Kidsreads.com - 2007 Book Awards

John Newbery Medal

Randolph Caldecott Medal

Robert F. Sibert Award

Coretta Scott King Awards

Schneider Family Book Awards

Theodor Seuss Geisel Beginning Reader Award

Past Winners

2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000

2007 ALA Awards

And The Winners Are...

• John Newbery Medal
• Randolph Caldecott Medal
• Robert F. Sibert Award
• Coretta Scott King Award
• Schneider Family Book Award
• Theodor Seuss Geisel Beginning Reader Award

The American Library Association (otherwise known as the ALA) has announced its 2007 awards, honoring the best books published in 2006. And we've got them all for you right here!

Curious about the ALA and its awards? Here's a little background...

Since 1921, the American Library Association has awarded prizes to the best of the best children's books. Each year, one exceptional book receives the John Newbery Medal --- and runners up may be named Newbery Honor Books. Also, one awesomely illustrated book is awarded the Randolph Caldecott Medal, with other cool picture books named Caldecott Honor titles. And though the names and works of contenders are hotly debated each year, no one really knows who will win. Committee members are sworn to secrecy, until the announcement is made at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in January.

The Robert F. Sibert Award, established by the Association for Library Service to Children in 2001, is awarded annually to the author of the most distinguished informational book published in English during the preceding year. The award is named in honor of Robert F. Sibert, the long-time President of Bound to Stay Bound Books, Inc. of Jacksonville, Illinois, and is sponsored by the company.

The Coretta Scott King Award is given to an African American author and an African American illustrator for an outstandingly inspirational and educational contribution. The books promote understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples and their contribution to the realization of the American dream. The Award is further designed to commemorate the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to honor Mrs. Coretta Scott King for her courage and determination to continue the work for peace and world brotherhood.

The Schneider Family Book Award, donated by Katherine Schneider, Ph.D., honors an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences. The book must portray some aspect of living with a disability or that of a friend or family member, whether the disability is physical, mental or emotional. Recipients are selected in three categories: birth through grade school (ages 0-10), middle school (ages 11-13), and teens (ages 13-18).

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award, established in 2004, will be given annually starting in 2006 to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of an outstanding book for beginning readers published in the United States during the preceding year. The award is named for the world-renowned children’s author Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss.

2007 Newbery Winner

THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY
written by Susan Patron
illustrated by Matt Phelan
Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books
ISBN-10: 1416901949
ISBN-13: 9781416901945
Ages 9-11
144 pages
November 2006

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Ten-year-old Lucky doesn't expect running away to be so complicated. She has her survival-kit backpack; her brilliant dog, HMS Beagle; and a careful plan ensuring that nobody in the town of Hard Pan, California (with a population of 43) will be able to find her. Lucky thinks she has legitimate reasons for escaping: there's evidence that her French guardian is about to abandon her and probably will send her away to an orphanage that won't allow dogs. However, Lucky hadn't planned on a dust storm in the Mojave Desert. Why can't anything be easy?

2007 Newbery Honors

HATTIE BIG SKY
Kirby Larson
Delacorte Press
ISBN-10: 0385733135
ISBN-13: 9780385733137
Ages 12-up
304 pages
September 2006

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For years, 16-year-old Hattie has been shuttled between relatives. Tired of being Hattie Here-and-There, she courageously leaves Iowa to prove up on her late uncle's homestead claim near Vida, Montana. With a stubborn stick-to-itiveness, Hattie faces frost, drought and blizzards. Despite many hardships, Hattie forges ahead, sharing her adventures with her friends --- especially Charlie, fighting in France --- through letters and articles for her hometown paper.

PENNY FROM HEAVEN
Jennifer L. Holm
Random House
ISBN-10: 037583687X
ISBN-13: 9780375836879
Ages 9-12
288 pages
July 2006

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It's 1953 and 11-year-old Penny dreams of a summer of butter pecan ice cream, swimming and baseball. But nothing is that easy in Penny's family. For starters, she can't go swimming because her mother is afraid she'll catch polio at the pool. To make matters worse, her favorite uncle is living in a car. Her Nonny cries every time her father's name is mentioned. And the two sides of her family aren't speaking to each other!

