Wildly popular author Neil Gaiman won the 2009 Newbery medal for “The Graveyard Book,” his wittily gothic spin on Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book,” and artist Beth Krommes won the 2009 Caldecott medal for her illuminating images in “The House in the Night.”
Boulder author Ingrid Law was a runner-up for the Newbery Award for her young-adult novel “Savvy.”
The prestigious awards, announced today on the final day of the American Library Association’s convention in Denver, guarantee immortality in print for the winners and galvanize young readers.
“It was that gold medal on the cover that drew me as a child,” said Claudette McLinn, chairwoman of the Pura Belpré awards committee.
The Belpré medal, a once biannual recognition of outstanding Latino authors and illustrators, became an annual award this year in acknowledgment of the world’s rapidly expanding Latino population.
The 2009 Belpré awards went to “Just In Case,” illustrated by Yuyi Morales, and “The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom,” by Margarita Engle.
Laurie Halse Anderson, author of the extraordinary historical novels “Catalyst” and “Fever 1793,” and “Speak,” about an adolescent rape victim, won the 2009 Margaret A. Edwards award for lifetime achievement.
The 2009 Michael L. Printz award for excellent young-adult literature went to Melina Marchetta, author of “Jellicoe Road,” a mystery about a young girl’s past.
The 2009 Coretta Scott King award, which recognizes outstanding African-American authors and illustrators, went to “We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball,” written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson, and “The Blacker the Berry,” illustrated by Floyd Cooper and written by Joyce Carol Thomas.
Zetta Elliott, author of “Bird,” won the 2009 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe for best new author.
The Schneider Family Book Awards for best picture book, middle-school book and teen novel, which recognize stories about children and adolescents with disabilities, went to Robert Andrew Parker, author and illustrator of “Piano Starts Here: The Young Art Tatum”; Leslie Connor, author of “Waiting for Normal”; and Jonathan Friesen’s “Jerk, California,” about a teenager with Tourette syndrome.
Other winners include Mo Willems, who won the 2009 Theodor Seuss Geisel award for his beginning-reader book, “Are You Ready to Play Outside?”; author-illustrator Kadir Nelson, who won the 2009 Robert F. Sibert medal for “We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball”; producers Paul R. Gagne and Melissa Reilly, who won the 2009 Carnegie medal for their video “March On! The Day My Brother Martin Changed The World”; and writer Nahoko Uehasi and translator Cathy Hirano for “Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit,” which won the Mildred L. Batchelder award for an outstanding book originally published in a language other than English.
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com
