2008 Arbuthnot Lecture
David Macaulay to deliver 2008 Arbuthnot Honor Lecture
Date: April 17, 2008
Time: 7 p.m.
Place: Monona Terrace, Madison, Wis.
Host: South Central Library System, Madison
Further information, including ticket information, is available at the South Central Library System Web site.
David Macaulay, Caldecott Award medalist and renowned author/illustrator, will deliver the 2008 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture. Each year, an individual of distinction in the field of children’s literature is chosen to write and deliver a lecture that will make a significant contribution to the world of children’s literature. The award is administered by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The announcement was made January 22 during the 2007 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle.
“Macaulay’s work celebrates human endeavor and ingenuity. His books encourage readers to consider the construction of everything from buildings to stories, and to constantly look at the world around us,” stated Arbuthnot Committee Chair Deborah Stevenson. “His detailed artwork, succinct use of language, and ever-present sense of humor ensure that his books appeal to many ages on many different levels.”
The body of his work is astonishingly varied, ranging from his postmodern picture book “Black and White” (1990), which won the Caldecott Medal, to the satiric fiction of “Motel of the Mysteries” (1979) and the deceptive simplicity of “Shortcut” (1999). In addition to the Caldecott Medal, his works have received a multitude of national and international awards, including the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and Macaulay himself was the recipient of a 2006 MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.”
Macaulay first came to fame in children’s literature with his now-legendary “Cathedral” (1973). He followed that title with several more absorbing narratives about the building of large structures such as “City” (1974), “Castle” (1977) and “Mosque” (2003), as well as the operation of everyday science and engineering principles in “The Way Things Work” (1988).
 Macaulay was born in 1946 in Burton-on-Trent, England; he moved to Bloomfield, N.J., at 11 years old, and he received his Bachelor of Arts in architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design. He currently lives with his family in rural Vermont.
Members of the Arbuthnot Committee are: Chair Deborah Stevenson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Kate Carter, Multnomah County Library, Portland, Ore.; Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library; Susan Moore, Louisville (Ky.) Free Public Library; and Gene Nelson, Provo (Utah) City Library.
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2008 Lecture