Caldecott and Newbery Awards 2013

It was time for, as one teacher friend put it, the Oscars for librarians this morning, with the webcast of the American Library Association Youth Media Awards live from the ALA Midwinter conference in Seattle, of all places!

The last few years I have put the webcast up on the TV (donated by our lovely PTA) and watched, whether there was a class in the library or not.  Today the 58 5th graders arrived for checkout partway through the webcast, but before the Caldecott and Newbery Awards were revealed.  It was a lot of fun to have some students standing around watching with me as the winners were announced.  At one point one of my 5th grade boys was oohing and aahing with every book announced just like me, as his teachers were laughing at us cheering in stereo.

For once in my librarian career, I had highly recommended the book that won the Newbery, The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate, as a read-aloud to several teachers who took me up on my suggestion.  At least three classes read it aloud at the beginning of the school year, and students loved it.  They learned all about Ivan and his life at the Tacoma shopping mall, then at the Atlanta Zoo.  We watched excerpts from National Geographic's special about urban gorillas, which showed how very small and concrete Ivan's enclosure was at the shopping mall.

I quote the first chapter to anyone who will listen.

I am Ivan.  I am a gorilla.  It's not as easy as it looks.

I am also a huge fan of Jon Klassen, the author and illustrator of This is Not My Hat, the 2013 Caldecott winner.  Last spring I read I Want My Hat Back to every 2nd-6th grade class, and laughed out loud every time myself.  It was a fabulous text for inference, and the reaction of each class to the end of the book was priceless to watch and listen to.  I highly recommend reading his books to intermediate classes for the reactions alone.

Congratulations to all the winners of the Youth Media Awards, I look forward to reading and sharing all of the titles with my students!