Category Archives: Illustrators

With a snowstorm hitting much of the eastern seaboard, it was to be expected that Monday would be a snow day. For colleagues like my friend Stacey Rattner who builds a fever pitch of excitement about the Youth Media Awards at her elementary school, it was disappointing to not have the day together in the gym, but she pivoted. For me, I was happy to have uninterrupted time to watch it (with a glass of champagne in celebration) at home. I could make my notes, I could tag favorite books and authors who won, and text colleagues on committees to cheer on their work.

And there was plenty of notes, tags, and texts!

While it runs a bit long when publishers and imprints are listed along with titles and creators and committees select a handful of honor titles that deepen the bench for celebration, my happiness was elevated throughout. Highlights included three celebrations of Candace Fleming- two for career achievement recognition and one for winning the Excellence in Nonfiction award for Death in the Jungle. A second was a sustained recognition of Cynthia Leitich Smith’s editing of Legendary Fry Bread Drive-In is worth noting. With its recognition in the Odyssey category, I might have to go back and listen to it because it was magical the first time in print, so I might want a second experience as an audiobook now.

An early favorite to see was Arriel Vinson’s new talent award for her debut Under the Neon Lights. I had the pleasure of moderating a panel for School Library Journal last year for which she was a shining part. And I have catching up to do in categories like Stonewall and Schneider Family because there were some titles that hadn’t come across my desk that I will be on the search for. Similarly, I pay special attention to the Batchelder awards because I’ve found them to be particularly moving or fun (in the case of John the Skeleton by Laan last year)

And last, all the love to the Coretta Scott King illustrator award to R. Gregory Christie for The Library in the Woods and written by Ramsey whose message and moving art is a must-read and happiness that Insectopolis: A Natural History by Kuper that I had on my year-end top ten list for adult nonfiction was recognized by the Alex Award as a book with special teen appeal. To validate that, we had it in our high school collection already and I enthusiastically shared it with a girl who was looking for a book about insects and bugs- I told her I had the perfect book for her.

I’ll ride the high of the celebration of all of the committees’ work to get to this point and recognize the talent of all of the creators of these amazing books by adding more to my endless TBR and looking out for new content by them as well.

And the first book on my list to read that I hadn’t heard about before that was a Stonewall honor will be He’s So Possessed With Me by Liu.

Was there a moment that you were jumping up and down about? Or a book that is now at the top of your list to read?