RULES
Cynthia Lord
Scholastic Press
ISBN-10: 0439443822
ISBN-13: 978-0439443821
Ages 9-12
208 pages
April 2006

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Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life --- which is nearly impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She has spent years trying to teach David the rules --- from "a peach is not a funny-looking apple" to "keep your pants on in public" --- in order to stop his embarrassing behaviors. But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a paraplegic boy, and Kristi, the next-door friend she's always wished for, it's her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal?

2007 Caldecott Winner

FLOTSAM
David Wiesner
Clarion Books
ISBN-10: 0618194576
ISBN-13: 9780618194575
Ages 5-8
40 pages
September 2006

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A bright, science-minded boy goes to the beach equipped to collect and examine flotsam --- anything floating that has been washed ashore. Bottles, lost toys, small objects of every description are among his usual finds. But there's no way he could have prepared for one particular discovery: a barnacle-encrusted underwater camera, with its own secrets to share...and to keep.

2007 Caldecott Honors

GONE WILD: An Endangered Animal Alphabet
David McLimans
Walker Books for Young Readers
ISBN-10: 0802795633
ISBN-13: 9780802795632
Ages 4-8
40 pages
September 2006

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Feast your eyes on these amazing creatures before they disappear. This stampede of wild animals, from Chinese Alligator to Grevy's Zebra, are so rare, they're all endangered. David McLiman's bold and playful illustrations transform each letter into a work of art, graphically rendered with animal characteristics. Scales, horns, even insect wings transform the alphabet into animated life.

MOSES: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom
written by Carole Boston Weatherford
illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Jump at the Sun/Hyperion
ISBN-10: 0786851759
ISBN-13: 9780786851751
Ages 5-8
48 pages
September 2006

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In lyrical text, Carole Boston Weatherford describes Harriet Tubman's spiritual journey as she hears the voice of God guiding her North to freedom on that very first trip to escape the brutal practice of forced servitude. Tubman, courageous and compassionate, and deeply religious, would take 19 subsequent trips back South, never being caught, but none as profound as this first. Harriet Tubman's bravery and relentless pursuit of freedom are a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.

2007 Robert F. Sibert Winner

TEAM MOON: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon
Catherine Thimmesh
Houghton Mifflin
ISBN-10: 0618507574
ISBN-13: 9780618507573
Ages 10-up
80 pages
June 2006

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Here is a rare perspective on a story we only thought we knew. For Apollo 11, the first moon landing, is a story that belongs to many, not just the few and famous. It belongs to the seamstress who put together 22 layers of fabric for each space suit. To the engineers who created a special heat shield to protect the capsule during its fiery reentry. It belongs to the flight directors, camera designers, software experts, suit testers, telescope crew, aerospace technicians, photo developers, engineers and navigators. Gathering direct quotes from some of these folks who worked behind the scenes, Catherine Thimmesh reveals their very human worries and concerns.

2007 Robert F. Sibert Honors

FREEDOM RIDERS: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement
Ann Bausum
National Geographic
ISBN-10: 0792241738
ISBN-13: 9780792241737
Ages 10-14
80 pages
December 2005

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FREEDOM RIDERS compares and contrasts the childhoods of John Lewis and James Zwerg in a way that helps young readers understand the segregated experience of our nation's past. It shows how a common interest in justice created the convergent path that enabled these young men to meet as Freedom Riders on a bus journey south.

QUEST FOR THE TREE KANGAROO: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea
written by Sy Montgomery
photographs by Nic Bishop
Houghton Mifflin
ISBN-10: 0618496416
ISBN-13: 9780618496419
Ages 10-14
80 pages
October 2006

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It looks like a bear, but isn't one. It climbs trees as easily as a monkey, but isn't a monkey, either. It has a belly pocket like a kangaroo, but what's a kangaroo doing up a tree? Meet the amazing Matschie's tree kangaroo, who makes its home in the ancient trees of Papua New Guinea's cloud forest. And meet the amazing scientists who track these elusive animals.

