ALA Kids' Awards Wrap-Up

On Monday, January 22, the American Library Association announced the winners of the 2007 John Newbery and Randolph Caldecott medals, as well as honor books in each category. The announcements were made at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle. A number of other award winners were also announced.

Here's a look at some of the key awards. (Complete details are available on the ALA website [1]).

Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature

The Higher Power of Lucky, by Susan Patron, illustrated by Matt Phelan (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson)

Newbery Honor Books
Penny From Heaven, by Jennifer L. Holm (Random House)
Hattie Big Sky, by Kirby Larson (Delacorte) -- A Winter 2006/2007 Book Sense Children's Pick
Rules, by Cynthia Lord (Scholastic)

Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children

Flotsam, by David Wiesner (Clarion) -- A Fall 2006 Book Sense Children's Pick

Caldecott Honor Books
Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet, by David McLimans (Walker)
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Carole Boston Weatherford (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun) -- A Winter 2006/2007 Book Sense Children's Pick

Mildred L. Batchelder Award for an outstanding children's book translated from a foreign language and subsequently published in the U.S.

Delacorte Press, publisher of The Pull of the Ocean, by Jean-Claude Mourlevat, translated from the French by Y. Maudet

Batchelder Honor Books
Delacorte Press, publisher of The Killer's Tears, by Anne-Laure Bondoux, translated from the French by Y. Maudet
Hyperion/Miramax, publisher of The Last Dragon, by Silvana De Mari, translated from the Italian by Shaun Whiteside -- A Fall 2006 Book Sense Children's Pick

Coretta Scott King Awards recognizing African-American authors and illustrators of outstanding books for children and young adults that demonstrate sensitivity to "the true worth and value of all beings"

Copper Sun, by Sharon Draper (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum Books for Young Readers)

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children) -- A Winter 2006/2007 Book Sense Children's Pick

King Author Honor Book
The Road to Paris, by Nikki Grimes (G.P. Putnam's Sons, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group)

King Illustrator Honor Books
Jazz, illustrated by Christopher Myers, written by Walter Dean Myers (Holiday House) Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes, illustrated by Benny Andrews, edited by David Roessel and Arnold Rampersad (Sterling Publishing)

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award

Traci L. Jones, author of Standing Against the Wind (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for the outstanding book for beginning readers

Zelda and Ivy: The Runaways, by Laura McGee Kvasnosky (Candlewick)

Geisel Honor Books
Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride, by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Chris Van Dusen (Candlewick)
Move Over, Rover!, by Karen Beaumont and illustrated by Jane Dyer (Harcourt)
Not a Box, by Antoinette Portis (HarperCollins) -- A Winter 2006/2007 Book Sense Children's Pick

Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults

American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang (First Second/Roaring Brook Press)

Printz Honor Books
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing,Traitor to the Nation; Volume 1: The Pox Party, by M.T. Anderson (Candlewick) -- A Winter 2006/2007 Book Sense Children's Pick
An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green (Dutton/Penguin Group USA) -- A Fall 2006 Book Sense Children's Pick
Surrender, by Sonya Hartnett (Candlewick)
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak (Knopf/Random House Children's Books) -- A Summer 2006 Book Sense Children's Pick

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal for most distinguished informational book for children

Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon, by Catherine Thimmesh (Houghton)

Sibert Honor Books
Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement, by Ann Bausum (National Geographic)
Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea, by Sy Montgomery, photos by Nic Bishop (Houghton)
To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel, by Siena Cherson Siegel, illustrated by Mark Siegel (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson and Simon & Schuster/Aladdin)

Laura Ingalls Wilder Award to an author or illustrator whose books, published in the U.S., have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children

James Marshall

2008 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecturer honors an author, critic, librarian, historian, or teacher of children's literature, of any country, who then presents a lecture at a winning host site

David Macaulay

Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in children's video

Mo Willems, author/illustrator, and Weston Woods Studios, producers of Knuffle Bunny