Carle Honorees Brian Gallagher, Perri Klass, Henrietta Mays Smith, Françoise Mouly, and Jerry Pinkney.                           Credit: Johnny Wolf Photography

  KidLiterarti, including publishers, authors, and illustrators Hilary Knight, Paul O. Zelinsky, and Huck Scarry, gathered in New York City on September 18 to celebrate the four recipients of the 2014 Carle Honor Awards during a gala evening and art auction. The event, in its ninth year and sponsored by the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA, recognizes people who have supported children’s books as an art form that supports early literacy. The mission of the museum, founded in 2002 by illustrator/author Eric Carle and his wife, Barbara Carle, is to foster a love of art and reading through picture books. Watch Rocco Staino's KidLit TV interviews at the Carle Honors gala. The museum bestowed awards in four categories: Artist, for lifelong innovation in the field; Angel, for generous support of picture books and education programs; Mentor, for professional championing the art form; and Bridge, for those bringing picture books to larger audiences. In accepting her Bridge honor, Françoise Mouly, publisher of TOON Books and art editor at the New Yorker, noted that  that “comics are making progress” in crossing into the world of children’s books, a long-term goal of hers. She acknowledged her husband, Art Spiegelman, creator of the groundbreaking graphic novel Maus (Pantheon, 1991), along with children’s literature historian Leonard Marcus, chair of the awards selection committee, for supporting her drive to put comics into the hands of children. Mouly was joined by recipients Jerry Pinkney in the Artist category, the organization Reach Out and Read (ROR) in the Angel category, and distinguished librarian and library science professor Henrietta Mays Smith in the Mentor category. ROR was recognized for its promotion of early literacy through an initiative with pediatric professionals nationwide. On hand to accept the honors were the organization’s executive director, Brian Gallagher, along with Perri Klass, national medical director at ROR. Klass brandished a stethoscope in one hand and a board book in another while riveting the audience with an explanation of how ROR doctors give out books during checkups with children from six months to five years old. During her acceptance speech, Smith, former chair of the Coretta Scott King Award Task Force, recalled starting her career in 1948 at the New York Public Library, where she worked with the famed librarian and storyteller Augusta Baker. Smith went on to become the first African American faculty member at the University of South Florida School of Information. Caldecott-winning artist Pinkney. the illustrator of more than 100 books, has a long history with the Carle Museum. An early museum board member, he was present at the museum’s ground breaking. Pinkney spoke of his early days as an aspiring children’s book editor, as well as the inspiration that the Carle Museum exhibits and programming bring to visitors and burgeoning artists of all ages. “I am being honored by family, and there’s something pretty special about that, so it’s a kind of a shared honor in many ways for me,” he told SLJ. The gala was hosted by Tony and Angela DiTerlizzi, a power couple in the world of children’s books. Tony is illustrator of the “The Spiderwick Chronicles,” and Angela’s most recent book is Some Bugs (2014, both S. & S.). Tony entertained the crowd by projecting book cover mashup ideas that he jokingly said he would present to the Carle Museum board at their next meeting. Cover images included a whip-brandishing Fifty Shades of Fancy Nancy; a horror-infused The Wrong Side of Busy Town; and a bow and arrow–wielding  Eloise in the Hunger Games. While Eric Carle could not be present due to illness, a highlight to of the evening was the presence of his childhood friend Florence Trovato. The 85-year-old retired school secretary from the Syracuse, NY, area served as the inspiration for Carle’s book Friends (Philomel, 2013). Trovato and Carle were pals in the 1930s, when Carle lived on the north side of Syracuse. They fell out of contact for decades, but a journalist’s detective work reconnected them recently. Artwork donated for the auction, a museum fundraiser, was on display throughout the evening. Pinkney gave a piece, related to his Caldecott-winning book The Lion and the Mouse (Little, Brown, 2009), that he created for a School Library Journal cover illustration. "That particular issue celebrates the Caldecott medal winner, and I wanted to do something that was about the lion and the mouse celebrating,” Pinkney told SLJ. “The image came out of the idea of a star and the playfulness. But I really wanted to say that not only am I excited about the idea of getting the Caldecott Medal, but the central characters are also excited, so the image grew out of that idea.” The highest bid of the evening was $16,100, for Carle’s Blue Horse, while Pinkney’s piece brought in $4,500.