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The Caldecott Award and the Newbery Awards are coming!...

Teachers, librarians and parents — along with anyone involved with writing or illustrating books for the younger set — wait anxiously every year to find out who took the top prizes.

There may not be a red carpet or glamorous gowns, but these awards are the Oscar and the Grammy of children's books in the USA. The winning recognition brought by these awards can secure a writer's or illustrator's reputation and bring phenomenal sales to publishers in this highly competitive market.

The Most Prestigious Awards

The American Library Association compiles a list of the best of the best and presents their annual awards to the authors and artists of the most distinguished American books for children published the previous year.

The Caldecott and the Newbery Medal are the most prestigious American children's book awards.

The prestigious Caldecott Award was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It has been given to honor the best in children's book illustration since 1938.

The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It has been awarded annually since 1922. The award is given to the author of "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children" published in the previous year.

In 2001, the Newbery committee named author Kate DiCamillo's Because of Winn-Dixie an 'honor book'.

Honor books are not winners of the top award, but deserve notice for their quality. DiCamillo promptly quit her day job to focus on children's book writing. The result? She wrote The Tale of Despereaux which won the 2004 Newbery Medal. The spotlight that the Newbery provided propelled this author's books into the millions of copies sold range, not a common achievement for a children's book author.

These awards not only increase sales, but give the books they honor a form of children's book immortality. The average children's book today stays on the shelves for about eighteen months. Compare that to the Newbery medal winners. Of the seventy-seven books awarded Newberys, only five are no longer in print. The longest lived among the winners? The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, published in 1922, was the second book awarded a Newbery Medal... and is still being stocked on bookstore shelves today. Whether that is due to the award or the insight of the committee can be debated, but the reality is that winning a Newbery can bring both fame and a modest fortune to the stuggling children's book writer.

Other "Kid Lit" Awards

Other awards announced at the annual meeting of the The American Library Association include The Michael L. Printz Award, The William C. Morris YA Debut Award and the Coretta Scott King Awards.

The Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature honors a Topeka, Kansas school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association. Winning books may be fiction, nonfiction, poetry or an anthology. They may focus on controversial topics or speak to postive messages ... The overriding concern is that the book shows literary excellence.

The William C. Morris Young Adult Debut Award, first awarded in 2009, honors a book published by a first-time author writing for young adults. Books considered for this honor enrich the lives of a wide range of teens and showcase compelling, high quality writing and illustration. The award is named for William C. Morris, an advocate of books for children and young adults.

The Coretta Scott King Awards go to black authors and illustrators who include a sense of the African-American experience in their work.

More about Newbery & Caldecott around the Web:

Newbery Medal and Honors

Caldecott Medal and Honors

The Newbery Awards by Elizabeth Cosgriff

Teach with Caldecott Medal Winners

The Newbery and Caldecott Awards By Association for Library Service to Children

Trust the Caldecott Medal - Sailing the sea of bad children's books? It's your lodestar.

Design and Award Your Own Medal - Lesson Plan

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