The ALA presented their many Youth Media Awards Monday morning on the closing day of their winter meeting in Chicago. The Newbery medal went to THE CROSSOVER by Kwame Alexander (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), and the Caldecott was awarded to THE ADVENTURES OF BEEKLE: The Unimaginary Friend written and illustrated by Dan Santat (Little, Brown Children’s).
Among other honorees, Jandy Nelson won the Michael L. Printz Award for I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN (Dial Books) and Sharon M. Draper won the Margaret A. Edwards Award for “significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.” Nelson’s book was featured prior to publication last summer in our first Buzz Books Young Adult sampler; get a head start on checking out some of 2015’s big new YA and middle grade discoveries with our just-released Buzz Books 2015 Young Adult: Spring.
The Coretta Scott King author award went to recent National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson for BROWN GIRL DREAMING (Nancy Paulsen Books), which was also one of just two Newbery Honor titles (Alexander, in turn, was one of three King prize honor authors); the illustrator award was given to Christopher Myers for his work on FIREBIRD (Putnam Children’s), written by Misty Copeland.
The two Newbery Honor books were:
El Deafo, written and illustrated by Cece Bell (Amulet)
Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson (Nancy Paulsen Books)
The six Caldecott Honor books were:
Nana in the City, written and illustrated by Lauren Castillo (Clarion)
The Noisy Paintbox, illustrated by Mary GrandPre and written by Barbara Rosenstock (Knopf Children’s)
Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, illustrated by Jon Klassen and written by Mac Barnett (Candlewick)
Viva Frida, illustrated and written by Yuyi Morales (Roaring Brook Presss)
The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus, illustrated by Melissa Sweet and written by Jen Bryant (Eerdmans)
This One Summer, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki, written by Mariko Tamaki (First Second)
A full list of all award winners can be found here.