Every year, I’m interested in how the big children’s book awards sort out by publisher, but I usually don’t do the breakdown. This blog gives me a great excuse to do that, and I’m hoping some of you share my curiosity.
It was terrific—and rare—to see the two oldest awards, Newbery and Caldecott, to be swept by debut books! Reminds me of 2002, when I was at Vermont College for the awards announcements, and Linda Sue Park won the Newbery for A Single Shard and An Na won the Printz for A Step from Heaven. I jumped up and down and hollered, “The Koreans have taken the gold!” It was a pretty exciting, momentous occasion in American children’s book history, for two Korean-American authors to win top honors. I think 2011 marks the first time debut books have won both Newbery and Caldecott.
That was the main pattern that leapt out at me when the winners were announced. For a fun blog post featuring a lot more patterns, see Peter Sieruta’s post, Sleeping with the Newbery, on his addictive blog, Collecting Children’s Books. He gathers all kinds of fun facts toward the end, crunching numbers, highlighting repeat and three-peat winners, first-time award recipients, thoughts about the winning books’ collectible potential, and great little tidbits such as, “This year’s winner is the fourth Newbery title to have the word “moon” in its title, following last year’s Honor Book WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON, winner WALK TWO MOONS, and Honor Book SING DOWN THE MOON.” I have no idea how he had enough time to gather all of the tidbits he did, but I loved reading them.
And before I forget, don’t miss Kate Messner’s lovely blog post and poem, “What Happened to Your Book Today: A Poem for After the ALA Awards,” celebrating the children’s book authors and illustrators whose books didn’t win (although, as she notes, her words also apply to those who did). She’s right on the money, and (shh, don’t tell) I even lumped up in the throat when I got to the end.
Now, without further ado, let’s see how the publishers fared on Awards Monday. I’ll start with a summary, and then post the full list below (citations taken, with slight formatting edits, from the ALA press release):

• 12 for Random House
• 11 for the Macmillan Group (4 for Roaring Brook, 3 each for Henry Holt and Bloomsbury, 1 for St. Martin’s)
• 8 for Hachette / Little, Brown
• 5 or 6 for Penguin (see below)
• 5 for Simon & Schuster
• 4 each for Abrams, Candlewick, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• 3 or 4 for HarperCollins (see below)
• 3 each for Scholastic and Lee & Low
• 2 each for Brilliance Audio and Hyperion
• 1 each for Charlesbridge, Holiday House, Lerner, Llewellyn, Namelos, National Geographic, St. Martin’s, and Weston Woods (video publisher)

