BCCB--2007 Award Winners

Seal Image

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books:
2008 Children's Book Awards

The Newbery Medal will be awarded to Laura Amy Schlitz for Good Masters, Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village, illustrated by Robert Byrd (Candlewick). Three Newbery Honor Books were also named: Elijah of Buxton, by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic); The Wednesday Wars, by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion); and Feathers, by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam).
The Caldecott Medal will be awarded to Brian Selznick for his book The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Scholastic). Caldecott Honor Books are Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad, illustrated by Kadir Nelson and written by Ellen Levine (Scholastic); First the Egg, illustrated and written by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Porter/Roaring Brook); The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, illustrated and written by Peter Sís (Foster/Farrar); and Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity, illustrated and written by Mo Willems (Hyperion).
The Coretta Scott King Book Award for writing will be presented to Christopher Paul Curtis, author of Elijah of Buxton (Scholastic). The Coretta Scott King Book Award for illustration will be presented to Ashley Bryan, illustrator and author of Let it Shine (Atheneum). Two King Author Honor Books were selected: November Blues, by Sharon M. Draper (Atheneum) and Twelve Rounds to Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali, written by Charles R. Smith, illustrated by Bryan Collier (Candlewick). The King Illustrator Honor Books are The Secret Olivia Told Me, illustrated by Nancy Devard, written by N. Joy (Just Us Books) and Jazz On A Saturday Night, illustrated and written by Leo and Diane Dillon (Blue Sky/Scholastic). The Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award goes to Sundee T. Frazier, author of Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything in It (Delacorte).

The Pura Belpré Award for writing will be awarded to The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano, written by Margarita Engle and illustrated by Sean Qualls (Holt), and the award for illustration goes to Lost Gatos Black on Halloween, illustrated by Yuyi Morales and written by Marisa Montes (Holt). Belpré Honor Books for writing are Frida: ¡Viva la vida! Long Live Life!, written by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand and illustrated with photographs (Cavendish); Martina the Beautiful Cockroach, adapted by Carmen Agra Deedy and illustrated by Michael Austin (Peachtree); and Los Gatos Black on Halloween, written by Marisa Montes and illustrated by Yuyi Morales (Holt). Honor books for illustration are My Name is Gabito: The Life of Gabriel García Márquez/Me llamo gabito: La vida de Gabriel García Márquez, illustrated by Raúl Colón and written by Monica Brown (Luna Rising) and My Colors, My World/Mis colores, mi mundo, illustrated and written by Maya Christina Gonzales (Children's Book Press).
The American publisher receiving the Mildred L. Batchelder Award for the most outstanding translation of a book originally published in a foreign language is VIZ Media for Miyuki Miyabe's Brave Story, translated from the Japanese by Alexander O. Smith. Two Honor Books were also selected: The Cat: Or, How I Lost Eternity, written by Jutta Richter, translated from the German by Anna Brailovsky and published by Milkweed Editions; and Nicholas and the Gang, written by René Goscinny, translated from the French by Anthea Bell and published by Phaidon Press.
The Michael L. Printz Award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature goes to Geraldine McCaughrean for The White Darkness (HarperTempest). Honor books are Dreamquake: Book Two of the Dreamhunter Duet, by Elizabeth Knox (Foster/Farrar); One Whole and Perfect Day, by Judith Clarke (Front Street); Repossessed, by A. M. Jenkins (HarperTeen); and Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath, by Stephanie Hemphill (Knopf).
The Robert F. Sibert Award for most distinguished informational book for children goes to author/illustrator Peter Sís for The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain (Foster/Farrar). Two Sibert Honor Books were also named: Lightship, written and illustrated by Brian Floca (Jackson/Simon) and Nic Bishop Spiders, written and illustrated with photographs by Nic Bishop (Scholastic).

