Cynthia Kadohata garnered the John Newbery medal for Kira-Kira, published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers. The novel, which takes its title from the Japanese word for “glittering,” describes 10-year-old Katie’s efforts to care for her dying older sister.
Kevin Henkes took the Randolph Caldecott prize for his gouache and colored-pencil illustrations in his book Kitten’s First Full Moon, published by Greenwillow Books, a heart-warming tale about a hungry and determined kitten.
Toni Morrison, author of Remember: The Journey to School Integration, and Kadir Nelson, illustrator of Ellington Was Not a Street, earned Coretta Scott King Awards recognizing African-American authors and illustrators of outstanding books for children and young adults. Morrison’s book, published by Houghton Mifflin, is a historical work for young people that uses archival photographs to make the civil rights movement come to life. Nelson’s deep-toned oil paintings for Ntozake Shange’s poetic depiction of the artists of the Harlem Renaissance, published by Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, evokes the feelings of a family album.
Other awardees were Russell Freedman, winner of the Robert F. Sibert Award for most distinguished informational children’s book, for The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights, published by Clarion Books; Francesca Lia Block, winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime contribution in writing for young adults; and Meg Rosoff, winner of the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in young-adult literature, for How I Live Now, published by Wendy Lamb Books.
A complete list
Posted January 17, 2005.