TO DANCE: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel
written by Siena Cherson Siegel
illustrated by Mark Siegel
Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books
ISBN-10: 0689867476
ISBN-13: 9780689867477
Ages 8-14
64 pages
September 2006

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Dancers are young when they first dream of dance. Siena was six --- and her dreams kept skipping and leaping, circling and spinning, from airy runs along a beach near her home in Puerto Rico, to dance class in Boston, to her debut performance on stage with the New York City Ballet. TO DANCE tells and shows the fullness of her dreams and her rhapsodic life they led to.

2007 Coretta Scott King Author Winner

COPPER SUN
Sharon M. Draper
Atheneum
ISBN-10: 0689821816
ISBN-13: 9780689821813
Ages 14-up
320 pages
January 2006

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When slave traders invade Amari's village, her whole world is destroyed in minutes. Her family is massacred, her village is burned to the ground, and Amari is dragged to a slave ship and sent to the Carolinas. She is sold to Mr. Derby, who gives her to his son Clay as his "birthday present." Now, survival and escape are all she dreams about. So when an opportunity presents itself, Amari and her friend Polly decide to work together to obtain their freedom.

2007 Coretta Scott King Author Honors

THE ROAD TO PARIS
Nikki Grimes
G. P. Putnam's Sons
ISBN-10: 0399245375
ISBN-13: 9780399245374
Ages 8-12
160 pages
October 2006

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Nine-year-old Paris (who's half black) has just moved in with the Lincoln family, and isn't thrilled to be in yet another foster home. She has a tough time trusting people and misses her brother, who's been sent to a boys' home. No matter how hard she tries to fit in, she can't ignore the feeling that she never will, especially in a town that's mostly white. It isn't long before Paris has a big decision to make about where she truly belongs.

2007 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Winner

2007 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honors

JAZZ
written by Walter Dean Myers
illustrated by Christopher Myers
Holiday House
ISBN-10: 0823415457
ISBN-13: 9780823415458
All ages
48 pages
September 2006

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From bebop to New Orleans, from ragtime to boogie, and every style in between, this collection of Walter Dean Myers's energetic and engaging poems, accompanied by Christopher Myers's bright and exhilarating paintings, celebrates different styles of the American art form, jazz. JAZZ takes readers on a musical journey from jazz's beginnings to the present day, complete with a timeline and glossary.

POETRY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE: LANGSTON HUGHES
edited by David Roessel and Arnold Rampersad
illustrated by Benny Andrews
Sterling Publishing Co.
ISBN-10: 1402718454
ISBN-13: 9781402718458
Ages 8-up
48 pages
April 2006

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One of the central figures in the Harlem Renaissance --- the flowering of black culture that took place in the 1920s and '30s --- Langston Hughes captured the soul of his people, and gave voice to their concerns about race and social justice. His magnificent and powerful words still resonate today: that's why it's so important for young people to have access to his poems. Now they do, in a splendid volume edited by David Roessel and Arnold Rampersad (leading experts on Hughes's work) and illustrated by the brilliant Benny Andrews.

2007 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Author Talent Award

STANDING AGAINST THE WIND
Traci L. Jones
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
ISBN-10: 0374371741
ISBN-13: 9780374371746
Ages 12-up
192 pages
September 2006

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Patrice Williams was happy living in Georgia with her grandmother, who called her "cocoa grandbaby." Then her mother lured her to Chicago and ended up in jail. Now Patrice lives with her Auntie Mae, and her new nickname is "Puffy" --- thanks to her giant poof of hair. But Patrice's hair isn't the only reason she sticks out: she cares about her grades and strives for the best. That's why Monty Freeman, another eighth grader who lives in the building, asks Patrice to tutor his little brother. Even though Monty's friends make Patrice uneasy, Monty himself is friendly, confident and surprisingly smart. When he becomes her guardian angel, Patrice begins to think something stronger than friendship might be growing between them.

