The BIG morning

I think many of you who read my blog are friends and family and have little to nothing to do with the world of children's books. You've put up with my prattle about ALA, awards, authors, and illustrators and some things may have sunk in whether you wanted them to or not. This morning was the big morning for children's books. The 2009 awards were announced! I'm mentioning some of winning books by authors you may have heard me mention before. I've worked with all of them at either Holt or Harcourt, or both. They are some of the nicest people around, all of them. I'm very happy for them. Only one of these books is a Harcourt book but I'm pleased as punch for all of these authors (and all the ones who won but I'm not mentioning in this blog post). For a full list of ALA winners, you can visit ALA's homepage and click on the links for the individual award press releases. The ALA page is a little slow to respond due to the increased traffic.

Kadir Nelson cleaned up for his authored & illustrated book We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. He won the CSK author award, a CSK illustrator honor, and won the Robert F. Sibert Medal for best informational book for children.

Kathi Appelt won her first Newbery honor for The Underneath. I visited her at home in College Station a couple years ago and she gave me a pair of pink Crocs. She was actually working on The Underneath during the time I visited. We are united in Aggieness. She's also been one of the few authors who has worked with me all eight years in publishing as she was published by Holt and Harcourt.

I was also thrilled for Yuyi Morales winning another Belpre award for illustration and an honor for writing of Just in Case. She's one of the most gracious people I've ever met.

M.T. (Tobin) Anderson won a Printz honor for his second Octavian Nothing installment, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom of the Waves. Which I haven't read yet. But will very soon.

And finally, after many acclaimed books, Marla Frazee has been awarded her first Caldecott honor for A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever. This one is especially dear to my heart because it is a Harcourt book and I worked on much of it's promotion before I left Harcourt in June. Marla's editor, Allyn Johnston, shared early versions of this book with us and we watched it develop, grow, and change over the months before publication. It was amazing to watch the early version of the book mature into the charming, honest, and funny final version.

In addition to four out of five books above, I have also read some of the other award winning novels: Savvy (Newbery Honor), The Graveyard Book (Newbery winner), and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (Printz honor).

Also of note is author & illustrator Ashley Bryan winning the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for lifetime achievement. I had a short exchange with Mr. Bryan at a conference when I was still with Holt. Later, I was much astonished when he expressed his gratitude for sending him a book he requested—he sent me a hand written thank you note and autographed copy of his book Beautiful Blackbird. During that same conference, he crashed the Holt cocktail reception, but we didn't mind at all. Sorry Simon & Schuster or whichever publisher party he was supposed to be attending. I haven't worked with Mr. Bryan but I am a fan. You have also never heard anyone give a speech properly until you have heard the orations of Mr. Bryan.

Another year, another group of winners. I am a little sad not to be at Harcourt of the old days to celebrate with Marla, Allyn, Barb, Sarah, Amanda, Kia, Kara, Rachel, and everyone else. We used to love having any excuse to drink champagne in the office.