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Did you hear shouts of joy at 8:28 a.m. this morning, Eastern time? That would have been me, screaming and cheering in delight as I heard the news that The Invention of Hugo Cabret had just won the Caldecott Medal.

It's been a busy day in the children's book selling world. There was frantic dictation as the awards were announced. There were hurried phone calls to distributors, publishers and reps to secure as many of the winning books as possible. There was scouring of bookshelves and overstock to find every last copy of every book that had just been anointed with a magic sticker. There were signs that had to be made, and books that had to be organized and re-organized to make room for the winners. There were conversations with colleagues about which books won. Oh, and there was all the other business of a regular Monday to attend to. So, it's been a long day.

But now, I finally have a minute to sit down. And here's the first thing I want to do: stand up.

I want to give a standing ovation to the 2008 Caldecott committee. I want to applaud you for making a brave and gutsy choice and for recognizing the most distinguished book of the year.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that I wrote a very detailed post about why Hugo Cabret wasn't going to win the Newbery Medal, even though I really, really, really wanted it to. Not because it's not a great book, but because the Newbery is all about text, not illustrations. And Hugo Cabret is all about illustrations. And while Hugo Cabret was eligible for the Caldecott, selecting something that isn't a "picture book" would fly in the face of Caldecott tradition.

And yet, they did it. They awarded it the Caldecott Medal. Now, the book will be in schools and libraries everywhere and will be in print for decades to come. And it's an excellent, timeless book and it deserves to be where children can get their hands on it. Bravo to the courageous members of Caldecott committee. And, thank you.

Incidentally, when I put signs above the 534 page Caldecott winner and the 85 page Newbery winner today, it looked like I made a mistake. But I didn't... and neither did the committee.

Update: Now that I've had a chance to look around at other blogs, I see that several people commented on the huge ovation Hugo Cabret received when it was announced as the Caldecott winner. Although I was watching the webcast, I didn't hear the applause of the crowd. Why? Because I was too busy screaming.

Here are some brand new children's books that I'm excited about (but haven't gotten a chance to read yet). Reviews will follow in the next few weeks (or months) but I wanted to highlight a few books on my reading list.

Peter and the Secret of Rundoon by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson.

This is the third book in the Peter and the Starcatchers trilogy (the second one was Peter and the Shadow Theives) and I've found it to be a terrific series. Dave Barry is a humor writer and Ridley Pearson is a mystery writer and together they've produced funny mysteries. All three books are prequels to Peter Pan... so it helps to have a basic knowledge of the plot of Peter Pan. Peter and the Secret of Rundoon just came out yesterday... and I'm about 20 pages into it. I can't wait to finish it and find out the answers to some of the mysteries in the second book.

Blue Moo by Sandra Boynton and Michael Ford

This is the fourth Boyton/Ford co-production and my son is an enormous fan of their other three albums: Rhinoceros Tap, Philadelphia Chickens and Dog Train. My personal favorite (thus far) is Dog Train... it's rock and roll and hits me just right. Blue Moo is full of 1950's types songs- and I'm really looking forward to it. As with the previous albums, Sandra Boynton has created a delightful companion book and has gotten some really cool people to record the songs: Patti Lupone, B.B. King, Brian Wilson. There's a great video about the making of this album on YouTube called "Behind the Moosic" which is a lot of fun to watch.

Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf by Jennfer L. Holm, illustrated by Elicia Castaldi

This is an incredibly creative book by the author of Our Only May Amelia, Penny From Heaven and Baby Mouse. The story of Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf is told completely thorough stuff: calendars, post-it notes, bank deposit slips, to do lists, etc. While there's text on the page, it's not done in a standard way at all and is a highly visual book. This book came out a few months ago and I've heard great things about it. I just picked up my copy at the library today and I can't wait to read it.

Look! This post isn't about Harry Potter! Amazing, isn't it?

