Monday, February 02, 2015

Poetry = Newbery

It was so exciting to be in the audience when the awards were announced this morning and POETRY books were at the top of the list!

The Newbery award went to... The Crossover by Kwame Alexander!
Which was also recognized with a Coretta Scott King author honor award
You'll find the guide for this book here.


In the 83 years of Newbery history, the award has gone to a book of poetry FOUR times  (A Visit to William Blake’s Inn, Joyful Noise, Out of the Dust, and Good Masters! Sweet Ladies), so it's especially exciting to see a book of POETRY get this recognition.

Newbery honors: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson which also won:
  • Coretta Scott King Author Award
  • Sibert Honor Award
You'll find a "Poet to Poet" interview between Carole Boston Weatherford and Jacqueline Woodson here.


To reiterate, the Coretta Scott King Author award went to Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson.

Coretta Scott King author honor awards went to:
  • The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
  • How I Discovered Poetry by Marilyn Nelson
And poet, author, and literacy advocate Pat Mora will deliver the 2016 May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture, perfect timing with the 20th anniversary of Día de los niños/Día de los libros (Children's Day/Book Day).

4 comments:

Joy said...

I've read CROSSOVER and it is one of the BEST books in verse I've ever read. It had me laughing, and crying. The twist at the end hit me like a raging elephant. All I could think was, how did I miss that? Isn't it wonderful and poetic with layered meanings. I SO did NOT want the book to be over when I got to the end. This honor is so well deserved. The committee did a great job.

Michelle Heidenrich Barnes said...

SO happy for these AMAZING poet authors. Hooray for them! Hooray for us all!

laurasalas said...

I love THE CROSSOVER, though it broke my heart. Great awards announcements this morning:>)

BJ Lee said...

Great news for poetry!