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January 2001
Award Winners
by Susan Heyboer O’Keefe
Every so
often the hermit (meaning me) is dragged kicking and screaming from the
soothing darkness of her cave, which is lit only by the glow of the PC
monitor, and sent on a school visit.
School visits are actually a lot of fun, even during that
excruciating moment known as question-and-answer time.
Kids never tiptoe around the issues.
They ask very direct questions, such as how much I make and how
old I am. My very direct
answers tend to elicit gasps of disbelieving shock, since the former
number is very small and the latter number very large (at least to
anyone under ten).
One recent question was unexpected: “What
awards have your books won?”
Err, hmm, Parrot Picks of the Year?
Nice Guys Sometimes Finish Fourth Award?
Best Band-Mom Trophy?
“Uh ... none,” I had to admit.
I reasserted myself. “None
yet.”
If and when I get a writing award, I’ll be ready.
In the meantime, I’m teaching Gromit, my African Grey, to say
such inspiring phrases as “Pulitzer Prize.
Nobel Prize for Literature.
Six-figure movie contract.”
It would be nice to hear those words someday, if only from a
parrot.
While I wait, you’ll want to check out these real
winners --
Bud, Not Buddy by
Christopher Paul Curtis.
This middle-grade novel won both the 2000
Newberry Award, for the best contribution to American literature
for children, and the 2000 Coretta Scott King Award, for the best inspirational or
educational book for children by a black author or illustrator.
In this beautiful recreation of Depression life, 10-year old
orphan Bud Caldwell tries to track down the person he believes to be his
father -- famous band leader Herman E. Calloway of the Dusky
Devastators. Along the way
Bud shares (and sometimes is forced to amend) his Rules for Having a
Funnier Life and Rules for Making a Better Liar out of Yourself. His adventures are funny and exciting; beneath them is a
deeply touching story.
Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by
Simms Taback received the
2000
Caldecott Award, given to the illustrator of the year’s best
American picture book. The
story is deceptively simple yet works on many levels.
When Joseph’s overcoat wears out, he makes a jacket out of it.
When the jacket wears out, he makes a vest out of it.
When the vest wears out, he makes a scarf from it.
And so on, down to a button, which is finally lost.
But Joseph can make something even from nothing -- he makes this
book out of it! Die-cut
holes in the current garment hint at Joseph’s coming new creation.
The story gives a nod toward the benefits of frugality as well as
the mysteries of the creative process, while always remaining on the
level of fun. The art has a
folktale primitiveness to it and is dense with amusing details.
Henry Hikes to Fitchburg by
Donald B. Johnson received the
2000
Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, given for excellence in literature
for children and young adults, picture book category. Both a wonderful selection for kids and a gentle reminder to
over-worked, multi-tasking adults, this book begins with a single
passage from Henry Thoreau’s Walden: comparing the different trips (or
lifestyle choices) of a man who walks thirty miles in a day or a man who
earns the money to take a train the same thirty miles.
Henry the Bear walks, while his friend works.
Each has interesting experiences and each arrives at the
destination at pretty much the same time.
The choice is up to the reader who has made the better journey.
Some additional 2000 award winners I haven’t yet read myself:
The Texas Bluebonnet
Award -- While regional, this award given by Texas
school kids to their favorite book is highly influential and means big
national sales for the winner. This
year it’s the middle-grade mystery The Ghost of Fossil Glen by Cynthia DeFelice.
The National Book Awards -- the nation’s most prestigious literary award.
The category of Young People’s Literature was added to the
three adult categories of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry only in 1996.
The winner for 2000 is Homeless
Bird by Gloria Whelan, a novel about a 13-year-old girl in
contemporary India who is married and immediately widowed.
Pura Belpré Award -- This fairly new award is given to a
Latino/Latina writer and illustrator for the work that best celebrates
for children the Latino cultural experience.
For writing, the award goes to Alma Flor Ada for Under
the Royal Palms: A Childhood in Cuba, a memoir for
middle-graders composed of brief stories about the author’s childhood
in Cuba and the importance of family, friends, and teachers.
For illustrating, the award goes to Carmen Lomas Garza for Magic Windows: Cut-Paper Art and Stories.
This bilingual picture book uses the traditional Mexican art
technique of papel picado (cut
paper) to illustrate Garza’s own story about growing up in Mexico.
Children's Book-of-the-Month Club author Susan Heyboer O'Keefe has
written Angel Prayers, Sleepy
Angel’s First Bedtime Story, and
Good Night, God Bless. Watch for Love
Me. Love You and the One
Hungry Monster Board Book this spring.
And visit http://www.susanheyboerokeefe.homestead.com
for fun, book info, and great parrot photos.
© 2000 by Susan Heyboer O'Keefe
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