2007 Schneider Family Picture Book Winner

THE DEAF MUSICIANS
written by Pete Seeger and Paul Dubois Jacobs
illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
G.P. Putnam's Sons
ISBN-10: 039924316X
ISBN-13: 9780399243165
Ages 3-5
32 pages
October 2006

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Poor Lee! He used to be a jazzman who could make the piano go yimbatimba- TANG-zang-zang. But now he's lost his hearing, and the bandleader had to let him go. So Lee goes to a school for the deaf to learn sign language. There, he meets Max, who used to play the sax. Riding the subway to class, they start signing about all the songs they love. A bass player named Rose joins in and soon they have a little sign language band. And in no time they're performing for audiences in the subway, night after night.

2007 Schneider Family Middle School Award Winner

2007 Schneider Family Teen Award Winner

SMALL STEPS
Louis Sachar
Delacorte Press
ISBN-10: 0385733143
ISBN-13: 9780385733144
Ages 10-up
272 pages
January 2006

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In Louis Sachar's highly anticipated follow-up to HOLES, we find Theodore "Armpit" Johnson at home in Austin, Texas. He is trying to turn his life around, two years after being released from Camp Green Lake. The only person who believes in him is Ginny, his 10-year-old disabled neighbor; together, they are learning to take small steps. And he seems to be on the right path, until X-Ray, an acquaintance from Camp Green Lake, comes up with a get-rich-quick scheme. This leads to a chance encounter with teen pop sensation Kaira DeLeon, and suddenly his life spins out of control. Only one thing is for certain --- Armpit will never be the same again.

2007 Theodor Seuss Geisel Winner

ZELDA AND IVY: THE RUNAWAYS
Laura McGee Kvasnosky
Candlewick Press
ISBN-10: 0763626899
ISBN-13: 9780763626891
Ages 6-9
48 pages
May 2006

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The fabulous fox sisters return in three fresh, funny stories perfect for beginning readers. Whether Zelda and Ivy are combating the injustice of cucumber sandwiches for lunch, deciding what to leave the children of the future in their time capsule, or solving Zelda's writer's block, they are sure to tickle the funny bones of both new and returning fans.

2007 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honors

MERCY WATSON GOES FOR A RIDE
Kate DiCamillo
Candlewick Press
ISBN-10: 0763623326
ISBN-13: 9780763623326
Ages 6-10
80 pages
May 2006

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Mr. and Mrs. Watson's portly pig, Mercy, loves nothing more than a ride in the car. It takes a fair amount of nudging and bribing to get her out of the driver's seat. But once the convertible is on the road, Mercy loves the feel of the wind tickling her ears and the sun on her snout. One day the Watsons' elderly neighbor, Baby Lincoln, pops up in the backseat hoping for some "folly and adventure" --- and in the chaos that ensues, an exuberant Mercy ends up behind the wheel!

MOVE OVER, ROVER!
written by Karen Beaumont
illustrated by Jane Dyer
Harcourt Children's Books
ISBN-10: 0152019790
ISBN-13: 9780152019792
Ages 3-7
40 pages
September 2006

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It's raining cats and dogs! Good thing Rover is snuggled safe and dry inside his doghouse --- until, one by one, a soggy menagerie of creatures shows up looking for a cozy place to sit out the storm. But who's the very unwelcome surprise visitor? Skunk, of course. Suddenly that doghouse isn't quite so crowded after all!

NOT A BOX
written and illustrated by Antoinette Portis
HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0061123226
ISBN-13: 9780061123221
Ages 3-6
32 pages
December 2006

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Inspired by a memory of sitting in a box on her driveway with her sister, Antoinette Portis captures the thrill when pretend feels so real that it actually becomes real --- when the imagination takes over and inside a cardboard box, a child is transported to a world where anything is possible.