Kid in a candy store…

That was me last night as I surfed the net from site to site getting ready, getting my ‘ducks in a row’ to watch the ALA Youth Media Awards. The big awards are always left ‘til last of course; they were the two I was really interested in, however I learned a lot in the 50 minutes preceding those announcements and was able to boost our orders for next year; adding some wonderful titles from awards such as Belpre, Geisel, Coretta Scott King and the Silbert.

I was feasting on twitter updates as I bought books, texted other ‘book nerds’ updated facebook and e mailed kids getting them to “return the winners tomorrow… please please please” I was in a multi-tasking frenzy!

Even before the announcements, there was a lot of excitement generated in the school, with students reading the books, talking about the books and reviewing the books… here is one delightful review done by Jasmine Carozza, 2EH, written before she even knew that Flora may be a contender.

So…. Who won?

Caldecott Honors went to three delightful, delicious, incredible books

Journey by Aaron Becker
Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle
Mr. Wuffles by David Weisner

 

The Caldecott Medal went to Brian Floca, so well deserved for the amazing, Locomotive. We really went from one extreme to another with three without words, and one with so so many… There were no in-betweens. Go Wild now ‘Mr. Tiger’… Open your eyes in ‘The Dark’ Unplug ‘Doug’ and sleep sweetly ‘Bluebird’…

 

Newbery Honors went to
The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes
Doll Bones by Holly Black
One Came Home by Amy Timberlake
Paperboy by Vince Vawter

The Newbery Medal went to Kate DiCamillo’s Flora and Ulysses

While no one in our Elementary (including me) called the Newbery AND the Caldecott Medal winner, there were several students who chose one of the other so well done to the 5^th graders for choosing Flora and Ulysses

Malin and Anirodh (5KW) Audrey (5MR)

And to Chris (5DW) for choosing Locomotive as the Caldecott Winner (you were the only one in the school to do so)

In the Lower ES, the following students can come and collect a prize for correctly guessing a Caldecott Honor book

KMI Allegra and Sophia

1EV James, Ava, Sisi and Amelia

1BE Natalie and Graziela

1CN Ayden

2CN Emma Z and Augustin

2ED Harrison

3EF Brian

3TS Erin, Sydney and Willow

Congratulations to the many students who ‘threw their hat into the ring’ and attempted a very difficult task. Now remember, as you read new books THIS year, any of them could be the NEXT BIG THING…

For a FULL list of all the winners, to see other favourite books listed that we have read in our library, such as P.S. Be Eleven, Nelson Mandela, Navigating Early, A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin, Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles, America’s First Black Paratroopers, Penny and her Marble, Better Nate Than Ever, Creepy Carrots, Matilda, Niño Wrestles the World and Parrots over Puerto Rico… check out the ALA site.