February 16, 2013

Nick’s Picks | The 2013 American Library Association Award Winners

Ivan

Listen to the recent winners of the 2013 ALA book awards share the stories behind their work.

ALA Midwinter: SLJ Resources on the Youth Media Award Winners

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With the Youth Media Awards having been announced Monday January 28, buzz around the Caldecott-winning This Is Not My Hat (Candlewick), the Newbery-winning The One and Only Ivan (HarperCollins), and the Printz-winning In Darkness (Bloomsbury), is higher than ever. School Library Journal has compiled a list of relevant blog posts, reviews, interviews, and articles related to the winners and honor books.

The 2013 Newbery, Caldecott, and Geisel: Winners and Reactions

The biggest awards in Children’s literature have been doled out, let’s take a look at the three categories nearest and dearest to me. Click here for video of the awards. Newbery Medal: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate Honor: Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz Honor: BOMB by Steve Sheinkin Honor: Three [...]

SLJ Reviews for Top Youth Media Award Winners

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Katherine Applegate’s The One and Only Ivan and Jon Klassen’s This Is Not My Hat may have won the Newbery and Caldecott on Monday, January 28, but they were already stellar titles for School Library Journal’s Book Review editors. Both books made SLJ’s Best Books of 2012 list, as well as many of the other ALA’s Youth Media Award-winners. Check out SLJ’s reviews for the top prizes.

*UPDATED* Applegate, Klassen Win Newbery, Caldecott Medals

Newbery and Caldecott 2013 winners

The audience erupted in cheers Monday after Katherine Applegate was named the winner of the Newbery Medal for The One and Only Ivan (HarperCollins), and Jon Klassen was awarded the Caldecott Medal for This Is Not My Hat (Candlewick) at the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards for 2012, which were announced during its annual Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, WA.

SLJ Staff Picks Contenders for “Other” Youth Media Awards

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With the Youth Media Awards just a few days away, School Library Journal editors and contributors took a stab at naming some possible contenders.

Pick of the Day: Splendors & Glooms (Audiobook)

Audiobook cover- kids on puppet strings with red background

Splendors & Glooms. By Laura Amy Schlitz. 10 cassettes or 10 CDs. 12 hrs. Recorded Books. 2012. cassette: ISBN 978-1-4498-3568-2, CD: ISBN 978-1-4498-3572-9. $108.75
Gr 4-8–Set in a Dickensian London, Davina Porter is the perfect narrator to capture the nuances of the characters and the time period in Schlitz’s exceptional Victorian fantasy (Candlewick, 2012). Listeners will ache for the orphan children, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall, when they come up with money after pawning a watch. Should they have a proper meal [...]

Covering the Newbery (#82): Crispin: The Cross of Lead

Executive decision time. This is the final Covering the Newbery post. It just makes sense, people. I started this series in 2010 as a way to have fun with book covers that were no longer causing much of a stir among young readers. But then I did 81 of them and the outdated cover thing [...]

Covering the Newbery (#80): A Year Down Yonder

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Visit the Covering the Newbery Gallery.
2001: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck
Original Cover:

My Re-do:

Side by Side:

Up next week: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
(Source image: “Nepal (10) – 26Sep10, Bardia (Nepal)” by philippe …

Lois Lowry Speaks: How Readers’ Concern for Characters in “The Giver” Turned One Book into a Series of Four

Lois Lowry, Author

In a live School Library Journal webcast, author Lois Lowry discussed her dystopian classic “The Giver” and how she came to write its recent released follow-up, “Son.”

Interview: Rebecca Stead on ‘Liar & Spy’

Rebecca Stead
Photo: Joanne Dugan

SLJ talks to Newbery Medal-winner Rebecca Stead about her latest book, Liar & Spy (Random, 2012), a middle grade novel about friendship, bullies, spies, and family.

“Oddities and Prodigies” | A Day at the Renaissance Fair

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Author Karen Cushman is no stranger to the medieval and Renaissance world. Her first novel, the Newbery Honor book “Catherine Called Birdy,” examined the period from the perspective of a noble-born girl waiting to be married off. The author’s latest work, “Will Sparrow’s Road,” is set during 16th-century England and its title character lives a life that Birdy could only “[fantasize] about as she sat inside embroidering.”

On the Radar: Top Picks from the Editors at Junior Library Guild: Sequels, Prequels, and Companions: Oh My!

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As trends and genres continue to evolve, one thing remains consistent: the return of beloved characters and stories. Whether it’s a sequel, a prequel, or a companion novel that walks alongside the original, books that connect to each other continue to be fan favorites.

Lois Lowry Talks About Her Latest Novel, ‘Son’

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Lois Lowry recently gave fans some insight into her latest novel, Son (2012)—it came about because the ending of her Newbery-winning, The Giver (1993, both Houghton), left too many unanswered questions.

Go visit Nina and Jonathan

As we get Calling Caldecott ready to rev today, I must also remind you to keep tabs on Heavy Medal, SLJ‘s blog on the race to the Newbery, run by Nina Lindsay and Jonathan Hunt. Jonathan has just posted on Wonder, a book that got starred reviews just about everywhere but here. So good to [...]

Heavy Medal Is Back

Crystal Ball with possible Newbery contenders

It’s here. Heavy Medal, SLJ’s mock Newbery blog, resumes September 4.

There, bloggers Nina Lindsay, supervising librarian for children’s services at Oakland (CA) Public Library, California and Jonathan Hunt, library media teacher for Modesto (CA) City Schools, return to discuss and debate potential titles in the running for this year’s Newbery Award. Bestowed annually by the American Library Association (ALA), the Award honors “the most distinguished American children’s book” of the year.