Katherine Applegate has won the 2013 Newbery Medal for The One and Only Ivan (Harper), a novel narrated by a silverback gorilla that lives in an ill-run roadside attraction with other performing animals; the book was edited by Anne Hoppe. Jon Klassen has won the 2013 Randolph Caldecott Medal for This Is Not My Hat (Candlewick), in which a small fish gleefully steals a hat belonging to a larger fish and tries to get away with it; it was edited by Liz Bicknell. And Nick Lake has won the 2013 Michael L. Printz Award for In Darkness (Bloomsbury), in which a 15-year-old boy is trapped in the rubble of a hospital following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti; it was edited by Sarah Odedina. The awards were announced this morning at the American Library Association’s midwinter conference in Seattle.
It was a first-time award for all three recipients. Applegate is the author of many books for children, including the bestselling Animorphs series, which she co-wrote with her husband, Michael Grant. This Is Not My Hat is a companion to Klassen's 2011 picture book, I Want My Hat Back. And Nick Lake, who is an editor at HarperCollins in the U.K., is the author of the Blood Ninja series.
Three Newbery Honor Books were named: Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz (Candlewick); Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin (Roaring Brook/Flash Point); and Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage (Dial).
There were five Caldecott Honor Books: Creepy Carrots!, illustrated by Peter Brown, written by Aaron Reynolds (S&S); Extra Yarn, illustrated by Jon Klassen, written by Mac Barnett (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray); Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Roaring Brook/Neal Porter); One Cool Friend illustrated by David Small, written by Toni Buzzeo (Dial); and Sleep Like a Tiger, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, written by Mary Logue (Houghton Mifflin).
Four Printz Honors were given: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (S&S); Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (Hyperion); Dodger by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins) and The White Bicycle by Beverley Brenna (Red Deer Press).
The Robert F. Sibert Award for the most distinguished informational book for children went to Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin (Roaring Brook/Flash Point). There were three Sibert Honors: Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by Robert Byrd (Dial); Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95 by Phillip M. Hoose (FSG); and Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson (Scholastic Press).
In its third prize, Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin (Roaring Brook/Flash Point) won the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults.
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, for an author or illustrator whose books have made a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children, was given to Katherine Paterson.
The 2013 Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime contribution in writing for young adults was given to Tamora Pierce, and Andrea Davis Pinkney was chosen to deliver the 2014 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture.
The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for most distinguished beginning reader books went to Up, Tall and High! by Ethan Long (Putnam). There were three Geisel Honor Books: Let’s Go for a Drive! by Mo Willems (Hyperion); Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin, illustrated by James Dean (HarperCollins); and Rabbit & Robot: The Sleepover by Cece Bell (Candlewick).
Librarian Demetria Tucker won the Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Andrea Davis Pinkney won the Coretta Scott King Author award for Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America, illustrated by Brian Pinkney (Disney/Jump at the Sun), and Bryan Collier won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for I, Too, Am America (S&S).
Two King Author Honor Books were selected: Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by E. B. Lewis (Penguin/Nancy Paulsen); and No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie (Carolrhoda Lab).
Three King Illustrator Honor Books were chosen: H. O. R. S. E. by Christopher Myers (Egmont USA); Ellen’s Broom, illustrated by Daniel Minter, written by Kelly Starling Lyons (Putnam); and I Have a Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Martin Luther King, Jr. (Random House/Schwartz & Wade).
The Mildred L. Batchelder Award for best work of translation went to My Family for the War by Anne C. Voorhoeve, translated from the German by Tammi Reichel (Dial). There were two Batchelder Honor books: A Game for Swallows: To Die, to Leave, to Return by Zeina Abirached, translated from the French by Edward Gauvin (Lerner/Graphic Universe); and Son of a Gun, written and translated from the Dutch by Anne de Graaf (Eerdmans).
The Stonewall Book Award, which is given to children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience, went to Benjamin Alire Sáenz for Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Simon & Schuster).
Four Stonewall Honor Books were chosen: Drama by Raina Telgemeier (Scholastic/Graphix); Gone, Gone, Gone by Hannah Moskowitz (Simon Pulse); October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman (Candlewick); and Sparks: The Epic, Completely True Blue, (Almost) Holy Quest of Debbie by S. J. Adams (Flux).
The Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production went to Brilliance Audio, producer of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, narrated by Kate Rudd.
Three Odyssey Honor audiobooks were chosen: Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian by Eoin Colfer, narrated by Nathaniel Parker (Listening Library); Ghost Knight by Cornelia Funke, narrated by Elliot Hill (Listening Library); Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama, narrated by Katherine Kellgren (Macmillan Audio).
The Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellent in children’s video went to Katja Torneman for Anna, Emma and the Condors (Green Planet Films).
The Schneider Family Book Awards, for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience, are: Back to Front and Upside Down by Claire Alexander (Eerdmans) for best young children’s book; A Dog Called Homeless by Sarah Lean (HarperCollins/Tegen) for best middle grade book; and Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am by Harry Mazer and Peter Lerangis (Simon & Schuster) for best teen book.
David Díaz won the Pura Belpré Illustrator Award, honoring a Latino illustrator whose children’s book best portray, affirm, and celebrate the Latino cultural experience, for Martín de Porres: The Rose in the Desert, written by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion). No illustrator honor books were chosen.
Benjamin Alire Sáenz won the Pura Belpré Author Award for Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Simon & Schuster). Sonia Manzano (of Sesame Street fame) received an author honor for her first children’s novel, The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano (Scholastic Press).
See interviews with the Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz winners here.