Who will win Caldecott, Newbery Monday?

Librarians and children’s book lovers look forward to the annual Caldecott and Newbery awards, often called the Academy Awards of children’s literature.

Given every year by the American Library Association, the new winners will be announced Monday on Martin Luther King Day. The ALA’s announcement gets more high tech every year: This year, if you go to the ala.org site you can follow the Tweets of librarians and watch the multiple awards (the Caldecott and Newbery are only two of them) via web video.

The various awards are almost impossible to predict, but that doesn’t mean librarians aren’t willing to offer a couple of favorites. These picks are from librarians at the St. Louis County Library:

NEWBERY possibilities

“When You Reach Me” by Rebecca Stead – Twelve year-old Miranda seems to be living an ordinary life in New York City circa 1979, until starts to receive anonymous notes from someone who seems to know the future. This is a wonderful tale of friendship, family, and humor, complete with a mystery!

“Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice” by Phillip Hoose – Nonfiction doesn’t often win the Newbery, but this is a compelling and well-written account of teenager Claudette Colvin, a pre-Rosa Parks Civil Rights protester whose full story was lost in history. In November, it received a National Book Award.



CALDECOTT possibilities:

“The Lion & the Mouse” by Jerry Pinkney – Pinkney has several Caldecott honor books, and this will surely be a serious contender.

”Jeremy Draws a Monster” by Peter McCarty – Booklist described this as “Harold and the Purple Crayon for a new generation.”

Source:stltoday.com/