It's Time for the Times Awards

November is here—the month that the New York Times announces the winners of its annual Best Illustrated Children's Books of the Year award and features the artists' work in a double-page spread in the newspaper's fall children's issue of the book review (this year it was yesterday, November 17).

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the prestigious award, whose winners have included Maurice Sendak (honored 20 times between 1952 and 1984), Chris Van Allsburg, David Macaulay and Lane Smith.

A three-judge panel consisting of a librarian, a critic and an artist selects the honorees from the roughly 4,000 children's books received by the book review each year. Eden Ross Lipson, children's book editor of the New York Times Book Review, oversees the award.