American Library Association Announces Literary Award Winners

ALA Announces 2009 Youth Media Awards

Yesterday the American Library Association announced the winners of its prestigious series of awards that honor books, videos, and audiobooks published for children and young adults in the previous year.

The John Newbery Medal, which recognizes the most distinguished contribution to children's literature, was awarded to Neil Gaiman, author of The Graveyard Book, illustrated by Dave McKean and published by HarperCollins Children's Books.

The ALA also named four Newbery Honor Books: The Underneath, by Kathi Appelt, illustrated by David Small, and published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers; The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom, by Margarita Engle and published by Henry Holt and Company LLC; Savvy, by Ingrid Law and published by Dial Books for Young Readers; After Tupac & D Foster, by Jacqueline Woodson and published by G. P. Putnam's Sons.

The Randolph Caldecott Medal, which honors the most distinguished American picture book for children, was awarded to Beth Krommes, illustrator of The House in the Night, written by Susan Marie Swanson and published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Three Caldecott Honor Books were named: A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, written and illustrated by Marla Frazee and published by Harcourt, Inc.; How I Learned Geography, written and illustrated by Uri Shulevitz and published by Farrar Straus Giroux; A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams, illustrated by Melissa Sweet, written by Jen Bryant and published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.

The Michael L. Printz Award, which recognizes excellence in literature written for young adults, was awarded to Melina Marchetta, author of Jellicoe Road, published by HarperTeen.

Four Printz Honor Books were named: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II, The Kingdom on the Waves, by M.T. Anderson, published by Candlewick Press; The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart, published by Hyperion Books for Children; Nation, by Terry Pratchett, published by HarperCollins Children's Books; and Tender Morsels, by Margo Lanagan, published by Alfred A. Knopf.

In addition to the Newbery Medal, Caldecott Medal, and Printz Awards, the ALA also announced the winners of the following awards: Alex Awards, Andrew Carnegie Medal, Coretta Scott King Book Awards, Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, Margaret A. Edwards Award, May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture, Mildred L. Batchelder Award, Odyssey Award, Pura Belpré Awards, Schneider Family Book Award, Theodore Seuss Geisel Award, and William C. Morris Award.

View a complete list of the 2009 youth media award winners on the ALA's website: ala.org .