Back to the Presses for Newbery and Caldecott Award Winners

The American Library Association announced the winners of its prestigious children's book awards on Monday, January 23. Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins, and The Hello, Goodbye Window, illustrated by Chris Raschka and written by Norton Juster, were designated the Newbery and the Caldecott winners, respectively. And with booksellers surely eager to secure extra copies of the two titles, publishers of both books told BTW that they have placed significant reprint orders to insure adequate supplies for bookstores.

Criss Cross, a recent Children's Book Sense Pick, is published by Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. Leah Wasielewski, publicity manager for HarperCollins Children's Books told BTW that currently 20,000 copies of the books are in print and an additional 80,000 copies have been ordered.

Said Wasielewski, "We will begin shipping the reprints to the stores on Thursday, January 26, and we hope to be fully distributed by the end of January, if not earlier. I can say with certainty that all future printings, including the large one due tomorrow, will have the [Newbery] medal affixed. A small number of books went out on the day of the announcement without it."

The Hello, Goodbye Window, a nominee for the 2006 Book Sense Book of the Year Award in the Children's Illustrated category, is published by Michael di Capua/ Hyperion, both imprints of Disney Publishing Worldwide.

Jennifer Levine, publicity director of Disney Publishing Worldwide, told BTW that, "Our original run [for The Hello, Goodbye Window] was 50,000. We've just gone back for 75,000 more, and they will be available beginning February 15. Most of the existing stock [will be stickered] and all of the reprints."

For a complete list of ALA award winners, click here [http://www.news.bookweb.org/4144.html]. --Nomi Schwartz