RANDOM HOUSE (12)
Newbery Medal: “Moon Over Manifest,” written by Clare Vanderpool and published by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
Newbery Honor: “Turtle in Paradise,” by Jennifer L. Holm and published by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
Printz Honor: “Please Ignore Vera Dietz,” by A.S. King and published by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc.;
Mildred L. Batchelder Award: “A Time of Miracles” (originally published in French in 2009 as “Le Temps des Miracles”), written by Anne-Laure Bondoux, translated by Y. Maudet, and published by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
Belpré Illustrator Honor: “Fiesta Babies,” illustrated by Amy Córdova, written by Carmen Tafolla and published by Tricycle Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award: “Almost Perfect,” written by Brian Katcher, published by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House.
Odyssey Award: “The True Meaning of Smekday,” produced by Listening Library, an imprint of Random House Audio Publishing Group. The book is written by Adam Rex and narrated by Bahni Turpin.
Odyssey Honor: “Alchemy and Meggy Swann,” produced by Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group, written by Karen Cushman and narrated by Katherine Kellgren.
Odyssey Honor: “Revolution,” produced by Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group, written by Jennifer Donnelly and narrated by Emily Janice Card and Emma Bering.
Alex Award: “The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep and Never Had To,” by DC Pierson, published by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
Alex Award: “The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel,” by Aimee Bender, published by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.
Alex Award: “The Vanishing of Katharina Linden: A Novel,” by Helen Grant, published by Delacorte, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
MACMILLAN GROUP (11)
MACMILLAN / ROARING BROOK (4)
Caldecott Medal: “A Sick Day for Amos McGee,” illustrated by Erin E. Stead. The book was written by Philip C. Stead, and is a Neal Porter Book, published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of the Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.
Printz Honor: “Revolver,” by Marcus Sedgwick and published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of the Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.
Belpré Author Honor: “90 Miles to Havana,” written by Enrique Flores-Galbis and published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of the Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group;
Sibert Honor: “Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring,” written by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, illustrated by Brian Floca, a Neal Porter Book, published by Flash Point, an imprint of Roaring Brook Press, a division of the Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group,
MACMILLAN / BLOOMSBURY / WALKER PUBLISHING (3)
Pura Belpré (Illustrator) Award: “Grandma’s Gift,” illustrated and written by Eric Velasquez. The book is published by Walker Publishing Company, Inc., a division of Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc.
William C. Morris Finalist: “Hush,” by Eishes Chayil and published by Walker Publishing Company, a division of Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc.;
William C. Morris Finalist: “Hush,” by Eishes Chayil and published by Walker Publishing Company, a division of Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc.;
MACMILLAN / HENRY HOLT (3)
Belpré Author Honor: “The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette’s Journey to Cuba,” written by Margarita Engle and published by Henry Holt and Company, LLC;
William C. Morris Finalist: “Hold Me Closer, Necromancer,” by Lish McBride and published by Henry Holt
Alex Award: “The Reapers Are the Angels: A Novel,” by Alden Bell, published by Holt Paperbacks, a division of Henry Holt and Company, LLC
ST. MARTIN’S (1)
Alex Award: “The Lock Artist,” by Steve Hamilton, published by Thomas Dunne Books for Minotaur Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press
HACHETTE / LITTLE, BROWN (8)
Caldecott Honor: “Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave,” illustrated by Bryan Collier, written by Laban Carrick Hill and published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Michael L. Printz Award: “Ship Breaker,” written by Paolo Bacigalupi, published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Coretta Scott King Author Honor: “Ninth Ward,” by Jewell Parker Rhodes and published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Award: “Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave,” illustrated by Bryan Collier, is the 2011 King Illustrator Book winner. The book was written by Laban Carrick Hill and published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Stonewall Honor: “Freaks and Revelations,” written by Davida Willis Hurwin and published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Seuss Geisel Honor: “Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same!” written and illustrated by Grace Lin and published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
William C. Morris Finalist: “Guardian of the Dead,” by Karen Healey and published by Little, Brown and Company/Hachette Book Group.
Alex Award: “Room: A Novel,” by Emma Donoghue, published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
PENGUIN (5 or 6, depending*)
Schneider Family Book Award: The teen (ages 13-18) award winner is “Five Flavors of Dumb,” written by Antony John and published by Dial Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Stonewall Honor: “will grayson, will grayson,” written by John Green and David Levithan and published by Dutton Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Stonewall Honor: “The Boy in the Dress,” written by David Walliams, illustrated by Quentin Blake and published by Penguin Young Readers Group.
Alex Award: “Girl in Translation,” by Jean Kwok, published by Riverhead Books, an imprint of the Penguin Group
Alex Award: “The House of Tomorrow,” by Peter Bognanni, published by Amy Einhorn Books, an imprint of G.P. Putnam’s Sons, a division of the Penguin Group
*The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award winner is Tomie dePaola, author and illustrator of over 200 books, including: “26 Fairmont Avenue” (Putnam, 1999). This is not strictly a Penguin book award, but since so many of Mr. dePaola’s books are published with Putnam, I counted this award among theirs.
SIMON & SCHUSTER (5)
Printz Honor: “Nothing,” by Janne Teller and published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division.
Schneider Family Book Award: “The Pirate of Kindergarten,” written by George Ella Lyon, illustrated by Lynne Avril and published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, wins the award for children ages 0 to 10.
Batchelder Honor: “Nothing,” published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, written by Janne Teller and translated by Martin Aitken.
Morris Finalist: “Crossing the Tracks,” by Barbara Stuber and published by Margaret K. McElderry Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division.
Alex Award: “The Radleys,” by Matt Haig, published by Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
ABRAMS (4)
Newbery Honor: “Heart of a Samurai,” written by Margi Preus and published by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS;
Belpré Illustrator Honor: “Me, Frida,” illustrated by David Diaz, written by Amy Novesky and published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS
Belpré Illustrator Honor: “Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin,” illustrated and written by Duncan Tonatiuh and published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS.
YALSA Award Winner for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults: “Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing,” written by Ann Angel. The book is published by Amulet/Abrams.
CANDLEWICK (4)
Caldecott Honor: “Interrupting Chicken,” written and illustrated by David Ezra Stein and published by Candlewick Press.
Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent (Author) Award: “Zora and Me,” written by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon, is the 2011 Steptoe author winner. The book is published by Candlewick Press.
Theodor Seuss Geisel Award: “Bink and Gollie,” written by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee and illustrated by Tony Fucile. The book is published by Candlewick Press.
YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist: “The Dark Game: True Spy Stories,” by Paul Janeczko and published by Candlewick Press.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT (4)
Newbery Honor: “Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night,” written by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen and published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt;
Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor: “Jimi Sounds Like a Rainbow: A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix,” illustrated by Javaka Steptoe, written by Gary Golio and published by Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Robert F. Sibert Medal: “Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot,” written by Sy Montgomery. The book features photographs by Nic Bishop and is published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist: “They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group,” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
HARPERCOLLINS (3 or 4, depending*)
Newbery Honor: “One Crazy Summer,” by Rita Williams-Garcia and published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award: “One Crazy Summer,” written by Rita Williams-Garcia. The book is published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Coretta Scott King Author Honor: “Lockdown,” by Walter Dean Myers and published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
* This next is not an award for a book, but for an author whose books are all published with HarperCollins. Margaret A. Edwards Award Winner: Sir Terry Pratchett.
LEE & LOW (3)
Coretta Scott King Author Honor: “Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty,” written by G. Neri, illustrated by Randy DuBurke and published by Lee & Low Books Inc.
Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent (Illustrator) Award: “Seeds of Change,” illustrated by Sonia Lynn Sadler. The book is written by Jen Cullerton Johnson and published by Lee & Low Books Inc.
Belpré Author Honor: “¡Olé! Flamenco,” written and illustrated by George Ancona and published by Lee & Low Books Inc.
SCHOLASTIC (3)
Printz Honor: “Stolen,” by Lucy Christopher and published by Chicken House, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.;
Schneider Family Book Award (ages 11-13): “After Ever After,” written by Jordan Sonnenblick and published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.
Pura Belpré (Author) Award: “The Dreamer,” written by Pam Muñoz Ryan. The book is illustrated by Peter Sís and published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.
BRILLIANCE AUDIO (2)
Odyssey Honor: “will grayson, will grayson,” produced by Brilliance Audio, written by John Green and David Levithan, and narrated by MacLeod Andrews and Nick Podehl.
Odyssey Honor: “The Knife of Never Letting Go,” produced by Candlewick on Brilliance Audio, an imprint of Brilliance Audio, written by Patrick Ness and narrated by Nick Podehl.
HYPERION (2)
Alex Award: “Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard,” by Liz Murray, published by Hyperion
Seuss Geisel Honor: “We Are in a Book!” written and illustrated by Mo Willems and published by Hyperion Books for Children, an imprint of Disney Book Group.
CHARLESBRIDGE (1)
YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist: “Every Bone Tells a Story: Hominin Discoveries, Deductions, and Debates” by Jill Rubalcaba and Peter Robertshaw and published by Charlesbridge.
HOLIDAY HOUSE (1)
Sibert Honor: “Lafayette and the American Revolution,” written by Russell Freedman and published by Holiday House.
LERNER (1)
William C. Morris Award: “The Freak Observer,” written by Blythe Woolston. The book is published by Carolrhoda Lab, an imprint of Carolrhoda Books, a division of Lerner Publishing Group.
LLEWELLYN (1)
Stonewall Honor: “Love Drugged,” written by James Klise and published by Flux, an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.
NAMELOS (1)
Batchelder Honor: “Departure Time,” published by Namelos, written by Truus Matti and translated by Nancy Forest-Flier.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC (1)
YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist: “Spies of Mississippi: The True Story of the Spy Network that Tried to Destroy the Civil Rights Movement,” by Rick Bowers and published by National Geographic Society;
WESTON WOODS (1)
Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in children’s video: Paul R. Gagne and Melissa Reilly Ellard of Weston Woods, producers of “The Curious Garden.” The video is based on the book of the same name, written and illustrated by Peter Brown, and is narrated by Katherine Kellgren, with music by David Mansfield.
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Congratulations to all of you! It’s nice to see smaller houses well represented along with the giants.
Even among so many award, there are gaps. I continue to hope for an award for picture book text, a designated award for poetry, and an award like the Batchelder, only for international books written in English.

