Awards in Exceptional Children’s Literature: The Randolph Caldecott Medal, John Newbery Medal, and Coretta Scott King Awards

Every year, the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), honors the best in children’s literature. The Caldecott Medal, Newbery Medal, and Coretta Scott King Award are the among the most sought after honors for children’s books.

The Newbery Medal

In 1921, Frederic G. Melcher proposed to the ALA that an award be established to recognize outstanding works of children’s literature. He suggested naming the award after John Newbery, an 18^th-century bookseller. The goal of the award: “To encourage original creative work in the field of books for children. To emphasize to the public that contributions to the literature for children deserve similar recognition to poetry, plays, or novels.” The Newbery Award thus became the first honor in the world designated explicitly for children’s books. Prior winners include many favorites in contemporary juvenile literature:

• Holes (1999)
• Bud, not Buddy (2000)
• A Year Down Yonder (2001)
• Crispin: The Cross of Lead (2003)
• The Tale of Despereaux (2004)
• Kira-Kira (2005)
• The Higher Power of Lucky (2007)
• Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village (2008)
• The Graveyard Book (2009)
• When You Reach Me (2010)
• Moon over Manifest (2011)

The Randolph Caldecott Medal

Randolph Caldecott stood out as one of the preeminent children’s illustrators in 19^th-century England. He brought a special humor, movement, and vitality to illustrations. When in 1937, a member of the Newbery Committee suggested a second award for illustration, it seemed natural to name it after Caldecott.

Each year, the Newbery Medal Committee also selects a winner for the Caldecott Medal. American picture books published in the previous year are eligible. Past winners include the following exceptional children’s books:

• Animals of the Bible (1938)
• A Tree Is Nice (1957)
• The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship: A Russian Tale (1969)
• Shadow (1983)
• Hey, Al (1987)
• Smoky Night (1995)
• So You Want to Be President? (2001)
• The Hello, Goodbye Window (2006)
• The House in the Night (2009)
• The Lion and the Mouse (2010)
• A Sick Day for Amos McGee (2011)

The Coretta Scott King Award

The purpose of the Coretta Scott King Award is to recognize exceptional African American authors and illustrators. Greer named the award for Coretta Scott King to commemorate her continued efforts to promote the vision of peace that her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. introduced during a period of great turmoil in US history.

The Coretta Scott King Award was the idea of Glyndon Greer, who organized the award in 1969 with the help of other New Jersey Library Association members. The first award was presented the following year. It was not until 1974 that illustrators were also recognized; now an author and illustrator win the prize each year. In 1979, the award was officially recognized and adopted by the ALA.

• Elijah of Buxton (2008)
• Bad News for Outlaws (2010)
• One Crazy Summer (2011)

These award-winning books for children offer excellent inspiration for collectors young and old. They provide a means of introducing kids to books of lasting value and remind adults of the beauty and simplicity of youth. Many of them became rare books in exceptional condition, especially in first edition or signed by the author. Which award-winning children’s books are in your personal library?

Add comment January 4th, 2012

Celebrate Banned Books Week 2011

Saturday started Banned Books Week, a time to celebrate the First Amendment and our freedom to read. Throughout history, people have recognized the transformative power of literature; governments, religious institutions, and even school districts have sought to contain that power by banning controversial books—in some cases even ordering the destruction of books.

Yet banning a book often has the opposite effect: making a book all the more sought after. This happens for two reasons. First, many banned books are truly exceptional works of literature and have become part of the literary canon. They are perennial favorites in consistent demand from collectors. Meanwhile, some modern books—such as James Joyce’s Ulysses (burned in the US, England, Canada, and Ireland)—were actually destroyed, limiting the number of first editions and printings.

Here’s a look at some of the most frequently challenged books in the United States, and sometimes even around the world:

• F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was challenged for language and sexual references. It remains a staple of high-school and college classrooms around the country.
• The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger, has long been a favorite target for censorship. In 1960, a teacher was even fired for assigning the book.  The novel was most recently challenged in 2009 in Missouri.
• The publication of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath drew international attention. The book was burned by a library in Illinois and banned in Canada. Eleven Turkish booksellers faced a military tribunal for publishing, possessing, and selling the book. Of Mice and Men was equally controversial.
• To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, was denounced as a “filthy, trashy novel.” Despite the novel’s having won a Pulitzer Prize, To Kill a Mockingbird continues to be challenged almost yearly.
• George Orwell also earned attention for both 1984 and Animal Farm. The latter was even suppressed from appearing at the 1977 Russian International Book Fair.
• Burned in Nazi bonfires in Germany, The Sun also Rises  by Ernest Hemingway was also banned in Ireland and multiple US cities. A Farewell to Arms received similar response, and For Whom the Bell Tolls was deemed “unmailable” by the US Post Office.

Add comment September 26th, 2011