Book Award Happenings

Mark your calendars for Monday, January 14th. Winners of the Caldecott, Newbery, and other children's book awards will be announced at a meeting of the American Library Association, starting at 7:45 a.m. The ALA plans a live webcast of the announcements. (I've never had any luck tuning in, but maybe this year will be different.) An ALA press release gives the details on the events. One new award this year is for audiobooks. This is also a Pura Belpré year; the prize for best Latino book is handed out biannually. (Starting in 2009, it goes annual.)

The Association Jewish Libraries honored the following people with the annual Sydney Taylor prizes: Sarah Gershman (author) and Kristina Swerner (illustrator) for The Bedtime Sh'ma: A Good Night Book; Sid Fleischman for The Entertainer and the Dybbuk; and  Sonia Levitin for Strange Relations. The AJL cited a number of honor books, too; the entire list is at the Sydney Taylor Award web site.

Category winners for the UK's Costa awards included the young-adult novel The Bower Bird, by Ann Kelley. The Costa Book of the Year is revealed on January 22nd.

The following science books for children received a stamp of excellence from the American Assocation for the Advancement of Science and Subaru: Where in the Wild? Camouflaged Creatures Concealed and Revealed; Dinosaur Eggs Discovered!; The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring; and Exploratopia: More Than 400 Kid-Friendly Experiments and Explorations for Curious Minds.