CCBC-Net Archives

Award Eligilibility

From: Geringer, Jennifer <jennifer.geringer>
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 09:28:53 -0700

According to the award guidelines, the author (for the Newbery) or the illustrator (for the Caldecott) must be a citizen or resident of the United States.

 

Jennifer

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From: t.m.johnsen at att.net [mailto:t.m.johnsen at att.net] Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 9:05 AM To: Subscribers of ccbc-net Subject: [ccbc-net] Award Eligilibility

 

The Newbery and Caldecott awards are presented for the most distinguished contributions to American literature for children (novel and picture book, respectively). The ethnicity of the author or illustrator is not a factor, the book must be fir st published in the United States. Please correct me if this assumption is in error nothing on the ALA website notes that this should be a factor.

 

David Almond's "The Fire Eaters" was first published in England in 2003, then published in the United States in 2004, thus making it ineligible for the Newbery Award. Similarly, Cornelia Funke has published most of her stuff in Germany, first, then crossing over to commercial success in the United States, and is also ineligible for the Newbery.

 

Other non-American authors usually choose to publish their work in their home country first - more familiarity, a better audience, name recognition, etc. If they have a wider audience or a more commercially or critically successfulk body of wor k, they may publish in the United States first. Although I would be hard pressed to list any recent Newbery or Caldecott award recipient who has not taken up residence in, and thus publish first in, the united States.

 

TJ
Received on Wed 19 Jan 2005 10:28:53 AM CST