Good luck comes in threes, and IRA

This has been an unbelievable month. The Jane Addams Children's Book Awards were announced at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum and guess what?

Marching for Freedom won for older children.

Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan won for younger children. The award honors "children’s books of literary and artistic merit that invite children to think deeply about peace, social justice, world community, and gender and racial equality." I can't imagine a more meaningful award. My deepest thanks to the Jane Addams committee, and congratulations to all awardees -- Jeanette Winter, Andrea Davis Pinkney & Brian Pinkney, George Ella Lyon & Stephanie Anderson, Tanya Lee Stone.

I had a blast at the International Reading Association meeting. A dinner with some funny and yet serious authors and librarians at Gibson's Steakhouse. One of those evenings where we each got up to speak for a few minutes, and somehow we started riffing off each other. Illustrator Loren Long had me totally in stitches with his deadpan delivery. "My wife likes to say I color all day," was followed moments later by "The Pokey Little Puppy wasn't just my book, it was my friend." Love it!

The next morning I was on a panel "The Illustrated Teen" with a group of awesome people: Holly Black, Henry Neff, Stephen Emond and Scott Westerfeld, all of our eclectic words and images woven together by Susanna Richards. This photo of mine looks boring, but it was spectacular. Scott writes steam punk which is one of my favorite words right now. Stephen and Henry are both amazing illustrators. I have to admit being a little jealous when Holly and Scott showed off fan art. How totally cool is it to write stuff that opens people's imagination so much that they draw what they see?

Lisa Yee has a great blog post up about how totally fun IRA is,. I went over and stole... um... borrowed this great picture of me with Arthur Levine and the redoubtable Peepy getting a free ride in Arthur's name tag pouch.

But here's the real reason it all goes smoothly: crazy hard work by the publishing people. Check out Emily Heddleson on the phone, moving books, helping a customer and SMILING! My hat's off to you all.

LA Times Book festival continued

...interrupted by the dog arriving home skunked.
Now up early to fly to Chicago for the International Reading Association, but just wanted to touch on the highlights of the book festival.In one of those amazing moments of serendipity, I met Murray Fromson, who was a CBS reporter in Selma. If Murray and others like him hadn't been there covering the events, there would have been no national attention, and I don't believe we would have had a Voting Rights Bill passed by President Johnson. He was there to moderate a panel which is on C-Span's Video Library.Set the minute counter to 04:03:02.
I did a panel in the morning with the amazing Jonathan Hunt moderating. Deborah Heiligman and I were the two authors, and it was more like a fireside chat than a panel. Deb is a great storyteller and Jonathan has a way of asking just the right question, so we had a blast, much more fun than it looks like in this serious photo:

After the panel, it was the delight of the festival. Who says books are dead??
Heading out for the plane!

LA Times Book Prize Ceremony

Friday night we gathered upstairs, then traipsed into the auditorium for the LA Times Book Prize ceremony, lead by the Times book editor, David Ulin. We got nervous, winning authors were announced one by one, short speeches were given. Marching For Freedom won for Young Adult Literature. I stood up and spoke. In the middle of naming the wonderful Selmians, who as children and young adults marched and were jailed and beaten and did it all again the next day, I was so filled with gratitude and tears and absolute overwhelm that I had to stop, take a couple of deep breaths, and finish in a rush.

Cecil Castellucci gave the greatest intro to the Young Adult Prize. She's an awesome, energetic, smart woman, with a deep love of children's literature.

After all the awards were announced, we all traipsed off to another room, where we ate and laughed and decompressed.

Here I am with my publisher, Regina Hayes. Are you catching on to my evening's look? The Deer-in-the-Headlights Look? That's still how I feel.

In Honor of National Library Week

Checking out books at the Berkeley Public Library in California with my little sister, Meg. (Yes, that's me in the geeky-girl glasses. You can't tell in this black and white photo, but they are red.) And the librarian in the really cool glasses? Any Berkeley librarians know her name?

With thanks to librarians in cool glasses everywhere. Believe me, you've cheered me up, and given me info and made me laugh and brought whole new worlds to me, and you never even knew. So thank you, from me and millions of kids like me.

