Cordelia’s Five Newbery Honor/Medal Winners Featuring Female Main Characters Who Overcome Parental Loss and Conflict in Unusual Ways

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (Harper Trophy, $6.99)
1995 Newbery Winner.

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (Amistad, $6.99)
2011 Newbery Honor.

Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron (Atheneum, $6.99)
2007 Newbery Winner.

Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick, $6.99)
2001 Newbery Honor.

Moon Over Manifest by Claire Vanderpool (Yearling, $7.99)
2011 Newbery Winner.

Click here for the list of all Newbery Medal and Honor books from 1922 to the present!

June 2012, Cordelia Jensen

Cordelia Announces the 2012 Winner and Runners Up for the E. B. White Read-Aloud Awards for Picture Books

The E.B. White awards are given by the American Booksellers Association to books that "reflect the playful, well-paced language, the engaging themes, and the universal appeal to a wide range of ages embodied by E.B. White’s collection of beloved books." Every owner or staff member working in an independent bookstore is allowed to vote. Every year, at the annual ABA convention, the recipients of these awards are honored.

Winner:
1. I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen (Candlewick, $15.99)

Honor Books:
2. Press Here by Herve Tuller (Chronicle, $15.99)
3. Stars by Mary Lyn Ray & Marla Frazee (Beach Lane Books, $16.99)
4. Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner & Christopher Silas Neal (Chronicle Books, $16.99)
5. Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri Dunsky Rinker & Tom Lichtenheld (Chronicle Books, $16.99)

To see a full list of all the winners, check out: http://news.bookweb.org/news/winners-2012-indies-choice-and-eb-white-read-aloud-awards-announced.

Cordelia Jensen, May 2012

A thicker picture book than usual...

Yesterday's American Library Association award announcements at the Philadelphia Convention Center included a bit of a surprise for the Caldecott: The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which is over 500 pages long! It's an excellent book. We're also excited to see that Elijah of Buxton, which is one of my Staff Picks, won a Coretta Scott King Award (having also recently won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction)!

Further edification: On our Mt Airy and Beyond links page, we have links to the official web pages of a long list of book awards (including ALA), so you can always check there for current recommendations of outstanding books.