Author R.J. Palacio and poet Marilyn Singer sign books at the Bank Street School following the the Bank Street Children’s Book Committee Awards. Palacio won the Josette Frank Award for Fiction for her novel Wonder (Knopf, 2012), while Singer was on hand to accept the 2013 Claudia Lewis Award for Poetry on behalf of J. Patrick Lewis for his compilation National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry (National Geographic, 2012). Photo by Daryl Grabarek.

Librarians attend the Broadway musical Matilda, based upon the Roald Dahl children’s book. From left to right, Roxanne Feldman (librarian at the Dalton School), Monica Edinger (teacher at the Dalton School), Betsy Bird (youth materials specialist at New York Public Library and SLJ blogger). Photo by Rocco Staino.

Kid lit awards:

There were also four Honor recipients—fiction: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (Hyperion); nonfiction: We’ve Got a Job by Cynthia Levinson (Peachtree); picture book text: A Leaf Can Be by Laura Purdie Salas; picture book illustration: Electric Ben (Dial) by Robert Byrd.

Additionally, the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor, named for the late-Newbery winner, went to Mo Willems for Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs (HarperCollins). A list of previous Golden Kite Award winners and honor books is also available. The Golden Kite and the Sid Fleischman Awards will be presented August 4 in Los Angeles, CA, at a luncheon during SCBWI’s 42nd Annual Conference on Writing and Illustrating for Children.

More Awards

Horror: The Horror Writers of America (HWA) have announced the Final Ballot for the 2012 Bram Stoker Award. The nominees in the young adult novel category are: Libba Bray’s The Diviners (Little, Brown), I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga (Little, Brown), Flesh & Bone (S & S) by Jonathan Maberry; Michael McCarty’s I Kissed a Ghoul (Noble Romance), The Raven Boys (Scholastic) by Maggie Stiefvater, and Jeff Strand’s A Bad Day for Voodoo (Sourcebooks).

The Bram Stoker Award is named for the author of Dracula. Since its inception in 1987, the Award has been given for “superior achievement” for books published in the previous year. HWA’s active and lifetime members will vote on these Final Ballot titles, with voting closing on March 31. The awards will be presented during the World Horror Convention, June 13–16 in New Orleans, LA.

Going Digital

Online databases: Gale, part of Cengage Learning, and the Smithsonian Institution have announced a partnership to digitize Smithsonian assets and make them available in online databases for libraries. Cengage will have access to the archives of Smithsonian Magazine and Air and Space magazine as well as collections covering American history, science, world cultures, and more. “We’re elated to be working with the Smithsonian Institution,” said Frank Menchaca, executive vice president, research solutions for Cengage Learning. “This agreement puts us closer to our goal of becoming the largest humanities research experience for the academic library. Through our extensive distribution channels throughout the world, in classrooms as well as in libraries, we’ll put into the hands of students, teachers and researchers, a universe of materials that is structured for research in a way never before possible.”

Video Challenge

Make a difference: Students in middle and high school are urged to take part in the IWitness Video Challenge sponsored by USC Shoah Foundation–The Institute for Visual History and Education, founded by Steven Spielberg after his work on the film Schindler’s List, and “dedicated to making audiovisual interviews with survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides.” The IWitness Video Challenge asks students to do something positive in their community that reflects the movie’s message: that one person can make a difference.

Students can’t enter the challenge on their own—teachers must sign up groups of students or an entire class. After teachers register, kids will have to complete the “IWitness Video Challenge” activity on the IWitness website. The activity asks them to “listen to testimonies of survivors and other witnesses on IWitness, develop insight into the opportunities for change in their community, get motivated to make a difference, and build a video essay telling their story of how they made their community and our world a better place.” Students participating in the Challenge must create a one to four minute video essay using a video editing tool on the IWitness website that allows them to link their voices to those in the archive who inspired their actions.

The teacher of each participating group of students or class must select one winning video that will be entered into a regional competition. Regional winners will then be entered into a national competition. Teachers must sign up their students by June 30, and video essays must be submitted by October 31. The winning student’s video will be screened as part of the Institute’s 20th anniversary activities in Los Angeles in March 2014.

