2000 Caldecott/Newbery Winners

And The Winners Are...

The American Library Association has announced its 2000 awards, honoring the best of the best published in 1999. And we've got them all for you right here! Check out our reviews of the top books as well as our interview with Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award winner, Christopher Paul Curtis. Curtis won both of these awards for his novel BUD, NOT BUDDY, a tale of an orphaned boy on a mission to find his father. A spiffy picture book called JOSEPH HAD A LITTLE OVERCOAT, about a man who makes the best of any situation, won the Caldecott Medal, which means the ALA considers it the best-illustrated book of the year. Read on (and click around) to see the honor books (runners-up) named in the Newbery and Caldecott categories, as well as the winners and honor titles for the Coretta Scott King Award.  

In addition, January 2000 marks the first time that the Michael L. Printz Award was presented for "Excellence in Young Adult Literature." We will feature the winning and honor titles on our sister site, the Bookbag on AOL/teenreads.com.

A Little Background...

Since 1921, the American Library Association has carefully examined children's books published within a single calendar year in search of the best of the best. Each year, they select one book of exceptional literary merit published in the previous year  to receive the John Newbery Medal (one or more runners up may be named Newbery Honor Books). And each year, one book published in the previous year and featuring truly superior illustrations is awarded the Randolph Caldecott Medal (one or more other titles may also be named Caldecott Honor titles).


Only books published in the United States are eligible. And though the names and works of contenders are hotly debated each year, no one really knows who will win, apart from committee members sworn to secrecy, until the announcement is made at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in January.    

------- Shannon Maughan

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