2009 Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz winners and honor books

Here are the American Library Association's 2009 youth media awards winners. The official press release is available on ALA's website.

I'm having trouble getting onto the website at the moment because of the heavy traffic, but I was at the press conference in Denver this morning and was handed a press release after the announcement. I have to catch a plane, so forgive me for not including authors and publishers. All of that information is on ALA's website.

Caldecott Medal: House in the Night
Caldecott Honors: A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, How I Learned Geography, and River of Words: the Story of William Carlos Williams.

Newbery Medal: The Graveyard Book
Newbery Honors: The Underneath, The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba, Savvy, and After Tupac & D Foster

Printz Award: Jellicoe Road
Printz Honors: Octavian Nothing Volume 2, Nation, Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, and Tender Morsels.

Geisel Award: Are You Ready to Play Outside?
Geisel Honors: Chicken said Cluck, One Boy, Stinky, Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator.

Coretta Scott King Author Award: We are the Ship
Coretta Scott King Author Honors: The Blacker the Berry, Keeping the Night Watch, and Becoming Billie Holiday

Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award: The Blacker the Berry
Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honors: We Are the Ship, Before John was a Jazz Giant and the Moon over Star

Coretta Scott King /John Steptoe New Talent Award: Bird by Zetta Elliott

Schneider Family Book Award for young children: Piano Starts Here: the Young Art Tatum
Schneider Family Book Award for middle grades: Waiting for Normal
Schneider Family Book Award for teens: Jerk, California

Sibert Medal: We Are the Ship
Sibert Honors: Bodies from Ice and What to Do About Alice?

Carnegie Medal: March On! The Day by Brother Martin Changed the World

Batchelder Award: Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
Batchelder Honors: Garmann's Summer and Tiger Moon

Margeret A. Edwards Recipient (lifetime achievement for Young Adults): Laurie Halse Anderson

Pura Belpre Illustrator Award: Just in Case by Yuyi Morales
Pura Belpre Illustrator honors: Papa and Me, The Storyteller' s Candle and What Can You Do With a Rebozo?
Pura Belpre Author Award: The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom
Pura Belpre Author Honors: Just in Case, Reaching Out, and the Storyteller' s Candle

Odyssey Award: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Odyssey Honors: Curse of the Blue Tattoo, Elijah of Buxton, I'm Dirty!, Martina the Beautiful Cockroach and Nation.

Arbuthnot Honor Lecture: Kathleen T. Horning

Wilder Award: Ashley Bryan

William C. Morris debut award: A Curse Dark as Gold

What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear them. Leave a comment below or vote in the poll on the sidebar.

Batchelder Awards

In anticipation of the American Library Association awards announcement on January 14, Wizards Wireless has been discussing various ALA awards. So far, I've written about the Caldecott, the Newbery and the Printz.

Now, let's talk about the Batchelder. The Mildred L. Batchelder Award is presented to children's books that have been translated into English and published in the United States. The book has to have been previously published in another country and another language. Since 1979, the award has been presented to the publisher... not to the author. Part of the idea is to encourage publishers to translate books from other languages.

I had the pleasure of attending the 2007 Batchelder awards ceremony. Here was the list of winners and honor books:

• Delacorte Press, for The Pull of the Ocean written by Jean-Claude Mourlevat and translated from the French by Y. Maudet.
• Delacorte Press, for The Killer's Tears written by Anne-Laure Bondoux and translated from the French by Y. Maudet.
• Hyperion/Miramax, for The Last Dragon written by Silvana De Mari and translated from the Italian by Shaun Whiteside.

I read both The Pull of the Ocean and The Killer's Tears and was struck by the fact that the same publisher Delacourte Press (and in fact, the same translator, Y. Maudet) received both a Batchelder award and a Batchelder honor. I was also impressed by the effort and skill of the editor (again the same person- although I can't seem to find her name anywhere). She was obviously fluent in French and English and had discovered both The Pull of the Ocean and The Killer's Tears and worked for years to bring them to press in the United States.

I think effective translation is a real art form and I'm delighted that the Batchelder exists. In all honesty, I wouldn't have read either book had it not been for the awards, and I would have been poorer for it.

The Pull of the Ocean is a creative and unique modern retelling of Tom Thumb, and it's one of the best books I read last year. The story is told from a variety of viewpoints, which I think creates a striking and memorable effect. Click here for an excerpt of the book.

The Killer's Tears is the chilling, surprising and eventually breathtaking story about the relationship between a young boy and the murderer of his parents. It stayed with me long after I finished reading it. Click here for an excerpt.

Here's a complete list of the Batchelder award winners and honor books from 1968 to 2007. Stay tuned for the announcement of the 2008 Batchelder Awards on January 14.