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ALA Award Winners
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From: Robin Smith <robinsmith59>
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 21:44:02 -0600
I will brave the waters and respond to some of the announced winners. Here are the titles that made me smile...
Caldecott Books:
Kitten's First Full Moon illustrated and written by Kevin Henkes. Greenwillow / HarperCollins, 2004.
I was not at all surprised to see Henkes's simple but dramatic illustrations win the medal. There is something about the retro style and the bigness of the illustrations that just begs to be read. I am thrilled to have a book for the youngest listeners and readers be so honored. When I first started reviewing picture books, I used to fret over the evaluation procedure. I wondered if it was just a matter of personal taste. To a certain extent, I guess, it is. But, when I asked a friend whose reviews I always admired how she evaluated picture books for the very young, she said, "Does it make you want to turn the page?' This, and many of the Henkes's previous stories, certainly does. I love it.
Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale illustrated and written by Mo Willems. Hyperion, 2004. This is one of the most popular books in my classroom. He captures the children's and parental emotions with humor and empathy. The timing and phrasing are spot-on.
Coming On Home Soon illustrated by E. B. Lewis. Written by Jacqueline Woodson. Putnam, 2004. One of my favorites of the year. Was quite surprised that the CSK committee did not honor it as well. It has the beauty and emotion that we have all come to expect from Lewis--and Woodson.
Newbery Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata. Atheneum, 2004. I read this in February have recommended it over and over to older readers. It is historical fiction on one hand (post WWII America, the poultry industry, labor unionization, racism...) and it is a coming-of-age story too. Young Katie's relationship with her sick sister and beloved baby brother Sammy, her growing realization of her mother's dream of home ownership and her eventual understanding of life and death and fairness made a marvelous story. With such a rich tapestry of complicated characters, Kadohata drew me into a family that was at once completely different and so much like my own family when I was Katie's age.
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko. Putnam, 2004. Like Kira-Kira, Al Capone Does My Shirts has a rich setting and time, but is mostly a story of growing up and realizing that the world is not always a fair or perfect place. The auxilliary characters are complicated and interesting and add so much to the story. I found myself talking about this book whenever anyone asked me what I had read recently that I really liked.
2005 SRRT Coretta Scott King John Steptoe/New Talent (Author) Award: Missy Violet & Me by Barbara Hathaway. Houghton Mifflin, 2004. Since I alwasy loved books about nuses and midwives when I was a girl, any book about a young girl assisting a midwife will be interesting to me. Viney's innocent voice tells related short stories, giving this slice-of-life historical fiction its life. Hathaway's narrative is at its best when describing Viney's reaction to birth and Viney's irrepressible, plainspoken voice held me in its grasp from start to finish. I slender book that would be easy to miss. Don't.
Batchelder Honor Books: Farrar, Straus and Giroux for The Crow-Girl written by Bodil Bredsdorff. Translated from the Dutch by Faith Ingwersen. U.S. edition: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004. A warm fairy-tale of a book. Crow-Girl, alone in the world, leaves her only home after her beloved grandmother dies. Armed with the sense her grandmother gave her, she meets all sorts of people in the bigger world. When I reviewed it, I said," Through her travels, she meets the types of people her grandmother has told her about, those who make you feel inside "as if you are drinking a good, warm soup" and those who "cause you to freeze inside, even if you are sitting before a roaring fire and have eaten your fill." She does not freeze inside, though some of the people she meets could certainly have caused her to turn cold inside. I have not shared this book with any children, but I have given it to plenty of adult friends and they have loved it as much as I did.
Sibert Honor: Sequoyah: The Cherokee Man Who Gave His People Writing by James Rumford. Houghton Mifflin, 2004. This was my secret cross-your-fingers wish for a Caldecott medal or honor. The story is straightforward, familiar history to any school child in my state who studies Tennessee history, but Rumford's gift is his love of words and alphabets. Though his background is in linguistics and language, he worked with translator to assure accuraacy with the Cherokee translation. (Look at his spectacular Traveling Man about Ibn Battuta, to see evidence of his knowledge and love of Arabic calligraphy) He clearly loved the language and the man who created it. The story of the Long Walk and the treatment of Native Americans is an important one and Rumford treats every aspect of this moving story with respect. This is a beautiful book-- a work of art and story.