One of my very favorite children's book characters has always been Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. She's a wonderful (and unfortunately fictional) woman who lives in a very 1950ish neighborhood (not surprisingly since the books were published in the 1950's) who always knows exactly how to solve every possible child-rearing problem. Each book contains several short stories that are very loosely connected and they make great early chapter books. They're slightly difficult to read aloud because of the complicated sentences and long chapters, but well worth the effort. My personal favorites are the very first chapter "Mrs. Piggle Wiggle Herself" in the first book (Mrs. Piggle Wiggle) and "The Waddle-I-Doers" which is the last chapter in the last book, (Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Magic).

Recently, Betty MacDonald's daughter Anne MacDonald Canham found an unpublished manuscript of a Mrs. Piggle Wiggle story. The first new Mrs. Piggle Wiggle book in fifty years will be be published in October 2007, it's titled Happy Birthday Mrs. Piggle Wiggle and features the unpublished story along with several new stories written by her daughter. Several more Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books by Anne MacDonald Canham are currently in the works. I have mixed feelings about this... on the one hand, I love the character, in any form... and on the other hand I think it's hard to improve on the originals. But since it's written by MacDonald's daughter, it's being done with a huge amount of love and respect... so I'll reserve my opinion until I read the new book. What do you think about it?

This book kept surprising me... particularly how I was unable to put it down until I finished reading it. I had heard the book was about autism (and knew that author Cynthia Lord has an autistic son). But really, that is only one part of this incredibly dynamic book. It isn't preachy, it isn't filled with beat-you-over-the-head lessons and morals... it's about accepting who you are (and accepting the people around you for who they are.) It's also about how important words are... and how easy they are to take for granted.

Read this book. Not because it won this year's prestigious Newbery medal (which it did), not because it incited controversy(which it also did).... read it because it's a fabulous book.

What's so great about it? It's funny, heart wrenching, quirky, and hard to put down. It feels both incredibly modern.... and simultaneously timeless. I don't feel like this book could have been written twenty years ago because of the contemporary feel of it.... but I also think I could pick it up in twenty (or sixty) years and enjoy it as much as I do now.

The characters are so achingly well described, and are all so imperfect and.... human. The location is so vivid and detailed that when I read this book, I feel like I'm sweltering in the heat in Hard Pan waiting for my shipment of government food to arrive.

One of my favorite things in the book is the last page... the author's note to the reader. Susan Patron is a librarian, after all, and she tells you just where to find the website for the International Guild of Knot Tyers, the bibliographic information for Are You My Mother?, etc.
Actually, this is probably my second favorite thing.... because my favorite is really Chapter 22 "bonne nuit" which is... a perfect chapter.

The first time I read The Higher Power of Lucky it was very very quickly. I was taking an advanced seminar in children's literature in library school... and the semester started 2 days after the ALA awards were announced. Our professor had scheduled members of this year's Newbery and Siebert committees to talk to us- which was fantastic... but they were scheduled for three weeks from the first day of class. Which meant everyone in my class had to read all the Newbery, Siebert and Caldecott medalists and honor books in the next three weeks. The reading was no problem, but tracking them all down when they had just become the most popular books in the country overnight.... well, that was a problem. (Example, the day before The Higher Power of Lucky won the Newbery it was ranked over #700,000 on Amazon's bestseller list.... the day it won it was ranked #4.) The Higher Power of Lucky was the hardest of all the books to find because its initial printing had been fairly small, and it had been published fairly recently. My professor had a copy, which my class passed around like contraband... I think I had under 24 hours to read it before I had to give it to another classmate.

And, sigh.... after all that... the class session where we were going to talk about the book got cancelled due to snow. Fortunately, one of my classmates did her term paper on 50 years of books about 10 year old girls (and how Lucky compared to her 10 year old predecessors)... so we did get to discuss the book after all.

And now I have a copy all my own (autographed, no less!) so I can enjoy the book over and over.
I'll have to get a second copy to lend out.

Her speech at the Newbery banquet was beautiful, funny, heart wrenching... just like her book.... see my earlier post about the banquet.

In the precious thirty seconds I got to talk to author Susan Patron while she was signing my book at the ALA conference, I learned the following things: