Newbery and Caldecott Medalists: Rebecca Stead and Jerry Pinkney

Our dedicated children's books correspondent Lisa Von Drasek sends word from Boston on the Newbery, Caldecott and other annual awards in children's literature from the American Library Association. The John Newbery Medal for most outstanding contribution to children’s literature goes to Rebecca Stead for When You Reach Me, while the Randolph Caldecott Medal for most distinguished American picture book for children goes to The Lion & the Mouse, illustrated and written by Jerry Pinkney.

 

Lisa praised The Lion & the Mouse, in back in August, writing that its "purely visual storytelling" allows for a universal appreciation of Aesop's enduring fable.

 

The ALA has a full rundown of the winners and other honorees, here.

 

-BILL TIPPER

May 23: Girolamo Savonarola was hanged on this day in 1498 and then incinerated in the same piazza in which the citizens of Florence had earlier attended more than one "bonfire of the vanities." George Eliot's 1863 novel Romola,

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