"? Most unexpectedly hilarious was Lloyd's longtime editor Ann Durell explaining why she agreed to publish, in a fantasy-unfriendly era, what would become the Prydain series: Lloyd's agent had plied her with martinis. My old BCCB colleague Kate Pierson Jennings was there, too--she had been exchanging letters with Lloyd since she was ten years old.

Back here to the sad news that Elizabeth Watson--Horn Book Board member, longtime reviewer and past president of ALSC--had died on October 13th. Liz was great--sometimes the conversations at our old reviewer meetings could get a bit rarefied, and cutting right through it all would come Liz's cultured and authoritative contralto: "no child is going to touch that book."

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Best books of 2007

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Here is the Horn Book's "Best of" list for 2007. There are now a couple of titles which are starting to appear consistently on this year's lists: Shaun Tan's The Arrival, Peter Sis's The Wall, And Sherman Alexi's The True Story of a Part Time Indian, just to name a few.

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Ah, Provincetown, where the Gays meet the Fisherfolk:



photo by Richard Asch

And where Buster met two of Santa's minions:


photo by Richard Asch

But vacation is O-ver. Now I'm busy getting ready for ALA (any late Caldecott hopes, dreams, and fears you care to share?) and hustling up copy for the premier issue of our new publication, Notes from the Horn Book, an e-newsletter for parents and other adults at the consumer end of children's books debuting in March. If you're interested in being a charter subscriber (relax, it's free) write to Sarah Scriver, sscriver, at hbookdotcom.

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Former Horn Book editor Anita Silvey received the Education Publishing Association's Ludington Award "for an individual who has made a significant contribution to the paperback book business." Her confrerees at the award banquet sported the singular Silvey accessory in her honor:


(Anita is second from the left.)


Let us join in the salute. Congrats, A.S.!


Photo by Duncan Todd

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(Illustration by William Steig )

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The Horn Book will be offering a free monthly newsletter starting in March:

Each monthly issue features interviews with leading writers and illustrators, brief recommendations of noteworthy titles, and the latest news from the children's book world.

Click here to sign up!

(The magazine is well worth the price, too... judging by the issues that float around my house for years...)

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Whatever whoever chooses to read is their business, of course, but adults whose taste in recreational reading ends with the YA novel need to grow up.Words of wisdom from Roger Sutton editor in chief of The Horn Book, a literary magazine about books for children and young adults. The best response in my book?I'm rubber
 You're glue 
Whatever you say bounces off of me 
And sticks to you!Actually,

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I came across this fascinating article about reviewing picture books in the Web Extras section of the Horn Book Guide website. As a reviewer of picture books myself, I was interested in author Karla Kuskin's observations about the difficulty involved in writing a lengthy, intelligent critique of a book which is often shorter than the review itself. I was also impressed with her impassioned defense of the picture book as art, an opinion I hold as well.

The role of the Book Reviewer has been on the wane for awhile now, with high-profile periodicals choosing to do away with review sections. And the influence of the blogosphere (to which I of course happily contribute) cannot be underestimated. If everyone is a critic, many of them are choosing to put their opinion on-line for all the world to see. And let's face it, not everyone wants to read a wordy, high-falootin break down of Nobunny is Perfect. They just want to know if their three year old will want to read it ten times a night. The Washington Post book reviews may not have insight on this, but joreads, a mom, TX, on Amazon.com, will.

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We're on Facebook now. Really, I have no idea what this means. But come play with us!

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Visit The Horn Book to find out the winners and honor books of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards.

Presented annually since 1967, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards are customarily given in three categories: Fiction and Poetry, Picture Book, and Nonfiction. This year, as happens occasionally, the judges also awarded a Special Citation.

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Boston Globe–Horn Book Award Acceptance Speech (from www.hbook.com)

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But the Horn Book, Inc. has a new owner. See details on our website.

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Lolly took this neat picture of what our book collection looks like during remodeling. I can't quite tell where in the alphabet this is.

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I just finished reading an interesting blog post from Editorial Anonymous (EA), where he/she states that the Coretta Scott King (CSK) Award may no longer be necessary. The CSK award is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and honors African-American authors. EA states this in the post:

Giving an award for creating art about the experience of race is a wonderful thing. But giving an award for creating art and being a particular race? That’s racism in action.

It’s interesting that someone in the comment section said that this post reminded them of a Horn Book essay by Marc Aronson. It reminded me of this essay as well. But there is also a flip side to this argument presented in another Horn Book essay by Andrea Davis Pinkney that also makes valid points.

Honestly, I can see both sides of this argument. Just look at what happened earlier this year with Kadir Nelson’s We are the Ship. If there weren’t a CSK award, would Nelson have won the Caldecott? We can only ponder that answer. Maybe, maybe not.

But then you have other statistics such as the one researched by The Cooperative Children’s Book Center, which stated that in 2007 only 150 of nearly 3,000 titles were by African-American authors.

So, if the CSK award did go away, would any books by African-Americans by spotlighted? What if the award did away with its consideration of race? Would it be okay for non-African-American authors to be honored? If that were the case, Laurie Halse Anderson could been have considered for a CSK award for her book Chains. That speaks of the African-American experience, right?

