From: GraceAnne A. DeCandido <ladyhawk>
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 19:20:59 -0500

Which of the thousands of books published during 1998: are your personal candidates for any of the annual awards & distinctions?


My pick for the Newbery, hands down, is Carol Fenner's The King of Dragons . Nothing else I read this year moved me as much.


Caldecott is harder: there were a few things I thought brilliant and worthy: Wendy Anderson Halperin's Once Upon a Company with its winsome and spirited layers of detail; Joan Steiner's awesome Look-Alikes , which is really hard to describe but must be seen to be believed; Jeanette Winter's My Name is Georgia , which takes off from the art of Georgia O'Keeffe and makes a splendid homage; Jennifer Armstrong and Mary GrandPre's beautiful, magical Pockets . I loved
 Dora's Box , by Ann-Jeannette Campbell and Fabian Negrin, whose art seemed both transcendent and imaginative. My favorite, though, is probably Stefano Vitale and Edward Field's
 Magic Words , whose art made me tremble.


are you buying personally for gifts at any time of the year?


I bought my 12-year old niece the Weetzie Bat
 collection, and my 12 year old nephew the stirring
 Sword Song (I may get him the Pirate's Son , too). I bought the wild 9-year old nephew The Adventures of Captain Underpants and How to Eat Fried Worms. I got the timid 9-year old niece Lizard Flanagan's latest. and I am distributing picture books to the small children of my dentist, my UPS guy, my favorite waitress, and all, with great abandon.


GraceAnne, who has reviewed 175 picture books, and counting, in 1998.



  GraceAnne A. DeCandido Blue Roses Editorial & Web Consulting, New York City ladyhawk at well.com http://www.well.com/user/ladyhawk/gadhome.html What's Ladyhawk reading now? http://www.well.com/user/ladyhawk/books.html

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.
 Garrison Keillor
Received on Mon 30 Nov 1998 06:20:59 PM CST