2008_01_01_archive

ALA Awards for 2008

Did you see the announcement of the ALA awards for children's and YA

literature? Poetry was all over the place! I was fortunate enough to

attend the announcement press conference as part of the first ever

Odyssey Award committee for best audiobook of the year and I kept

nudging my friend next to me, saying, "That's poetry." "That one's

poetry." "That's poetry, too." It was so exciting. Top of the list?

The NEWBERY award! Congratulations to Laura Amy Schlitz for Good

Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village (Candlewick), a

truly amazing work of history, poetry, drama, and detail. You may

remember that our prescient Cybils poetry committee chose it for our

short list of the best poetry of the year, too!

But wait, there was more!

One of the Printz honor books for YA literature is a powerful work of

poetry, Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath by

Stephanie Hemphill (Knopf, an imprint of Random House). Way to go,

Stephanie! This book also is rich in history and biography, but offers

poems echoing the style of Plath, about Plath herself. (It's also on

the Cybils short list of best poetry of the year!)

One of the Coretta Scott King author honor books is also a work of

poetry: Twelve Rounds to Glory The Story of Muhammad Ali written by

Charles R. Smith Jr., illustrated by Bryan Collier (Candlewick). More

history, more biography, more poetry--this one is a shout-out read

aloud with dynamic images in words and art.

Margarita Engle, author of The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan

Francisco Manzano, illustrated by Sean Qualls (Holt) is the 2008 Pura

Belpr� Author Award recipient honoring Latino authors and illustrators

whose work best portrays, affirms and celebrates the Latino cultural

experience in children's books. This is a complex and gritty

poetry-story of the life of nineteenth-century Cuban slave Juan

Francisco Manzano from multiple points of view.

The Schneider Family Award for books that embody the artistic

expression of the disability experience went to a work of poetry:

Reaching for Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer (Bloomsbury). It is the

winner in the middle grades category (age 11-13) and is a gentle

novel-in-verse about a young girl growing up with a lively spirit and

cerebral palsy, too. Congratulations, Tracie! (I mentioned this gem

previously in my entry on April 5, 2007.)

Finally, I'm thrilled to say that our very own Odyssey Award for

excellence in audiobook production was also awarded to a work of

poetry: Walter Dean Myers's Jazz (produced by Live Oak Media). Dual

narrators read, say, and sing these poems with verve and vitality

against a backdrop of original jazz music. In addition, Walter Dean

Myers will deliver the 2009 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture, as an

"individual of distinction in the field of children's literature."

(I've also blogged about Jazz several times since it also received the

Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award [See Feb. 21, 2007] and when Jazz

received a CSK illustrator honor citation for son Christopher Myer's

vibrant illustrations [See Jan. 24, 2007].)

I'm happy to say that ALL of these books appeared on my own lists of

the best poetry of 2007 (see Dec. 31, 2007) or 2006 (see Dec. 29,

2006). How wonderful to see these rich and engaging works of poetry

get the recognition they deserve. Now I hope they will also find their

way into the hands of many young readers!

This week's Poetry Friday Roundup is at Becky's Farm School.