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal for the most distinguished contribution to beginning reader literature is There Is a Bird on Your Head!, written and illustrated by Mo Willems (Hyperion). Honor Books are: First the Egg, written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Porter/Roaring Brook); Hello, Bumblebee Bat, written by Darrin Lunde and illustrated by Patricia J. Wynne (Charlesbridge); Jazz Baby, written by Lisa Wheeler and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie (Harcourt); and Vulture View, written by April Pulley Sayre and illustrated by Steve Jenkins (Holt).
The Schneider Family Book Award for young children is Kami and the Yaks, written by Andrea Stenn Stryer and illustrated by Bert Dodson (Bay Otter Press). Tracie Vaughn Zimmer is the winner of the middle school award for Reaching for the Sun (Bloomsbury). The winner of the teen award is Ginny Rorby for Hurt Go Happy (Doherty/Starscape).
The Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in children's video goes to producers Kevin Lafferty, John Davis, Amy Palmer Robertson, and Danielle Sterling for Jump In! Freestyle Edition.
The Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production is Live Oak Media for Jazz. Five honor titles are: Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy, produced by Listen & Live Audio; Dooby Dooby Moo, produced by Weston Woods/Scholastic; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, produced by Listening Library; Skulduggery Pleasant, produced by HarperChildren's Audio; and Treasure Island, produced by Listening Library.
The winners of the Alex Awards for the ten best adult books that appeal to teen audiences are: American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China, by Matthew Polly (Gotham/Penguin); Bad Monkeys, by Matt Ruff (HarperCollins); Essex County Volume I: Tales from the Farm, by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf); Genghis: Birth of an Empire, by Conn Iggulden (Delacorte); The God of Animals, by Aryn Kyle (Scribner); A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah (Crichton/Farrar); Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones (Dial); The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss (DAW); The Night Birds, by Thomas Maltman (Soho); and The Spellman Files, by Lisa Lutz (Simon).
The 2009 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture will be delivered by Walter Dean Myers.
Orson Scott Card is the 2008 winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults, honoring an author's lifetime contribution in writing books for teenagers.
The Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction goes to Christopher Paul Curtis for Elijah of Buxton (Scholastic Press).
The Canadian Library Association's 2007 Book of the Year for Children is Johnny Kellock Died Today, by Hadley Dyer (HarperCollins). Two Honor Books are Rex Zero and the End of the World, by Tim Wynne-Jones (House of Anansi/Groundwood) and I Am a Taxi, by Deborah Ellis (House of Anansi/Groundwood). The Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award goes to Mélanie Watt for Scaredy Squirrel, written by the illustrator (Kids Can). Honorable mention goes to Barbara Reid for Fox Walked Alone, written by the illustrator (Scholastic) and Julie Morstad for When You Were Small, written by the illustrator (Simply Read). The Young Adult Canadian Book Award goes to William Bell for The Blue Helmet (Doubleday). Two Honor Books are Johnny Kellock Died Today, by Hadley Dyer (HarperCollins) and The Droughtlanders, by Carrie Mac (Penguin).
The Carnegie Medal was awarded to Meg Rosoff for Just in Case (Penguin).
The Kate Greenaway Medal was awarded to The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon, written and illustrated by Mini Grey (Knopf).
The NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for outstanding nonfiction for children goes to Sy Montgomery's Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea (Houghton). Honor books are: Gregory Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas, by Cheryl Bardoe (Abrams); Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, by Russell Freedman (Holiday House); John Muir: America's First Environmentalist, by Kathryn Lasky (Candlewick); Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium, by Carla Killough McClafferty (Farrar); and Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 On the Moon, by Catherine Thimmesh (Houghton).
Blue Ribbons for the best of the year's literature for youth were awarded to twenty-four books by Bulletin staff.
The 2008 Gryphon Award given annually in recognition of an English language work of fiction or non-fiction for which the primary audience is children in Kindergarten through Grade 4 will go to Billy Tartle in Say Cheese!, by Michael Townsend (Knopf, 2007). Two Honor Books were named: Spiders, by Nic Bishop (Scholastic, 2007) and Rufus the Scrub Does Not Wear a Tutu, by Jamie McEwan, illustrated by John Margeson (Darby Creek, 2007).

[Back to the Bulletin Homepage]

This page was last updated on February 4, 2008