I am writing this post today around 9 p.m. on Sunday. As such, many of you will read this, knowing full well who the Newbery and Caldecott winners are. I will be a little behind you in this respect. Amusingly, I realized too late that I scheduled my latest sonogram for the PRECISE moment the ALA Media Awards will be announced. I blame time zones. Or, rather, my apparent lack of understanding about time zones. So just picture me on the doctor’s table, Android phone in hand, watching the Twitter updates scroll past. That’s priorities for you, eh?
- Speaking of Caldecotts and Newberys (I always come this close to writing “Newberies”), Elizabeth Bluemle over at ShelfTalker recently figured out how many men vs. women win those two awards. In short, boys get lots of Caldecotts, girls get lots of Newberys. Harold Underdown points out in the comments that when he did similar research ten years ago he pretty much got the same results. The more things change, the more things stay the same. For her part, Kyra Hicks at Black Threads in Kid’s Lit calculated similar stats a year ago for male to female winners of the Coretta Scott King Award. She’ll have to update those stats after today, of course. Fingers crossed for Rita Williams-Garcia (I want her to win everything).
- I was talking with an author the other day about the books that I’m working on. Infinitely lucky, I’m publishing books with two of my favorite companies/imprints: Greenwillow of Harper Collins and Candlewick. When I mentioned this and that I was trying to get all my favorites under my belt (I’m eyeing you hungrily, Chronicle) they replied, “Ah. How about Abrams?” Well, I’ve been very impressed with Abrams over the last two to three years, and not just because they know how to raise a Wimpy Kid. They just do good work. So it was with great pleasure that I learned that one of my husband’s fellow screenwriters, Jonathan Auxier, has a book with Abrams due later this year in the fall called Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes. Keep that title in your brain for a while and check out Jonathan’s new blog The Scop if you’ve a chance to do so.
Yes my husband Matt is a screenwriter and he sports a jaunty blog of his own called Cockeyed Caravan. From time to time he’ll allow friends and folks in the field to write posts there with their own cinematic recommendations. Not too long ago our best buddy Geoff went on with his own, and danged if one of films he came up with wasn’t Sounder, based on the 1970 Newbery Award winning novel by William H. Armstrong. I swear he didn’t do that film for me, as (I’m ashamed to admit) I’ve never seen it. I want to now, though. A nice continuation of our Newbery themed day, eh?
- Hey, do you remember a couple months ago when I asked you guys to mention any books about Afr
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Betsy’s OB: Congratulations, Mrs. Bird. You’re having twins.
Betsy: WHAT?! Oh, my God. Tell me you’re joking. For the love of God, tell me you’re joking. I cannot believe this. They picked THAT BOOK?
I’m sorry, did you say something? My mind was just totally blown.
Ahem. I actually MET Bob Graham, who has the most spontaneous teeth this side of Austin Powers (or me) and is as charming as his books, which is saying a VERY great deal. Our pick at the bookstore was always Let’s Get a Pup! Said Kate.
And ah, Dick King-Smith. His guinea pig book (maybe I Love Guinea Pigs?) illustrated by Anita Jeram, the woman who can do Cute while maintaining little beady eyes (on her critters) almost made me love guinea pigs. Almost.
FYI…the link to your older entries does not work. I wanted to reread your Newbery/Caldecott predictions, which I knew were in a recent post. Newcomers to your blog will miss out on your excellent older posts! However, I was able to search for the post. Looking forward to your thoughts on the winners. I ordered Moon Over Manifest several months ago for our library, but haven’t read it yet. That will be corrected ASAP!
Actually, it does but it’s annoying. What you have to do is to reload my blog’s page with a / at the end of the web address. Once that’s there you can click on the “Older Entries” message and be taken to earlier posts. Failing that, just type “Newbery” into my Search box on the right and it comes right up.
Post on the winners shall go up tomorrow!
Thanks so much for the kind words, Betsy! You were missed at ALA.
Interesting news about Candlewick and NetGalley, I’m fascinated to see how all of that will play out and what things will look like.
LOVE the comic too!
Why don’t you check out Netflix and find Sounder? I remember it being a good movie. Better do it soon, though–speaking from experience, you won’t have much time for movies in about eight months.