In a surprise win, first-time children's author Cynthia Kadohata has won the 2005 John Newbery Medal for Kira-Kira (Atheneum). Kadohata has previously written three novels for adults, including The Floating World. The Randolph Caldecott Medal went to Kevin Henkes for Kitten's First Full Moon (HarperCollins/Greenwillow). This was the first-ever Caldecott for Greenwillow, and the first for Henkes as well; he won a 1994 Caldecott Honor for Owen, and a Newbery Honor last year for Olive's Ocean.
The awards were announced on January 17 at the American Library Association's midwinter meeting in Boston. Kira-Kira, edited by Caitlyn Dlouhy, is a novel about a Japanese-American girl growing up in the South in the 1950s and '60s. Kitten's First Full Moon, edited by Virginia Duncan, tells the story of a kitten who mistakes the full moon for a bowl of milk.
Three Newbery Honor books were announced: Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko (Putnam); The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marion Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights by Russell Freedman (Clarion); and Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion).
There were three Caldecott Honors: The Red Book by Barbara Lehman (Houghton); Coming On Home Soon, illustrated by E.B. Lewis, written by Jacqueline Lewis (Putnam); and Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems (Hyperion).
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (Random/Wendy Lamb) won the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature for young adults. Three Printz Honors were given, to Airborn by Kenneth Oppel (HarperCollins/Eos); Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion); and Chanda’s Secret by Allan Stratton (Annick).
Greenwillow, which originally printed 60,000 copies of Kitten's First Full Moon, went back to press for another 150,000 copies, which began shipping to accounts on January 21. Atheneum has ordered 75,000 more copies of Kira-Kira, which had a 12,500-copy first printing. The first shipment from the new printing is scheduled to reach the warehouse by January 27. Random House has gone back to press for 25,000 copies of How I Live Now, which will be delivered this week.
In other awards, the Mildred L. Batchelder Award for best work of translation went to The Shadows of Ghadames by Joelle Stolz, translated from the French by Catherine Temerson (Delacorte). Batchelder Honors went to The Crow-Girl: The Children of Crow Cove by Bodil Bredsdorff, translated from the Danish by Faith Ingwersen (FSG); and Daniel Half Human and the Good Nazi by David Chotjewitz, translated from the German by Doris Orgel (Atheneum/Richard Jackson).
The Robert F. Sibert Award for the most distinguished informational book was won by Russell Freedman for The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marion Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights (Clarion). Three Sibert Honor Books were named: Walt Whitman: Words for America by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Brian Selznick (Scholastic Press); The Tarantula Scientist by Sy Montgomery, photos by Nic Bishop (Houghton); and Sequoyah: The Cherokee Man Who Gave His People Writing by James Rumford, translated into Cherokee by Anna Sixkiller Huckaby (Houghton).Russell Freedman was chosen for the May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award, which is given to an individual of distinction in the field of children’s literature. The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, given every two years to an author or illlustator for making "a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children," went to Laurence Yep, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime contribution in writing for young adults was given to Francesca Lia Block.
Toni Morrison won the Coretta Scott King Author Award for Remember: The Journey to School Integration (Houghton); three CSK Author Honors went to The Legend of Buddy Bush by Sheila P. Moses (S&S/McElderry); Who Am I Without Him?: Short Stories About Girls and the Boys in Their Lives by Sharon G. Flake (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun); and Fortune’s Bones: The Manumission Requiem by Marilyn Nelson (Front Street). Kadir Nelson received the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for Ellington Was Not a Street, written by Ntozake Shange (S&S). There were two CSK Illustrator Honors: God Bless the Child, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, written by Billie Holiday (Harper/Amistad); and The People Could Fly: The Picture Book, illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon, written by Virginia Hamilton (Knopf).
The John Steptoe Author Award for New Talent went to Missy Violet and Me by Barbara Hathaway (Houghton), and the Steptoe Illustrator Award went to Frank Morrison for Jazzy Miz Mozetta, written by Brenda C. Roberts (FSG).
The Carnegie Medal for excellence in children’s video went to Paul R. Gagne and Melissa Reilly of W eston Woods, producers of The Dot, based on the book by Peter H. Reynolds.
A new prize, debuting this year, is the Schneider Family Book Award, which honors an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disabiltiy experience for child and adolescent audiences. The award is given in three age categories. My Pal, Victor by Diane Gonzales Bertrand, illustrated by Robert L. Sweetland (Raven Tree) was the winner in the 0-10 category; the recipient for 11-13 was Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Muñoz Ryan (Scholastic Press); and the 13-18 winner was My Thirteenth Winter: A Memoir by Samantha Abeel (Orchard).
Houghton Mifflin won 10 of the major awards, five for the Houghton imprint and five for Clarion Books.
