Schneider Family Book Award recipients named

Larra Clark, Macey Morales


ALA Media Relations


312-280-5043/4393

For Immediate Release


January 23, 2006

Schneider Family Book Award recipients named

SAN ANTONIO — The American Library Association (ALA) is pleased to announce the winners of the Schneider Family Book Award, which honors an author or illustrator for the artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.

Recipients are selected in three categories: birth through grade school (age 0–10), middle school (age 11–13), and teens (age 13–18).
Winners receive $5,000 and a framed plaque, which will be presented
during the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans, June 22-28.

“Dad, Jackie, and Me” written by Myron Uhlberg, illustrated by Colin Bootman and published by Peachtree Press, wins the award for young children.
This exceptional portrayal of a young boy’s affectionate relationship with his deaf father hits home when his dad identifies with baseball player Jackie Robinson and recognizes that discrimination takes many forms. Expressive illustrations evoke the 1940s era and capture mood, warmth and sensitivity.

Kimberly Newton Fusco is the winner of the middle-school award for “Tending to Grace,” published by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books.
Cornelia “Corny” Thornhill, a self-described bookworm who stutters, is judged to be a poor student because of her reluctance to speak or read aloud.
During the school year that Corny lives with her eccentric great-aunt Agatha, a family secret helps them as they unravel their differences.
Told with eloquent simplicity, Corny’s narrative is an honest portrayal of self-discovery.

The teen award winner is “Under the Wolf, Under the Dog,” written by Adam Rapp and published by Candlewick Press.
This compelling narrative of journal entries by a 16-year-old boy immerses the reader into his deteriorating mental state.
Unable to cope with his mother’s death and his brother’s suicide, he contemplates suicide himself.
In a home for troubled teens he rediscovers “living.”
The poetic language and gripping vivid images portray his spiraling out of control and his redemptive steps of recovery.

Members of the 2006 Schneider Family Book Award committee are: Chair Victor Lynn Schill, Harris County Public Library, Houston; Carrie Scott Banks, Brooklyn (N.Y.) Public Library; Julie A. Cummins, author/consultant, Canandaigua, N.Y.; Barbara T. Mates, Cleveland Public Library; Donna K. McMillen, Fairwood Library, Renton, Wash.; Linda L. Plevak, Saint Mary’s Hall, San Antonio; Patricia M. Steelman, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

For more information on the Schneider Family Book Award and other ALA literary awards, please visit
www.ala.org/2006awards.