Linda Sue Park, author of A Single Shard (Clarion), has won the 2002 John Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to children’s literature published in the U.S. in 2001. The award is presented by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). The Newbery Committee also cited two Honor Books: Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath (Farrar); and Carver: A Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson (Front Street).
David Wiesner, illustrator (and author) of The Three Pigs (Clarion), was selected as the winner of the 2002 Randolph Caldecott Medal, presented by ALSC for the most distinguished picture book published in 2001. The Caldecott Committee also cited three Honor Book illustrators: Bryan Collier for Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun), written by Doreen Rappaport; Brian Selznick for The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins (Scholastic), written by Barbara Kerley; and Marc Simont for The Stray Dog (HarperCollins), which he also wrote.
An Na, the author of A Step from Heaven, was named the winner of the 2002 Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature for young adults, sponsored by Booklist and awarded by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). Be sure to read “The Booklist Interview” with Na). The Printz Committee also named four Honor Books: Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art, edited by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan (Abrams); Freewill, by Chris Lynch (HarperCollins); The Ropemaker, by Peter Dickinson (Delacorte); and True Believer, by Virginia Euwer Wolff (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum).
The Coretta Scott King Awards, administrated by the Coretta Scott King Task Force of ALA’s Social Responsibilities Round Table, honor African American authors and illustrators of outstanding books for children and young adults. Mildred Taylor is the recipient of the 2002 Coretta Scott King Author Award for The Land (Penguin Putnam/Phyllis Fogelman). The award committee also selected two Author Award Honor Books: Money Hungry, by Sharon Flake (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun), and Carver: A Life in Poems, by Marilyn Nelson (Front Street).
The 2002 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award went to Jerry Pinkney for Goin’ Someplace Special, written by Patricia McKissack (Atheneum/Anne Schwartz). The committee selected one CSK Illustrator Honor Book: Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun), written by Doreen Rappaport.
The Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award, given periodically to honor new talent in writing or illustration, went to Deborah Wiles for Freedom Summer (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum).
Pam Muñoz Ryan, author of Esperanza Rising (Scholastic), was the winner the 2002 Pura Belpré Author Award. Two Author Award Honor Books were named: Iguanas in the Snow, by Francisco X. Alarcón (Children’s Book Press); and Breaking Through, by Francisco Jiménez (Houghton).
Susan Guevera, illustrator of Chato and the Party Animals (Putnam), by Gary Soto, was awarded the 2002 Pura Belpré Illustrator Award. One Honor Book for Illustration was also selected: Juan Bob Goes to Work (HarperCollins), illustrated by Joe Cepeda and retold by Marisa Montes.
The awards, which honor Latino authors and illustrators whose work best portrays and celebrates Latino cultural experience in a children’s book, are administered by ALSC and REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Service to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking.
Susan Campbell Bartoletti, author of Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845–1850 (Houghton), is the recipient of the 2002 Robert F. Sibert Award for the most distinguished informational book for children published in 2001. Three Honor Books were also named: Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps (HarperCollins), by Andrea Warren; Vincent van Gogh (Delacorte), by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan; and Brooklyn Bridge (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum), written and illustrated by Lynn Curlee. The award is administered by ALSC and sponsored by Bound to Stay Bound Books.
Author and illustrator Maurice Sendak has been selected to deliver the 2003 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture. The award, administered by ALSC, is presented to an individual of distinction in the field of children’s literature. Libraries apply to host the lecture.
Paul Zindel was named the 2002 recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award, which honors a lifetime contribution in writing for young adults. The award is administered by YALSA and sponsored by School Library Journal.
The Land, by Mildred Taylor (Penguin Putnam/Phyllis Fogelman), is the winner of the 2002 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction. The award is presented to a children’s or young adult book published in English by a U.S. publisher and set in the Americas. An advisory committee chaired by Zena Sutherland administers the award and selects the recipient.
Carus Publishing/Cricket Books was named winner of the 2002 Mildred L. Batchelder Award for How I Became an American, by Karin Gündisch, deemed the “most outstanding children’s book originally published in a foreign language and subsequently translated into English for publication in the U.S.” A Book of Coupons (Viking), by Susie Morgenstern, was selected as Honor Book.
Margaret Willey, author of Clever Beatrice (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum), received the fifth annual Charlotte Zolotow Award for outstanding writing in a picture book, presented by the Cooperative Children’s Books Center, a library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The committee named one Honor Book: Five Creatures (Farrar/Frances Foster), written by Emily Jenkins. The award commemorates distinguished children’s book writer and editor Charlotte Zolotow.
—Stephanie Zvirin (szvirin@ala.org)
(Booklist/March 15, 2002)