Allison's Book Bag

Congratulations to two book award winners!

• Jack Gantos won the Newbery Medal for his semi-autobiographical novel, Dead End in Norvelt, aimed at readers ten to fourteen.
• Chris Raschka won the Caldecott Medal for A Ball for Daisy, aimed at readers ages three and up.

Read full coverage at USA Today’s article “Top Medals for Kids Lit“.

I discovered this article through Google Alerts. In the future, you can expect to find any of Quick Take Reviews, Questions, or News on my mid-break posts. Quick Takes will be listed with regular reviews. Questions and News will be listed under Wednesday Questions & News.

Getting back to the book awards….

Image via Wikipedia

The Newbery Medal is named after John Newbery, an English publisher of books who is considered the father of children’s literature. He first gained recognition for children’s books as profitable in the publishing business. He also wrote what is considered one of the first children’s books:  Little Pretty Pocket Book, an illustrated catalogue of children’s games based on the alphabet. In 1921 the Newbery medal was established by Frederic Melcher to be awarded by the American Library Association to the most distinguished children’s book of the year written by an American. How many Newbery Medals have you read?

Image via Wikipedia

The Caldecott Medal is named after Randolph Caldecott, a nineteenth century English illustrator. Caldecott transformed the world of children’s books in the Victorian era, by creating a new kind of picture book. For one thing, his words didn’t simply mirror the text but extended them in unique ways. For another thing, his illustrations spoke to a real rather than an idealized childhood world. Children eagerly awaited the two books illustrated by him, which came out each Christmas. n 1937, René Paul Chambellan designed the Caldecott Medal to be awarded by the American Library Association to the artist of the most distinguished picture books for children published in the United States during the preceding year. How many Caldecott Medals have you read?

To find out ones have been reviewed at Allison’s Book Bag, head to about halfway down the right hand column. Awards is listed as one of my categories.

Related Articles

• ‘Dead End’ Wins Newbery, ‘Daisy’ Takes Caldecott (npr.org)
• Children’s Book Awards Announced (parenting.blogs.nytimes.com)
• ‘Daisy’ runs off with Caldecott and ‘Dead End’ takes Newbery (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• The 2012 Newbery Medal winner 2012 | Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos (rosemarysutcliff.com)
• Tale of Comic Adventures Wins Newbery Medal (artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com)