(View entire post here)
Laurie Halse Anderson receives Margaret A. Edwards Award, The Moon Over Star Awarded Coretta Scott King Honor & Jerk, California wins Schneider Family Book Award
New York, NY...January 26, 2009 - The American Library Association (ALA) announced today that SAVVY by Ingrid Law and AFTER TUPAC AND D FOSTER by Jacqueline Woodson have both received 2009 John Newbery Honors for outstanding contributions to children's literature, Laurie Halse Anderson has received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her significant and lasting contribution to writing for teens, and that JERK, CALIFORNIA (Speak; September 2008) by Jonathan Friesen has been awarded The Schneider Family Book Award for teens.
Savvy (Dial Books; May 2008) is the story of the Beaumonts, an eclectic family who can move mountains, stir up hurricanes and spark electricity. Each of them possess a "savvy"- a special power that erupts when they turn thirteen - and young Mibs Beaumont is celebrating her big birthday in two days. Mibs is eager to blow out her thirteen candles, but more importantly, she can't wait to discover her savvy. When her day arrives, she finds herself on an odyssey that will force her to make sense of growing up - and of others, who also might have a few secrets hidden just beneath their skin. Savvy was published under the joint venture between Dial, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group and Walden Media. The film is in active development with Karen Janszen attached to pen the screenplay.
Ingrid Law is a big fan of words and stories, small towns and big ideas. Born in New York, Ingrid's family moved to Colorado when she was six years old. Now the mother of a teenage daughter, Ingrid still lives in Colorado, where she is hard at work on her next book.
After Tupac and D Foster (G.P. Putnam's Sons; January 2008) is the poignant story of three young girls growing into women, longing to find their Big Purpose in life. D Foster is the new girl, a foster child, who lives a life vastly different from Neeka and her best friend's. They're all crazy about Tupac Shakur's rap music, but D is the only one who truly understands where he's coming from-and because of D, Tupac's lyrics become more personal for all of them. In two magical years Tupac is part of the glue that holds the three together in an illuminating friendship. Then, when the girls turn thirteen, everything changes. D disappears from their lives as suddenly as she appeared, and Tupac is the victim of a fatal shooting. What the narrator is left with as she tries to make sense of it all is a beautiful memory, like a song, and she realizes that even brief connections can touch deeply.
Jacqueline Woodson, winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults, is the author of Newbery Honor winner Show Way, Miracle's Boys (recipient of a Coretta Scott King Award and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize), Locomotion and Hush (both National Book Award finalists). Other distinctions include two Jane Addams Peace Awards and a Kenyon Review Award for Literary Excellence in Fiction. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
Read an excerpt of After Tupac and D Foster
The Moon Over Star (Dial; October 2008) by Diana Hunts Ashton and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney has been named a 2009 Coretta Scott King Honor Book. The book takes place in July 1969, when the world witnessed an awe-inspiring historical achievement when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the moon. For the young protagonist of this lyrical and hopeful picture book, that landing is something that inspires her to make one giant step toward all of the possibilities that life has to offer.
Given to African American authors and illustrator for outstanding inspirational and educational contributions, the Coretta Scott King Book Award titles promote understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples and their contribution to the realization of the American dream. The award is designed to commemorate the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to honor Mrs. Coretta Scott King for her courage and determination to continue the work for peace and world brotherhood.
LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON is the recipient of the 2009 Margaret A. Edwards Award honoring her significant and lasting contribution to writing for teens for her novels, Speak (Puffin), Catalyst (Viking) and Fever 1793 (Simon & Schuster).
Hailed by CNN as "A gifted writer whose novel[s] shows that she understands (and remembers) the raw emotion and tumult that marks the lives of teen-agers," Laurie Halse Anderson's books have sold more than 2 million copies. She is the author of the genre defining YA novel Speak. Speak was a National Book Award Finalist, a Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book for excellence in young adult literature, and was named a best book of the year by Publishers Weekly, Booklist, School Library Journal and Horn Book. Laurie's other young adult books include the National Book Award nominee Chains, ALA Best Book for Young Adult winner Catalyst, and the New York Times best-selling novels, Prom and Twisted. She is the recipient of the ALAN award for 2008 which honors those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of adolescent literature. She lives in New York State with her family. Laurie Halse Anderson's upcoming novel, Wintergirls (Viking), will be published in March 2009. Wintergirls has already received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Booklist and is an IndieBound Top 10 Pick for Winter 2009.
The Margaret A. Edwards Award, established in 1988, honors an author, as well as a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting. The annual award is administered by YALSA and sponsored by School Library Journal magazine. It recognizes an author's work in helping adolescents become aware of themselves and addressing questions about their role and importance in relationships, society, and in the world
Jerk, California (Speak; September 2008) by Jonathan Friesen has been awarded The Schneider Family Book Award for teens. Twitch, Jerk, Freak-Sam Carrier has been called them all. Because of his Tourette's syndrome, Sam is in near constant motion with tics and twitches and verbal outbursts. So, of course, high school is nothing but torment. Forget friends; forget even hoping that beautiful, perfect Naomi will look his way. And home isn't much better with his domineering stepfather reminding him that the only person who was more useless than Sam was his dead father, Jack. But then an unexpected turn of events unearths the truth about his father. And suddenly Sam doesn't know who he is, or even where he'll go next. What he does know is that the only girl in the world who can make him happy and nervous at the same time is everywhere he turns . . . and he'd give anything just to be still.
The Schneider Family Book Award honors an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.
Penguin books, 
publishing, 
Bestsellers, 
Literary Awards, 
Laurie Halse Anderson, 
Savvy, 
Jerk, California, 
After Tupac and D Foster
The Moon Over Star