The challenge was announced in conjunction with the Schindler’s List 20th Anniversary Limited Edition Blu-ray version released March 5. The film includes the USC Shoah Foundation story with Steven Spielberg, as well as the documentary Voices from the List, featuring testimonies from Holocaust survivors.

Check Connect the Pop blogger Peter Gutierrez’s interview with Stephen D. Smith, Executive Director of the Shoah Foundation, and Dr. Kori Street, its Director of Education.

You Have to Be in It…

Win a document camera: K–12 educators in the U.S. and the District of Columbia have the chance to win one of four Epson DC-20 document cameras. All they have to do is enter the Epson Document Camera in the Classroom Contest by sharing their top five benefits of using document cameras in the classroom. Entries will be judged on creative use of document cameras, practicality of implementing the idea, and how using the camera impacts student learning. The top four entries will be selected by Epson and they will be highlighted on the Epson document camera website. Educators can submit their entries online between March 15 and May 10. Winners will be announced in June.

The DC-20 document camera is a visual presentation tool that offers a variety of features: PC-free annotation, built-in microphone to record audio with video lessons, application software, microscope adapter, image storage, split-screen function, and camera flexibility.

(John) Newbery Medal
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
HarperCollins Children’s Books
Fuse #8: Review of the Day

Honors:
Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz
Candlewick
Curriculum Connections: An Apprentice to Dickens: An Interview with Laura Amy Schlitz

Tall Tale: Laura Amy Schlitz (2008 profile)

Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin
Flash Point/Roaring Brook
Curriculum Connections: Steve Sheinkin Writes a Thriller: An Interview with Steve Sheinkin

Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage
Dial/Penguin Young Readers
Heavy Medal: Three Times Lucky

(Randolph) Caldecott Medal
This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen
Candlewick Press
This Is Not My Sequel: Just Wait Till You See This New Book from Jon Klassen: Under Cover Interview

Honors:
Creepy Carrots! illus. by Peter Brown, written by Aaron Reynolds
Simon & Schuster
Fuse #8: Review of the Day: Creepy Carrots!

Extra Yarn illus. by Jon Klassen, written by Mac Barnett
HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray
SLJ Review of the Day

Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Neal Porter Books/Roaring Brook
Fuse #8: Review of the Day: Green

One Cool Friend illus. by David Small, written by Toni Buzzeo
Dial/Penguin Young Readers
Book Verdict Review

Sleep Like a Tiger, illus. by Pamela Zagarenski, written by Mary Logue
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review of the Day

Theodore Seuss Geisel Award
Up, Tall and High by Ethan Long
G. P. Putnam’s Sons

Honors:
Let’s Go for a Drive! by Mo Willems
Hyperion/Disney
Highlighted in Curriculum Connections: Fun and Fresh: Books for Emergent Readers

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin, created and illus. by James Dean
HarperCollins
Book Verdict Review

Rabbit & Robot: The Sleepover written and illus. by Cece Bell
Candlewick
Fuse #8: Review of the Day

(Laura Ingalls) Wilder Award
Katherine Paterson
Katherine Paterson Named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature in 2010

Katherine the Great: There couldn’t be a better choice for our new kids’ book ambassador than Katherine Paterson

Andrew Carnegie Medal
Anna, Emma and the Condors
Produced by Katja Torneman
Book Verdict Review

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal
Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin
Flash Point/Roaring Brook
Curriculum Connections: Steve Sheinkin Writes a Thriller: An Interview with Steve Sheinkin

Honors:
Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by Robert Byrd
Dial/Penguin Young Readers
Book Verdict Review

Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95 by Phillip M. Hoose
Farrar
A Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy: Review

Jonathan Hunt’s assessment on Heavy Medal

Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson
Scholastic
Someday My Printz Will Come: Titanic: Voices from the Disaster (Is Not a Disaster)

Mildred L. Batchelder Award
My Family for the War by Anne C. Voorhoeve
Dial/Penguin Young Readers
Book Verdict Review

