Tuesday, January 27, 2009

2009 Newbery Award Winner


The American Library Association yesterday awarded the 2009 Newbery Award for excellence in children’s literature to Neil Gaiman for his book The Graveyard Book. It’s the story of Nobody Owens who has lost his family and is raised by a vampire, a werewolf and a witch. I haven’t read it yet, but I will. I’ll probably have to buy it because there’s a long waiting list at the library! The Newbery Honor books for 2009 are The Underneath by Kathi Appelt, The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle, Savvy by Ingrid Law, and After Tupac & D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson.

An extra side note: Neil Gaiman said himself that he does not consider The Graveyard Book to be a children’s book. He says it would be better for teenagers and older.

There is now a link to the ALA site for the Newbery Award on the side bar. The site lists all Newbery Award winners and honor books, and the site will link you to the Caldecott winners and other ALA awards.

2 comments:

L said...

I am really excited to read this.

Mandy said...

Me too! It sounds like it would be a very good read.