I love the Monday in January when the ALA announces the winners of the Youth Media Awards. From about 11 a.m. on yesterday, our phone rang off the hook with collectors searching for first editions of the winners. I was at work and sadly, unable to keep up with the announcements as I got boxed out of the ALA’s live web stream. I resorted to Twitter and then finally, Elizabeth texted me the winners.
As fast as I could write the winning books down, people started calling me demanding answers: Do you have a first of The Freak Observer, winner of the Morris Award for debut young adult fiction? And I happily said, “Why yes, in fact we do.” I love it when we score a coup — not only did we have it, we’d featured it in our newsletter. (As an aside, the Association of Booksellers for Children picked this as one of our favorite debut novels of the year.) Two callers asked for the book, only if it was a first, and ours were, and then wanted to know what it was about.
When the Caldecott awards were announced the phone continued to ring. It’s funny to me that a lot of folks just couldn’t wait until all the awards were announced. They wanted to secure their firsts as soon as possible.  While we only had one first of the winner, A Sick Day for Amos McGee, we hit a home run with Dave the Potter. The author, Laban Carrick Hill, is a friend of ours and he lives two towns away, so we had a case of firsts. This made me happy all day as I continued to fill orders.  Not only did the book get a Caldecott Honor, it won a Coretta Scott King Award.
The Newbery award was a challenge, not just for us, but for all booksellers, if my collectors were any indication. I had three people calling in despair about Moon Over Manifest. One woman said she’d called bookstores in New York City, Connecticut and Los Angeles and not one store had it in stock. Judging by the conversations I’d had all day, this win was a bit of an upset. We scored again with One Crazy Summer for one collector, and I was heartened that we had Heart of a Samurai in, but only the second edition, which says to me we’ve been selling the book well; to collectors it means we’ve disappointed them. Dark Emperor was another one that came out of nowhere. I would have thought that one would have gotten a Caldecott. We only had one and that was thrilling for one customer, but had other collectors bummed.
I’ve sent off four packages today to our various collectors and have more going out tomorrow. It was really funny because one woman was so happy that we had four first editions that she was looking for and at the end of our transaction she said, “I have a question. What bookstore is this?” I told her she had called the Flying Pig and tried not to laugh.  She sheepishly told me that she’d been calling through a list and had forgotten who she had dialed in her frenzy to get her firsts.
Collectors fascinate me. I’ve never understood collecting for collecting’s sake. I like to have books that have meaning to me. Plus, let’s face it, I’m never going to sell a book from my personal collection, and until I get a house with a massive library there’s just no way I can collect every award winner, but I’m sure glad other people can.

