Newbery, Caldecott award winners announced

The American Library Association has awarded author Avi (Crispin:  The Cross of Lead) with the John Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to children's literature.  Author/illustrator Eric Rohmann (My Friend Rabbit) won the Randolph Caldecott Medal for best picture book.

According to an article in the January 28 Des Moines Register, "Avi, who was born in 1937 and grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., is a prolific author who crosses genres, writing mysteries, fantasies, ghost stories, animal tales and picture books.  The Newbery Award committee praised Crispin for a 'plot that sustains tension and suspense from beginning to end, while seamlessly weaving in details of daily medieval life.'"

The American Library Association (ALA) website also reported that five Newbery Honor Books were named: “The House of the Scorpion,” by Nancy Farmer, a Richard Jackson Book/Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division; “Pictures of Hollis Woods,” by Patricia Reilly Giff and published by Wendy Lamb Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc.; “Hoot,” by Carl Hiaasen and published by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc.; “A Corner of the Universe,” by Ann M. Martin and published by Scholastic Press, a division of Scholastic, Inc.; and “Surviving the Applewhites,” by Stephanie S. Tolan and published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins.

Three Caldecott Honor Books were named: “The Spider and the Fly,” illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi, written by Mary Howitt and published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; “Hondo & Fabian,” illustrated and written by Peter McCarty and published by Henry Holt & Company LLC; and “Noah’s Ark,” illustrated and written by Jerry Pinkney and published by SeaStar Books, a division of North-South Books Inc.