Today the American Library Association announced its 2014 youth media award winners, which includes, among other awards, the Newbery Medal, the Caldecott Medal, and the Printz Award. Here are those winners (I’d link to their website for a list of all winners, but their website has always been atrocious and hard to access — it’s no different this morning).
John Newbery Medal Winner (for most outstanding contribution to children’s literature):
- Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures, by Kate DiCamillo
Newbery Honor Books:
- Doll Bones, by Holly Black
- The Year of Billy Miller, by Kevin Henkes
- One Came Home, by Amy Timberlake
- Paperboy, by Vince Vawter
This is Kate DiCamillo’s second Nebery Medal. She won ten years ago for The Tale of Desperaux, which I liked. I’m afraid I have not read any of this year’s Newbery books, though my wife and I have had our eyes on Flora & Ulysses.
Randolph Caldecott Medal Winner (for the most distinguished American picture book for children):
- Locomotive, written and illustrated by Brian Floca
Caldecott Honor Books:
- Journey, written and illustrated by Aaron Becker
- Flora and the Flamingo, written and illustrated by Molly Idle
- Mr. Wuffles!, written and illustrated by David Wiesner
In this group, I bought my wife Journey, which, in a way, is an elaborate, beautiful reimagining of Harold and the Purple Crayon. I loved it. We are also big fans of Flora and the Flamingo.
Michael L. Printz Award Winner (for excellence in literature written for young adults):
- Midwinterblood, by Marcus Sedgwick
Printz Honor Books:
- Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell
- Kingdom of Little Wounds, by Susann Cokal
- Maggot Moon, written by Sally Gardner; illustrated by Julian Crouch
- Navigating Early, by Clare Vanderpool
I’m afraid I know nothing about any of these books, though I think Midwinterblood has an intriguing title. I’m curious.
Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award Winner (recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults):
- P.S. Be Eleven, by Rita Williams-Garcia
King Honor Books:
- March: Book One, written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin; illustrated by Nate Powell
- Darius & Twig, by Walter Dean Myers
- Words with Wings, by Nikki Grimes
While I have not looked into any of these specific books, these are authors I’ve heard quite a bit about. In 2011, Rita Williams-Garcia was a Newbery Honor winner for her book One Crazy Summer, and Walter Dean Myers has been a Newbery Honor recipient twice, once in 1989 for Scorpions, and again in 1993 for Somewhere in the Darkness.
Theodor Seuss Geisel Award Winner (for the most distinguished book for beginning readers):
- The Watermelon Seed, written and illustrated by Greg Pizzoli
Geisel Honor Books:
- Ball, written and illustrated by Mary Sullivan
- A Big Guy Took My Ball, written and illustrated by Mo Willems
- Penny and Her Marble, written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes
We always make sure to pick up the new Elephant and Piggie book, so we’ve read (many times) A Big Guy Took My Ball. I’m not familiar with the others, though I think it’s fair to say today is a good day for Kevin Henkes, getting both this and the Newbery Honor.
Again, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these awards. I’d keep checking their website for the complete list.
Rita Williams-Garcia has a really strong voice. One Crazy Summer was an excellent book. I look forward to reading P.S. Be Eleven.
Did you know this was the sequel? I didn’t!
Mo Willems won the Geiss Medal twice, a Caldecott Honor three times, and I think this would be the fourth Geiss honor. His work is the gold medal standard!
Early reading will never be the same! Voice, psychology, compassion, humor, art and arc – he has it all, and also a real sense for what an early reader should like look like and sound like. There is no compare.
Elephant and Piggy are going to be right up there with Scarlett and Rhett in the American Canon, and Trixie is my new American heroine!
His work is brilliant. And guess what? He works all the time!
May he be the Philip Roth of children’s literature!
Mo Willems is the writer I admire most. This may change, I admit, as Milo and Mabel get older. But if there were a Nobel for Children’s literature (and there should be) he’d be a winner!
Superlative is too weak a word for what he does, for what he can do!
Punctuation fails me when singing his praises. Nonpareil is the word that comes to mind.