The wildly popular author Neil Gaiman has 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 Monday 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, chair of the Pura Belpre Medal committee.
The Belpre Medal, formerly a 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 Belpre awards went to “Just In Case,” illustrated by Yuyi Morales, and to “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 Coretta Scott King Book Awards, which recognize outstanding African-American authors and illustrators, went to “We Are the Ship: The Story of the Negro League Baseball,” written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson, and to “The Blacker the Berry,” illustrated by Floyd Cooper and written by Joyce Carol Thomas.
Zetta Elliott, author of “Bird,” won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe awards for best new author.
The Schneider Family Book Award for best picture book, middle-school book and teen novel, which recognizes stories about children and adolescents with disabilities, went to Robert Andrew Parker, author and illustrator of “Piano Starts Here: The Young Art Tatum”; to Leslie Connor, author of “Waiting for Normal”; and to Jonathan Friesen’s “Jerk, California,” about a teenager with Tourette syndrome.
Other winners include Mo Willems, who won the Theodor Seuss Geisel award for his beginning reader book, “Are You Ready to Play Outside?”; author-illustrator Kadir Nelson, who won the 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 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 was given 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
