Jack Gantos has won the 2012 Newbery Medal for Dead End in Norvelt (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), his semiautobiographical tale of a boy growing up in a Pennsylvania town created during the Great Depression; the book was edited by Wesley Adams. Chris Raschka has won the 2012 Randolph Caldecott Medal for A Ball for Daisy (Random/Schwartz & Wade), a wordless story of an emotive dog’s busy day with a beloved red ball; it was edited by Lee Wade. And John Corey Whaley has won the 2011 Michael L. Printz Award for Where Things Come Back (S&S/Atheneum), edited by Namrata Tripathi. The awards, which are the country's most prestigious awards for children's books, were announced Monday morning at the American Library Association’s midwinter conference in Dallas.

It was the first Newbery Award for Gantos; he had previously won a Newbery Honor for Joey Pigza Loses Control and a Printz Honor for Hole in My Life. Raschka previously won the 2006 Caldecott Medal for The Hello, Goodbye Window, written by Norton Juster; he also won a 1994 Caldecott Honor for Yo! Yes? And Where Things Come Back is John Corey Whaley’s first novel; he also won this year's 2012 William C. Morris Debut YA Novel Award.

Two Newbery Honor Books were named: Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai (HarperCollins); and Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin (Henry Holt).

There were three Caldecott Honor Books: Blackout by John Rocco (Disney-Hyperion); Grandpa Green by Lane Smith (Roaring Brook); and Me... Jane, by Patrick McDonnell (Little, Brown).

Four Printz Honors were given: Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler, illustrated by Maira Kalman (Little, Brown); The Returning by Christine Hinwood (Dial); Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey (Knopf); and The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic Press).

The Robert F. Sibert Award for the most distinguished informational book for children went to Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade by Melissa Sweet (Houghton Mifflin). There were four Sibert Honors: Black & White: The Confrontation Between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor by Larry Dane Brimner(Boyds Mills/Calkins Creek); Drawing from Memory by Allen Say (Scholastic Press); The Elephant Scientist by Caitlin O’Connell and Donna M. Jackson, photographs by Caitlin O’Connell and Timothy Rodwell (Houghton Mifflin); and Witches!: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer (National Geographic).

The YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults went to The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery by Steve Sheinkin (Roaring Brook/Flash Point).

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for beginning reader books went to Tales for Very Picky Eaters by Josh Schneider (Clarion). There were three Geisel Honor Books: I Broke My Trunk by Mo Willems (Hyperion); I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen (Candlewick); and See Me Run by Paul Meisel (Holiday House).

The 2012 Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime contribution in writing for young adults was given to Susan Cooper, and Michael Morpurgo was chosen to deliver the 2012 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture.

Author, illustrator, and storyteller Ashley Bryan won the Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Kadir Nelson won the Coretta Scott King Author award for Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray), and Shane W. Evans won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom (Roarding Brook/Neal Porter).

Two King Author Honor Books were selected: The Great Migration: Journey to the North by Eloise Greenfield, illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist (HarperCollins/Amistad); and Never Forgotten by Patricia C. McKissack, illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon (Random/Schwartz & Wade).

The Mildred L. Batchelder Award for best work of translation went to Soldier Bear by Bibi Dumon Tak, illustrated by Philip Hopman, translated from the Dutch by Laura Watkinson (Eerdmans). There was one Batchelder Honor book: The Lily Pond by Annika Thor, translated from the Swedish by Linda Schenck (Delacorte).

The 2011 Stonewall Children's and Young Adult Literature Award, for English-language children's and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered experience, went to Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy by Bil Wright (Simon & Schuster). Four Honor Books were chosen: a + e 4ever by Ilike Merey ( Lethe Press); Money Boy by Paul Yee (Groundwood); Pink by Lili Wilkinson (HarperTeen); and with or without you by Brian Farrey (Simon Pulse).

The Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production went to Listening Library, producer of Rotters by Daniel Kraus, narrated by Kirby Heyborne.


Four Odyssey Honor audiobooks were chosen: Ghetto Cowboy by G. Neri, narrated by JD Jackson (Brilliance Audio); Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt, narrated by Lincoln Hoppe (Listening Library); The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, narrated by Steve Westand Fiona Hardingham (Scholastic Audiobooks);and Young Fredle by Cynthia Voigt, narrated by Wendy Carter (Listening Library).

The Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in children’s video went to Paul R. Gagne and Melissa Reilly Ellard of Weston Woods, producers of Children Make Terrible Pets, based on the book by Peter Brown, narrated by Emily Eiden, with music by Jack Sundrud and Rusty Young, and animation by Soup2Nuts. Weston’s Woods’ production of Peter Brown’s The Curious Garden won last year’s Carnegie Medal.

The Schneider Family Book Award winners, for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience, are: Close to Famous by Joan Bauer (Viking) for best middle school book; and Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick (Scholastic Press) for best teen book. The jury chose not to award a book in the children’s category.

Duncan Tonatiuh, author and illustrator of Diego Rivera: His World and Ours (Abrams) won the Pura Belpré Illustrator Award, honoring a Latino llustrator whose children’s books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience. Guadalupe Garcia McCall, author of Under the Mesquite (Lee & Low), won the Pura Belpré Author Award, for a Latino writer whose children’s books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience.

There were two Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Books: The Cazuela That the Farm Maiden Stirred, illustrated by Rafael López, written by Samantha R. Vamos (Charlesbridge); and Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match/Marisol McDonald no combina, illustrated by Sara Palacios, written by Monica Brown (Children’s Book Press).

Two Pura Belpré Author Honor books were named: Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck by Margarita Engle (Henry Holt); and Maximilian and the Mystery of the Guardian Angel: A Bilingual Lucha Libre Thriller by Xavier Garza (Cinco Puntos Press).

For interviews with Jack Gantos, Chris Raschka, and John Corey Whaley, on where they were when they got "the call," click here.