And the geeky glasses? They came in very handy. Still do.

Marching wins Battle of the Books!

Amazing -- in the final, Big Kahuna round, Marching won the Battle of the Books.

I am thrilled. And I want to give a great big shout-out to all the young adults who marched and sang and were jailed in the spring of 1965, and decades later told me in vivid detail about their experiences.

Joanne Blackmon Bland, Charles Bonner, Lynda Blackmon Lowery, Charles Mauldin and Bobby Simmons, I mean you.

And my thanks also to all the photographers who hung around for long church meetings, and stood in the tear gas and photographed, and bunked out at night on people's floors.

Matt Herron and Bruce Davidson, I mean you. And in memory of James Karales, Spider Martin, Charles Moore, and John F. Phillips.

Because what we got from all these brave people was public support for the Voting Rights Bill signed into law by President Johnson on August 6, 1965. One person, one vote. This is exactly what makes a strong democracy.

And exactly what makes me proud to be an American.

Battle of the Books final round

It's almost over.

Fast, furious, contested, cranky, and apologetic, the judges on Battle of the Books have almost all had their say. It's been a wonderful glimpse into the minds of how people pick one book over another to "win."

A few days ago, my book, Marching for Freedom, beat out Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan. Judge Walter Dean Myers put it this way.

Shannon Hale, who had judged Tales in an earlier round, had a completely different take on the book, and blogged about how her opinion was so different from Walter Dean Myers.

I've judged several award contests myself -- last year, I was a judge for the Battle of the Books (Chains vs. Washington at Valley Forge), and have also served on the LA Times Book Prize and National Book Award for Young Adults committees. I wonder if contests judged by authors are more subjective than those judged by librarians or book reviewers. American Library Association, for example, has very stringent guidelines for judges. From what I've heard about those quiet, well-behaved librarians picking winners (not that people are allowed to say much) there can be a lot of thumping on the table and shouting out the guidelines to defend choices and knock out others.

Thoughts, anyone? The bottom line for me is that contests create energy and excitement around books, and this is a good thing.

There's a new twist on this year's Battle, which is the Undead Poll. The Frog Scientist has made a run away Zombie comeback, and is up against Marching and The Lost Conspiracy.

Fascinating. Two illustrated nonfiction and one incredibly detailed fantasy novel. Results posted tomorrow- being judged by Katherine Paterson, this year's National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.

Christopher Paul Curtis is my hero.

Let me begin by saying I adore Richard Peck, almost as much as I adore Christopher Paul Curtis. But Marching for Freedom just beat out Peck's latest book, A Season of Gifts, in today's round of the Battle of the Books. I have to admit.... (sorry Mr. Peck) I'm thrilled!

In case you haven't been following the Battle, we're in Round Two. In Round One, Marching beat out Marcelo in the Real World. I love reading the judge's posts every day -- they are quirky and apologetic (after all, it is authors in the kid's world judging their peers) and give me new ways to look at some of the latest, most interesting, and oft-buzzed books of the last year.

I also raise my boxing-gloved fist in victory each time for non-fiction. We don't often make it this far! Deborah Heiligman and I are hoping we get put up against each other so we can take pictures of ourselves in the ring, ready to duke it out.... but first her book, Charles and Emma, has to win another round, and so does Marching.

Scroll through the posts following the judge's ruling for some interesting comments. What did you think of the honest post by Your Neighborhood Librarian?

"I spend some time scratching my head about how to get great nonfiction like Marching to Freedom into the hands of kids I know will enjoy it. Looking at these two books side by side it occurs to me that maybe format plays a part. Grownup trade nonfiction is published in the same format as novels – Glass Castle slots in next to Kite Runner and people tend to forget which book they’re reading ‘for fun’ and which is the nonfiction.

Maybe the wider flatter shape of books like Marching for Freedom and Truce and everything by Russell Freedman is what signals to kids ‘this is a book for school/work’. I don’t know. All I know is that Season of Gifts will be read til it falls apart on my shelves, and circ on Marching to Freedom will be a fraction of that, and I’ll still be scratching my head."