Sidney Sheldon

Best-selling author Sidney Sheldon has died. He was 89. Read the full story here.

Whew!

That took a little bit o' time... If I have any extra time (or energy) left tonight, maybe I will give a reader's digest condensed version of what I think about these winners -- and who I am sad to see missing from the list!

Newbery Medal

Winner
The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

Honor Books
Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
Rules by Cynthia Lord

Caldecott Medal

Winner
Flotsam illustrated by David Wiesner

Honor Books
Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet written and illustrated by David McLimans
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom illustrated by Kadir Nelson and written by Carole Boston Weatherford

Theodor Seuss Giesel Award

Winner
Zelda and Ivy: The Runaways by Laura McGee Kvasnosky

Honor Books
Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride written by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Chris Van Dusen
Move Over, Rover! by Karen Beaumont and illustrated by Jane Dyer
Not a Box by Antoinette Portis

Andrew Carnegie Medal

Winner
Knuffle Bunny (Mo Willems and Weston Woods Studio)

Wilder Award

The Wilder Award winner is...
James Marshall

Siebert Informational Book Medal

Winner
Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon by Catherine Thimmesh

Honor books
Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement by Ann Bausum
Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea written by Sy Montgomery, photos by Nic Bishop
To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel written by Siena Cherson Siegel, illustrated by Mark Siegel

Batchelder Award

Winner
Delacorte Press for The Pull of the Ocean by Jean-Claude Mourlevat and translated by Y. Maudet

Honor books
Delacorte Press for The Killer's Tears by Anne-Laure Bondoux
Hyperion/Miramax for The Last Dragon by Silvana De Mari

May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture

The 2008 lecture will be delivered by...
David Macaulay

Coretta Scott King Author Award

Winner
Copper Sun by Sharon Draper

Honor book
The Road to Paris by Nikki Grimes

Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award

Winner
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom illustrated by Kadir Nelson and written by Carole Boston Weatherford (Hooray, Kadir! He came to a program i held last year and is truly one of the nicest, and most talented, illustrators around!)

Honor books
Jazz illustrated by Christopher Myers and written by Walter Dean Myers
Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes illustrated by Benny Andrews, edited by David Roessel and Arnold Rampersad

Coretta Scott King New Talent Award

Winner
Standing Against the Wind by Traci L. Jones

Michael L. Printz Award

Winner
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Honor Books
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing,Traitor to the Nation; v. 1: The Pox Party by M. T. Anderson
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green (see John's reaction here)
Surrender by Sonya Hartnett
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Margaret A. Edwards award

The winner is...
Lois Lowry

Schneider Award

Best Children's Book
The Deaf Musicians written by Pete Seeger (yay, Pete!) and Paul DuBois Jacobs, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

Best Middle School Book
Rules by Cynthia Lord

Best Teen Book
Small Steps by Louis Sachar

The Alex Awards

• The Book of Lost Things written by John Connolly
• The Whistling Season written by Ivan Doig
• Eagle Blue: A Team, A Tribe, and A High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska written by Michael D’Orso
• Water for Elephants written by Sara Gruen
• Color of the Sea written by John Hamamura
• The Floor of the Sky written by Pamela Carter Joern
• The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game written by Michael Lewis
• Black Swan Green written by David Mitchell
• The World Made Straight written by Ron Rash
• The Thirteenth Tale written by Diane Setterfield

ALA Book Awards

For the first time since I started this blog, I was unable to post the winners of the children's book awards as they happened. Unfortunatley, I was in jury duty for two days, so I missed it. Although it has already been posted numerous other places, let me catch up and list all the winners here, too. In this post, I will list the categories and then list the winners in a separate post.

Awards announced January 22 were:

Alex Awards for the best adult books that appeal to teen audience

Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in children's video

Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children

Coretta Scott King Award recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults that demonstrate sensitivity to "the true worth and value of all beings"

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children

Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults

May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award recognizing an author, critic, librarian, historian, or teacher of children's literature, who then presents a lecture at a winning host site

Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults

Mildred L. Batchelder Award for an outstanding children's book translated from a foreign language and subsequently published in the United States

Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award for most distinguished informational book for children

Schneider Family Book Award for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for the outstanding book for beginning reader

Super Bowl Reshuffle

Let me just say...

WOO-HOO! The Chicago Bears are going to the Super Bowl, Bay-bee!

My brother, Jim, was sad he lived in Phoenix now when the White Sox won the Series. Betcha wish ya still lived in Chicago now, don't ya, Jay?

WOO-HOO!

Happy Birthday, Dr. King. And Thank You.

It's nice to have a day off work. However, before you take that nap or head to the mall, take just a moment to think about the amazing man whose birthday we are meant to be celebrating today. Take a moment to read his words, to hear his voice. Think about what he said, about how far we have come, and about how very far we still have to go. Consider his dream and ask yourself if it has been realized. Do you share this dream? What can you do to help it come to fruition? What can you do? Think and plan and set into action.

Thus do we honor a man who wanted the best for all people and who gave his life working toward that best.

Oh! Maybe I can use alcohol to bribe people to play!

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

A 21-year-old woman was hospitalized for intoxication over the weekend after continually providing wrong answers" during a game of Trivial Pursuit where participants drank alcohol and did drugs when they answered incorrectly.

I love that they also clarify that she was the yellow piece. 'Cause that's crucial, man!
You can read the whole story here.