Robin Smith Nashville, TN
Received on Mon 17 Jan 2005 09:44:02 PM CST
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 21:44:02 -0600
I will brave the waters and respond to some of the announced winners. Here are the titles that made me smile...
Caldecott Books:
Kitten's First Full Moon illustrated and written by Kevin Henkes. Greenwillow / HarperCollins, 2004.
I was not at all surprised to see Henkes's simple but dramatic illustrations win the medal. There is something about the retro style and the bigness of the illustrations that just begs to be read. I am thrilled to have a book for the youngest listeners and readers be so honored. When I first started reviewing picture books, I used to fret over the evaluation procedure. I wondered if it was just a matter of personal taste. To a certain extent, I guess, it is. But, when I asked a friend whose reviews I always admired how she evaluated picture books for the very young, she said, "Does it make you want to turn the page?' This, and many of the Henkes's previous stories, certainly does. I love it.
Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale illustrated and written by Mo Willems. Hyperion, 2004. This is one of the most popular books in my classroom. He captures the children's and parental emotions with humor and empathy. The timing and phrasing are spot-on.
Coming On Home Soon illustrated by E. B. Lewis. Written by Jacqueline Woodson. Putnam, 2004. One of my favorites of the year. Was quite surprised that the CSK committee did not honor it as well. It has the beauty and emotion that we have all come to expect from Lewis--and Woodson.
Newbery Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata. Atheneum, 2004. I read this in February have recommended it over and over to older readers. It is historical fiction on one hand (post WWII America, the poultry industry, labor unionization, racism...) and it is a coming-of-age story too. Young Katie's relationship with her sick sister and beloved baby brother Sammy, her growing realization of her mother's dream of home ownership and her eventual understanding of life and death and fairness made a marvelous story. With such a rich tapestry of complicated characters, Kadohata drew me into a family that was at once completely different and so much like my own family when I was Katie's age.
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko. Putnam, 2004. Like Kira-Kira, Al Capone Does My Shirts has a rich setting and time, but is mostly a story of growing up and realizing that the world is not always a fair or perfect place. The auxilliary characters are complicated and interesting and add so much to the story. I found myself talking about this book whenever anyone asked me what I had read recently that I really liked.
2005 SRRT Coretta Scott King John Steptoe/New Talent (Author) Award: Missy Violet & Me by Barbara Hathaway. Houghton Mifflin, 2004. Since I alwasy loved books about nuses and midwives when I was a girl, any book about a young girl assisting a midwife will be interesting to me. Viney's innocent voice tells related short stories, giving this slice-of-life historical fiction its life. Hathaway's narrative is at its best when describing Viney's reaction to birth and Viney's irrepressible, plainspoken voice held me in its grasp from start to finish. I slender book that would be easy to miss. Don't.
Batchelder Honor Books: Farrar, Straus and Giroux for The Crow-Girl written by Bodil Bredsdorff. Translated from the Dutch by Faith Ingwersen. U.S. edition: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004. A warm fairy-tale of a book. Crow-Girl, alone in the world, leaves her only home after her beloved grandmother dies. Armed with the sense her grandmother gave her, she meets all sorts of people in the bigger world. When I reviewed it, I said," Through her travels, she meets the types of people her grandmother has told her about, those who make you feel inside "as if you are drinking a good, warm soup" and those who "cause you to freeze inside, even if you are sitting before a roaring fire and have eaten your fill." She does not freeze inside, though some of the people she meets could certainly have caused her to turn cold inside. I have not shared this book with any children, but I have given it to plenty of adult friends and they have loved it as much as I did.
Sibert Honor: Sequoyah: The Cherokee Man Who Gave His People Writing by James Rumford. Houghton Mifflin, 2004. This was my secret cross-your-fingers wish for a Caldecott medal or honor. The story is straightforward, familiar history to any school child in my state who studies Tennessee history, but Rumford's gift is his love of words and alphabets. Though his background is in linguistics and language, he worked with translator to assure accuraacy with the Cherokee translation. (Look at his spectacular Traveling Man about Ibn Battuta, to see evidence of his knowledge and love of Arabic calligraphy) He clearly loved the language and the man who created it. The story of the Long Walk and the treatment of Native Americans is an important one and Rumford treats every aspect of this moving story with respect. This is a beautiful book-- a work of art and story.
Robin Smith Nashville, TN
Received on Mon 17 Jan 2005 09:44:02 PM CST