Happy New Year, everyone! By the time you read this, the ALA awards will most likely have been announced, and we can’t wait to discuss them here on Tuesday. In the meantime, it’s great to be back in the blogging seat again, especially with such a fantastic book to talk about. We start the ShelfTalker year with a dark beauty called Chime.
When I was trying to decide which ARC to take with me on vacation, it wasn’t too difficult to choose. Ever since Franny Billingsley’s Chime arrived in the mail, it’s been crooking tentacles of intent at me. I had the pleasure of hearing Billingsley read a brief passage from Chime at a writing conference a year or two ago, and its freshness and strangeness took my breath away. I was also (still am) a huge fan of her extraordinary 1999 novel, The Folk Keeper, one of the most original, atmospheric, beautifully written fantasies I’ve read.
I don’t know that there’s a better creator of setting, mood, and atmosphere than Franny Billingsley. Both The Folk Keeper and Chime exist in alternate realms with their feet in two worlds: a realistic, rustic, everyday world and a darker world full of Old Ones and Folk and brownies and tricksters and powerful natural forces in complicated relationship to girls with secret, even sinister, powers. The stories are mysterious and powerful, with all the ingredients of a perfect potion: danger, romance, betrayal, revenge, surprise, humor, forces both light and dark.
The truth is, I have a crush on Billingsley’s writing. It’s restive and descriptive and wonderful. Her similes and metaphors are beautiful without being precious, the rhythm and flow of her words are unerring, and her characters’ individual quirks and manners of expression make me remember what writing really is, and make me want to articulate the way human minds weave their weird trains of thought, instead of … I guess instead of constructing a more ordinary and less true, less astonishing narrative.
I can’t resist sharing a couple of passages, a sampler for those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of reading these books.
From The Folk Keeper:

