From: mtice at nypl.org <mtice>
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 17:11:06 -0400

Please attend the 2009 Keats Awards at The New York Public Library at 42nd St. and 5th Avenue, Trustees Room, April 30, 5:30 p.m.


RSVP to mtice at nypl.org



2009 Ezra Jack Keats Awards for Excellence in Children?s Literature to be

Presented to Author Stian Hole and Illustrator Shadra Strickland at The New

York Public Library April 30



    The New York Public Library and the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation have

announced the 2009 winners of the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer and New

Illustrator Children?s Book Awards and will make the award presentations to

author Stian Hole for Garmann?s Summer (Eerdmans Books) and to illustrator

Shadra Strickland for Bird (Lee & Low Books). Mr. Hole?s book deals with

fear and courage, life and death, beginnings and endings from the point of

a young boy about to start school. In Bird, Ms. Strickland?s watercolor,

gouache, charcoal, and pen illustrations capture the world of a young boy.

Bird escapes into art and finds hope in dealing with the difficult

realities of his life: an older brother becomes addicted to drugs and the

death of his beloved grandfather.



     Garmann?s Summer? is the second picture book for children written by

Stian Hole, a Norwegian author and illustrator. Published in ten

languages, the book was the recipient of the 2007 BolognaRagazzi Award, an

international prize for excellence in children?s book publishing, awarded

each year in conjunction with the Bologna Children?s Book Fair. Touched by

a look of anxiety he recognized in his own son?s eyes just before the start

of the school year, Mr. Hole remembered that he, too, had been fearful when

he began school and this inspired Garmann?s story of learning to put one?s

fears in perspective.



     Shadra Strickland earned her MFA in the Illustration as Visual Essay

program at New York?s School of Visual Arts. Bird, her first picture book,

was named an Editor?s Favorite of 2008 in both The Bloomsbury Review and

Kirkus Reviews. Shadra Strickland also received the American Library

Association?s Coretta Scott King John Steptoe New Talent Award -

Illustrator for Bird. Publisher?s Weekly described Ms. Strickland?s

illustrations as ?A complicated weaving of impressive ?drawings amplifies

the metaphors and action of the poetic text.?



The selection jury for the 2009 awards was chaired by Miriam Lang Budin of

the Chappaqua Library; and included the following authors and illustrators

? Emily Jenkins, Nina Crews, Peter McCarty and Marisabina Russo; Barbara

Genco, Director of Special Projects and Planning at the Brooklyn Public

Library; Ginny Moore Kruse, Emerita Director Cooperative Children's Book

Center; Dr. Karen Patricia Smith, Professor at the Graduate School of

Library and Information Studies at Queens College; and ex-officio members

John Peters, Head of the Children?s Center _at_ 42nd Street at The New York

Public Library; Margaret Tice, Assistant Director for Children?s Programs

at The New York Public Library; and Deborah Pope, Executive Director of the

Ezra Jack Keats Foundation.



     About the Ezra Jack Keats Awards

Presented jointly by The New York Public Library and the Ezra Jack Keats

Foundation, the Ezra Jack Keats Awards, established in 1985, recognize and

encourage talented new children?s book authors and illustrators, who, in

the spirit of Ezra Jack Keats, create vividly written and illustrated books

for children (age 9 and under) that offer fresh and positive views of the

multicultural world inhabited by children today. A distinguished selection

committee of early childhood education specialists, librarians,

illustrators, and experts in children?s literature select books that

portray the universal qualities of childhood, strong and supportive

families, and, like the works of Ezra Jack Keats, portray the diverse

nature of the world. To be eligible, writers and illustrators must have

published no more than three books. Each winner receives a $1,000 cash

prize and a bronze medallion. *The presentations of the 2009 awards will

be made on Thursday, April 30 at 5:30 p.m. in the Trustees Room in the

Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of The New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue

at 42nd Street.



     Past recipients of this award include last year?s winners: author

David Ezra Stein for Leaves (G. P. Putnam?s Sons) and illustrator Jonathan

Bean for The Apple Pie that Papa Baked (Simon & Schuster). The first Ezra

Jack Keats Award went to Valerie Flournoy for The Patchwork Quilt (Dial) in

1986.



About the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation

Ezra Jack Keats created the foundation in 1964 as a vehicle for his

personal giving. Author of many classic books for children, including the

Caldecott-winning book The Snowy Day, Keats determined that his foundation

would be dedicated to fostering the talent of the generations of children,

artists, and authors who would follow him. When he died in 1983, his will

directed that the royalties from his books be used by the Foundation for

the support of programs helpful to humanity. It was at this time that

Martin Pope became President of the foundation and the nature of the

institution took shape under the direction of Professor Pope and his wife,

Dr. Lillie Pope.



The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation is now known for its pioneering support of

bookmaking and storytelling programs, art and scholarly fellowships,

portrait projects, book festivals, public libraries and schools, mural

projects throughout all of the United States, as well as emerging authors

and illustrators of children's books. For more information, visit

www.ezra-jack-keats.org.




About The New York Public Library

The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of

the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with Samuel Jones

Tilden Trust. The Library provides free open access to its physical and

electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. It

comprises four research centers ? the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building; The

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; the Schomburg Center for

Research in Black Culture; and the Science, Industry and Business Library ?

and 87 Branch Libraries in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island.

Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million

items, including materials for the visually impaired. In addition, each

year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs,

which include classes in technology, literacy, and English as a second

language. The Library serves some 16 million patrons who come through its

doors annually and another 25 million users internationally, who access

collections and services through the NYPL website, www.nypl.org.


Margaret Tice, Assistant Director for Children's Programs Office of Children's Services New York Public Library 455 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016-0122 212-340-0903, fax: 212-340-0988
Received on Wed 01 Apr 2009 04:11:06 PM CDT