Books with Shiny Stickers

The first hour of my day was filled with excitement this morning! The American Library Association Announced its Youth Media Awards this morning and I tuned in to the live feed. I am always curious to learn the winners of the Newbery and Caldecott awards, but the other awards are also very special.

Last year's winners Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena and illustrated by Christian Robinson  and Finding Winnie by Lindsay Mattick and illustrated by Sophie Blackall are two of my favourite books. I was especially happy to see a picture book win the Newbery which is usually given to a chapter book. Winnie's hometown connection to Winnipeg also makes the book special. See my post from January, 2016.

I have been following Pernille Ripp, Carrie Gelson and Colby Sharp as their grade seven and grade three classrooms made their mock Caldecott and Newbery selections. I found I had similar tastes to their lists. I have added a number of potential winners to my own collection including Ada's Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay by Susan Hood, illustrated by Sally Wern Comport; Penguin Problems by Jory John, illustrated by Lane Smith; School's First Day of School by Adam Rex and Christian Robinson ; They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel; We Found a Hat by Jon Klassen and several more.










You may notice that I didn't do very well in determining the winner! But I have enjoyed adding some really great books to my collection.

I have also added to my YA and middle years collection including The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner. I was quite thrilled to have an almost instant reply to my tweet congratulating him on his Morris Award given to a debut book by a first-time author.

Another debut author that I add to my must read list is Nicola Yoon. She was honoured for The Sun is Also a Star receiving the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe for New Talent Author award and a Michael L Printz honor for excellence in literature for young adults.

I am a Jason Reynolds fan and immediately purchase his books as soon as they are available. Reynolds won two awards today for As Brave as You--the Coretta Scott King(author) honor book and the Schneider Family Book Award for Ghost. Ghost also won the Odyssey Honor book award for the audiobook.




[Drumroll please} The winners for the Newbery and Caldecott medals are:

Newbery Medal

Author Kelly Barnhill

Caldecott Medal

Author and illustrator Javaka Steptoe

The book that won the most awards was March Book 3 by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, artist Nate Powell. March Book 3 is the last in a trilogy about American civil rights activism. Awards included the Coretta Scott King award for best children's book by an African-American and the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in children's literature.  It also won the YALSA award for excellence in non-fiction for young adults. The Robert F. Sibert Informational book award for children was the fourth award.


Sarah Dessen and Rick Riordan also received recognition at the American Library Association Youth Media awards. Check out all the winners here.

Check out the #alayma hashtag on Twitter.


I have to give credit to Mr @olby Sharp for my article title today. He tweeted this morning:

Today is about celebrating books that win shiny stickers. Every other day is about celebrating ALL the great books written for kids.