I can also look at it another way as well. If you look at the CSK award recipients, you see a trend of the same authors wining the award several times. Does that make it harder for unknown African-American authors to break through? I know that this is one of the reasons that The Brown Bookshelf came into existence.

Personally, I’m all about trying to remove the focus of race from children’s literature. It’s easier said than done. Especially when you’re coming for the minority side of the equation.

EA points out in his/her blog post, giving an award only to black people causes a divide. That may be so, but if African-American authors are not on the same playing field with the number of published books and there is a small percentage of editors of color, how large can that divide really be?

There are points made on both sides. I can see that this is a conversation that we will be having for a while.

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Today we welcome editorial director Brian Kenney (with me above; photo taken by Mitali Perkins at Midwinter), publisher Ron Shank, and the rest of School Library Journal and Library Journal to Media Source, our parent company. Here's the press release:

Ohio-based Media Source Inc. announces today that it has acquired Library Journal and School Library Journal from Reed Business Information-US. The acquisition includes all print and Web products, services, supplements, and newsletters, including Library Hotline. With this purchase, Media Source, best known for its ownership of Junior Library Guild and The Horn Book, Inc., adds substantially to its product offerings in the library market.

“Library Journal and School Library Journal are valuable magazines that deserve a corporate home focused on libraries,” said Randall Asmo, CEO of Media Source. “We respect the history and contribution of LJ and SLJ. Our goal is to build upon those strengths to provide a vital and comprehensive service to the librarian community.”

The Editorial and Advertising Sales groups of the acquired publications will continue operations in New York City. Asmo continues, “Editor-in-Chief Brian Kenney and Publisher Ron Shank are important to the success of SLJ and LJ, and they will remain in their current roles. We believe that the combined businesses of SLJ, LJ, Junior Library Guild, and The Horn Book will create a myriad of new opportunities in the marketplace. At the same time, our plan is to have each business unit continue to operate with complete editorial independence.”

About Media Source Inc.: Media Source, with headquarters just outside Columbus, Ohio, is the parent company of Junior Library Guild (JLG) and The Horn Book, Inc. JLG is a review and collection development service that provides new release children’s and young adult books to more than 17,000 school and public libraries. The Horn Book, Inc. reviews children’s and young adult books in two print publications, The Horn Book Magazine and The Horn Book Guide.

About School Library Journal (SLJ): Each monthly issue of SLJ includes reviews of children’s and young adult books, audio, and multimedia products, as well as news, features, and columns that deliver the perspective, resources, and leadership tools necessary for its readers to become indispensable players in their schools and libraries. More than 100,000 librarians who work with students in public and school libraries read School Library Journal.

About Library Journal (LJ): Founded in 1876, Library Journal is the oldest and most respected publication covering the library field. Over 100,000 library directors, administrators, and staff in public, academic, and special libraries read LJ. In its twenty annual issues, LJ reviews nearly 7000 books and provides coverage of technology, management, policy, and other professional concerns.

About Reed Business Information-US: Reed Business Information-US (www.reedbusiness.com/us) is a leading business-to-business information provider of publications and web sites, as well as custom publishing, directories and research. Reed Business Information-US is part of Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK and ENL), a world leading provider of professional information and workflow solutions in the Science, Medical, Legal, Risk Management and Business sectors.

Reed Business Information-US and Reed Elsevier were represented by The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc., a New York City-based investment bank that specializes in the media and information

6 Comments on Many men have tried to mix us up but no one can, last added: 3/3/2010

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Mitali Perkins said, on 3/1/2010 8:04:00 AM

I'll have to browse through my photos to guess which other ones might be prophetic. Congratulations to Media Source.

Anonymous said, on 3/1/2010 8:45:00 AM

Is this suppose to be good news?

Roger Sutton said, on 3/1/2010 9:39:00 AM

It is good news. For LJ and SLJ because Reed has been trying to sell them for a while; for Media Source, because it makes us bigger and offers opportunities for cross-selling; for the Horn Book, because it brings us in closer contact with a larger number of potential subscribers for our print and electronic publications. And Media Source has assured each publications of its editorial independence, so Brian and I are perfectly free to hurl chairs at each other the way LNG and ELH did back in the golden age.

EM said, on 3/1/2010 9:49:00 AM

I think you guys need to be the halftime entertainment at the next ALA Book Cart Drill Team tournament.

Sue Pest said, on 3/1/2010 10:28:00 AM

LNG and ELH had more interesting chairs to throw and better reasons for throwing them (well, at least LNG did). No one ever mistook one of them for the other.

Brooke said, on 3/3/2010 10:40:00 AM

Lord help the sisters who come between these two misters.

(Because the title from this post is from the Irving Berlin song, right?)

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(photo courtesy of CNW Group)

Longtime Horn Book contributor (I swear, she must have started writing the "News from the North" column when she was twelve) Sarah Ellis has won the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award for Odd Man Out. And, in an oh-let's-be-vulgar shout out to any civic-minded U.S. banking corporation, she gets 20,000 smackers. Canadian, which is like a million in our money, right?

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