You all remember Kevin Huo, the amazing 5th grader who won 1st Place in our “I Love Costa Rica’s Rain Forest!” Contest – 4th-5th Grade Category. Well now Kevin has done it again. He just returned from Washington DC where he received the River of Words Environmental Art & Poetry “One Square Block” Grand Prize Award.
“Our goal is to help children become informed, engaged and inspired citizens of the places they live,” added River of Words co-founder and executive director, Pamela Michael. River of Words (ROW) is a Berkeley-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting literacy, creative expression and community awareness of our most critical environmental concern: water. It was co-founded by U.S. Poet Laureate (1995-1997) Robert Hass and writer Pamela Michael to help young people make a personal and lasting connection to the environment.
Kevin’s Entry, Birds Over the Bay depicts birds, inspired by the artist’s memories of seeing ducks in his yard and birds flying over the sea near his CA home. You can’t help but smile when you see Kevin’s artwork. He uses vibrant colors and captures nature in such an inspiring and mature way. This is just one of many awards Kevin has one for his artwork. And he’’s only 11 years old! Click here to read our interview with Kevin, which was published in January.
Birds Over the Bay
For the Grand Prize Award, Kevin received a trip to the River of Words Environmental Art & Poetry Award, Ceremony, where he attended a luncheon and public reading at US Capitol - The Library of Congress – on June 30, 2010 The ceremony was emceed by River of Words co-founder, former US Poet Laureate, Robert Hass, recent winner of the both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.
After the ceremony, Kevin visited and met with California Senator Barbara Boxer in the Capitol, Washington DC, where he presented his 2010 One Square Block grand prize & 2010 River of Words Watershed Art & Poetry winning art work to Senator Boxer.
Kevin and his parents got to meet CA Senator Barbara Boxer following the awards ceremony
Kevin is not just an artist, but a true environmentalist.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who is looking forward to Kevin’s next artistic masterpiece.
Congratulations Kevin!
Our book - The Travel Adventures of Lilly P Badilly: Costa Rica - was honored as an Award-Winning Finalist in the Children’s Picture Book: Hardcover Fiction w/ Audio CD” category of the National Best Books 2008 Awards, sponsored by USA Book News.
A complete list of winners can be found at http://www.usabooknews.com/bestbooksawards2008.html.
USABookNews.com, the premiere online magazine and review website for mainstream and independent publishing houses, announced the winners and finalists of THE NATIONAL “BEST BOOKS” 2008 AWARDS (NBBA) on October 20, 2008. Over 500 winners and finalists were announced in over 140 categories covering print and audio books. Awards were presented for titles published in 2008 and late 2007.
Jeff Keen, President and CEO of USABookNews.com, said this year’s contest yielded an unprecedented number of entries, which were then narrowed down to over 500 winners and finalists.
Keen says of the awards, now in their fifth year, “The 2008 results represent a phenomenal mix of books from a wide array of publishers throughout the United States.
As an executive in the publishing PR and marketing industry and president and CEO of JPX Media, I wanted to create an awards competition that recognized books in their publication year rather than months after the original launch window. With a full publicity and marketing campaign promoting the results of NBBA, this year’s winners and finalists will gain additional media coverage for the upcoming holiday retail season.”
Winners and finalists traversed the publishing landscape: Simon & Schuster, Tarcher/Penguin, HarperCollins, Hyperion, St. Martin’s Press, McGraw-Hill, John Wiley & Sons & hundreds of independent titles contributed to this year’s outstanding NBBA competition. Keen adds, “NBBA’s success begins with the enthusiastic participation of authors and publishers and continues with our distinguished panel of industry judges who bring to the table their extensive editorial, PR, marketing, and design expertise.”
USABookNews.com is an online publication providing coverage for books from mainstream and independent publishers to the world online community. USABN Magazine Online is the monthly electronic magazine e-mailed free to a large cross-section of the book buying public. JPX Media, in Los Angeles, California, is the parent company of USABookNews.com.
