Wowza, wow, wow, wow!
I use TweetDeck to watch hashtags and I can tell you that the #alayma was cruising! Those tweets were coming so quickly I couldn’t even read them. Good thing I had the live webcast going so I could hear all the cheers and gasps from the audience. It would seem librarians wear their hearts (fave books) on their sleeve. This was way better than the Super Bowl and any of those actor award shows. I also had my Goodreads window running and my To Be Read shelf is overflowing (just when I thought I was getting caught up). What a fabulous morning for readers, children’s books, librarians, teachers, writers, illustrators. I’m overwhelmed by awards. Perhaps the phrase “Sticker shock” should be re-coined?!
The biggest take-away was that #weneeddiversebooks scored a huge win today. It was amazing to see so many diverse books and their creators recognized. The awards to individuals for their contributions to the field went to diverse book creators. The following is quoted from the Children’s Book Council website (which has all of today’s categories and winners):
Laura Ingalls Wilder Award honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.
The 2015 winner is Donald Crews, whose award-winning works include “Freight Train,” which was a Caldecott Honor Book in 1979, and “Truck,” a Caldecott Honor Book in 1981. He has been consistently excellent with a wide range of titles, such as “Harbor,” “Parade,” “Shortcut” and “Bigmama’s,” all published by Greenwillow Books.
Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults:
The 2015 winner is Sharon M. Draper, author of more than 20 books, including: “Tears of a Tiger” (1994), “Forged by Fire” (1997), “Darkness Before Dawn” (2001), “Battle of Jericho” (2004), “Copper Sun” (2006), and “November Blues” (2007), all published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.
2016 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award recognizing an author, critic, librarian, historian or teacher of children’s literature, who then presents a lecture at a winning host site.
The 2016 Arbuthnot Lecture will be delivered by Pat Mora. Pioneering author and literacy advocate Pat Mora has written more than three dozen books for young people that represent the Mexican American experience.
The Newbery was a complete sweep of diverse books. EL DEAFO, by Cece Bell, and BROWN GIRL DREAMING by Jacqueline Woodson received Newbery Honors and the Newbery went to THE CROSSOVER by Kwame Alexander.
It wasn’t the only award for BROWN GIRL DREAMING which also took the Sibert Honor and the Coretta Scott King Honor. These in addition to the already prestigious National Book Award in Young People’s Literature. Good thing the cover was designed with plenty of negative space.
RT @nancyrosep: Lol “@bookavore: BROWN GIRL DREAMING’s cover is almost absurd at this point pic.twitter.com/8njXzM35tz” <–LOVE IT!
— cindy pon (@cindypon) February 2, 2015
Jacqueline Woodson is past VCFA faculty and VCFA was also well represented by current faculty member Kekla Magoon’s HOW IT ALL WENT DOWN, the audio version of alumna Julie Berry’s THE SCANDALOUS SISTERHOOD OF PICKWILLOW PLACE won an Odyssey Honor, and alumna Jandy Nelson took home the Printz and the Stonewall Honor with her amazing I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN.
Oh @jandynelson! How extra gorgeous does your book look with these stickers on it?!?!?! #alamw15pic.twitter.com/jSL9woaCNt
— Jill Santopolo (@JillSantopolo) February 2, 2015
Despite the sticker shock… it’s time to get back to work, to my own works in progress, to my own dreams and words. Congrats to all the winners!
Creative Chaos 