From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 17:41:44 -0600

I just returned from the American Library Association Midwinter Conference during which the annual children's & young adult book awards were determined & announced. On January 17th CCBC Librarian Anna Lewis sent you information about each of the ALA awards. You may review that information in her message. You will also find this information on the ALA website (www.ala.com) and on the CCBC website
(http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/00awards.htm). We decided long ago to schedule the Caldecott discussion this week, because usually more people can participate in the picture book discussion immediately following the award announcement.

First, let's refer to today's big news in "USA Today" and "The New York Times" and on the "Today Show," which is that Christopher Paul Curtis, winner of the 2000 ALA/ALSC Newbery Award and of the 2000 ALA/SRRT Coretta Scott King Award (author category) for "Bud, Not Buddy" (Delacorte) is the first person to win both awards for the same book. At the ALA/ALSC press conference yesterday it was also noted that Curtis is the first African American writer to win the Newbery Award when Mildred Taylor received the 1977 ALA/ALSC Newbery Medal for her novel "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" (Dial). Remember, these two award committees were composed of entirely different people, they were administered separately, and each jury made entirely separate decisions - each unknown to the other. No one planned this, but the sudden realization caused the press conference attendees to erupt into a standing ovation for Chrisopher Paul Curtis's historic achievement a genuinely spontaneous, emotional response during thirty minutes full of other kinds of surprises. (Coincidentally, the press conference was held on Martin Luther King Day.)

There are other newsworthy facts about the aggregate of award winners announced yesterday, and so far the general press hasn't noticed them. For example, there are two father/son combinations within the awards listings. Notice son Christopher Myers (SRRT/CSK Honor Book - author category: "Black Cat") and father Walter Dean Myers (a double winner because "Monster" received the first ALA/YALSA Michael L. Printz Award for outstanding young adult literature and ALA/SRRT CSK Honor Book illustrator category). There's a three-person family connection with son Brian Pinkney (ALA/SRRT CSK Winner - illustrator category: "In the Time of the Drums" published by Jump at the Son/Hyperion of which Brian's wife, Andrea Davis Pinkney, is the founder) and father Jerry Pinkney (ALA/ALSC Caldecott Honor Book: "The Ugly Duckling"). I want to reiterate that these three committees were composed of different individuals and they met separately; the internal communications of


each committee throughout the year & during their meetings were confidential.

There are other completely coincidental congruences. Two of the Honor Book recipients have previously won the Caldecott Medal: Trina Schart Hyman (twice - "Little Red Riding Hood" & "St. George and the Dragon") and David Wiesner ("Tuesday"). All artists in the Caldecott "news" have achieved previous Caldecott Honor Book distinctions too numerous to cite today while I'm exhausted from meetings and travel. Was any of this previous acclaim a consideration by the Caldecott Committee? It's not even relevant. There's a rule that the committee may only refer to books already suggested or nominated within their own deliberations. It's a good rule, in that these are the only books everyone on the committee can be certain to have in common, making it impossible to have outsiders to any book reference or comparison. The rule works. Whether or not an artist has won or not won a previous award is out-of-bounds during all award discussions.

Two books in the Caldecott "group" are new editions of previously published books: 1) "Joseph Had a Little Overcoat" was first published with Simms Taback's illustrations by Random House in 1977 (wow, talk about a difference!); and 2) "A Child's Calendar" illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman to accompany twelve poems - some of which Updike tweaked from those appearing in the editon illustrated by Nancy Ekholm Burkert
& published in 1965 by Knopf). Was any of this previous acclaim one of the considerations of the Caldecott Committee? No. The only stipulation is that illustrations in a new edition must be approriately copyrighted to indicate substantial change. If you also have access to the 1977 edition, you'll enjoy comparing the two. What a commentary on how book production has evolved, not to mention evidence of one artist's creative process - and it's in a book celebrating ingenuity, imagination and creativity. The CCBC is one of the libraries where both editions can be seen.

The winner of the 2000 Caldecott Medal was published later in 1999 than many of the other eligible books, so perhaps you haven't even seen it yet. Usually it's a challenge to locate copies of any honored books immediately following the awards announcements. If you've been lucky enough to see or have "Joseph Had a Little Overcoat" by Simms Taback (Viking / Penguin Putnam), please share your comments with everyone. This book was published relatively late during 1999, so it's possible you haven't found it yet. Here at the CCBC we didn't have access to it early enough last fall to consider using it in the annual CCBC Caldecott discussion.



During this week, we also welcome your responses to any of the four 2000 Caldecott Honor Books: 1) "A Child's Calendar," illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman (Holiday House); 2) "Sector 7," by David Wiesner
(Clarion); 3) "When Sophie Gets Angry - Really, Really Angry..." by Molly Bang (Blue Sky / Scholastic); and 4) "The Ugly Duckling" by Hans Christian Andersen adapted and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney (Morrow). We want to hear from you... that means you!

Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center (www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/) A Library of the School of Education, University of Wisconsin Madison
Received on Tue 18 Jan 2000 05:41:44 PM CST