Honors:
A Game for Swallows: To Die, to Leave, to Return by Zeina Abirached, tr. by Edward Gauvin
Graphic Universe/Lerner
SLJ Pick of the Day

Son of a Gun, written and tr. by Anne de Graaf
Eerdmans
Book Verdict Review

May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award
Andrea Davis Pinkney
Celebration Time: Black History Month by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Teacher Appreciation Week: Andrea Davis Pinkney’s Letter to Mr. Dwyer

Pura Belpré Awards
Author: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Simon & Schuster
SLJ Review

Honor:
The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano by Sonia Manzano
Scholastic
Book Verdict Review

Illustrator: Martín de Porres: The Rose in the Desert
Illus. by David Diaz, written by Gary D. Schmidt
Clarion

Michael L. Printz Award
In Darkness by Nick Lake
Bloomsbury
Pick of the Day

Honors:
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Simon & Schuster
SLJ Review

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Hyperion/Disney
A Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy: Review

Dodger by Terry Pratchett
HarperCollins Children’s Books
Someday My Printz Will Come: Review

The White Bicycle by Beverley Brenna
Red Deer Press

Odyssey Award
The Fault in Our Stars, written by John Green, narrated by Kate Rudd
Produced by Brilliance Audio
SLJ Review

Honors:
Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian, produced by Listening Library, written by Eoin Colfer and narrated by
Nathaniel Parker

Ghost Knight, produced by Listening Library, written by Cornelia Funke and narrated by Elliot Hill

Monstrous Beauty, produced by Macmillian Audio, written by Elizabeth Fama and narrated by Katherine Kellgren

YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults
Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin
Flash Point/Roaring Brook
Curriculum Connections: Steve Sheinkin Writes a Thriller: An Interview with Steve Sheinkin

Finalists:
Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different by Karen Blumenthal
Feiwel & Friends
Curriculum Connections: Karen Blumenthal Connects the Dots: Interview

Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95 by Phillip Hoose
Farrar
Heavy Medal: Black Hole and Moonbird

Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson
Scholastic
Someday My Printz Will Come

We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March by Cynthia Levinson
Peachtree Publishers
Practically Paradise: Nonfiction Monday

William C. Morris Award
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
Random House
Someday My Printz Will Come: Seraphina

Finalists:
Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books
A Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy

Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo
Knopf/Random House

After the Snow by S. D. Crockett
Feiwel and Friends
SLJ Review

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by emily m. danforth
Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Someday My Printz Will Come

Margaret A. Edwards Award:
Tamora Pierce for her “Song of the Lioness” series

Coretta Scott King Book Awards
Author: Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illus. by Brian Pinkney
Hyperion/Disney
Books to Celebrate the Everyday Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement

Honors:
Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, illus. by E. B. Lewis
Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Young Readers
Interview with Jacqueline Woodson

No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
Carolrhoda Lab/Lerner
Heavy Medal

Illustrator: I, Too, Am America
illus. by Bryan Collier, written by Langston Hughes
Simon & Schuster

Honors:
H. O. R. S. E., illus. & written by Christopher Myers (listed in this interview highlighting the hottest books of Fall 2012)
Egmont USA
Included in Interview: JLG’s Susan Marson Talks About the Hottest Upcoming Books for Fall 2012

Ellen’s Broom, illus. by Daniel Minter, written by Kelly Starling Lyons
Putnam/Penguin Young Readers
Included in Black History Month 2012

I Have a Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., illus. by Kadir Nelson, written by Martin Luther King, Jr. Schwartz & Wade/Random House (listed in this compilation of books for celebrating MLK Day
Included in Great Books for Celebrating Martin Luther King Day

Virginia Hamilton: Demetria Tucker
Practitioner Award for Lifetime achievement

Stonewall Book Award
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Simon & Schuster
SLJ Review

Honors:
Drama by Raina Telgemeier
Graphix/Scholastic Inc.
Good Comics for Kids

Gone, Gone, Gone by Hannah Moskowitz
Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster

October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman
Candlewick
Interview with Lesléa Newman

Sparks: The Epic, Completely True Blue, (Almost) Holy Quest of Debbie, by S. J. Adams
Flux