February 5

It’s not a feast day, and the Folk have made no mischief, but yet I write. My astonishment spills into this Record as I wait for the Great Lady to call me. It will soon be time to go.

I shall miss this Cellar, my very own Cellar. I press my hand to the stone, loving the way he moisture oozes to the surface. The Folk devoured the eggs and dried fish I left for them last night, and my last act for the Folk of the Rhysbridge Foundling Home will be to steal Matron’s breakfast sausage.

It feels odd to write of myself, not of the Folk. Odd to take the pages of this Record above ground, to yesterday, when I slipped out of the Cellar door and Matron grasped my collar. “You’ve kept us waiting!” She would have shaken me, but she was too afraid. I make sure of that.

And a passage from the ARC of Chime:

How could I have forgotten that the swamp simply seeps into existence? That it bleeds and weeps into existence?

The itch was gone—the itch of my scar, the itch of the swamp craving. How lovely to seep and bleed and weep into the swamp. It would take more than three years for me to forget. If I could love anything, I’d love the swamp.

Is this what a nun feels when she runs wild? Perhaps running wild needn’t mean dressing in satin and taking to cigarettes. It might mean running into the wild, into the real, into the ooze and muck and the clean, muddy smell of life.

A tidbit about Franny Billingsley I hadn’t known before writing this post: she was a children’s bookseller in Chicago for 12 years. One of the tribe! And she, like so many other children’s book writers, left the legal profession to pursue her real passion. Lucky us!
And now, dear readers, it is time for me to get back into the ooze and muck and the clean, muddy smell of bookselling again. What 2011 books are YOU loving?

While Elizabeth and I take a week off from blogging during our usual store vacation post-New Year’s, we wanted to point readers in the direction of four of our favorite blog posts that still merit comment. So, read and enjoy.
In looking back over the past year of blogging, some stand out to me. Elizabeth’s post, What You Wish They Knew, was among one of my favorites for its view of the bookselling world from many angles.
Another was my post about Young Adult Authors Against Bullying, not so much for this one post, but for all the great things Carrie Jones and Megan Kelley Hall have done since I posted this. These two women have generated a lively and necessary discussion about bullying, and an anthology about bullies and bullying called Dear Bully: 70 Authors Authors Tell Their Stories. Pretty powerful stuff, indeed.
The third blog that still resonates is How We Can Save the Picture Book. This post was a wee bit ahead of the New York Times article decrying the end of the picture book, and it still makes me mad that folks think this gorgeous, vitally important genre is at an end.
Another post I loved was Elizabeth’s The Season of Windblown Hair- Or the Zeitgeist of Book Covers, which shows how some of the book jackets this past year were shockingly similar.
I’d like to thank all of our readers over the past year for being so wonderful. Your comments have been insightful, thought-provoking, and humorous. Have a great week and we’ll be back to live blogging next week.