The Places You Will Go

American Library Association announces youth media award winners | American Libraries Magazine

via americanlibrariesmagazine.org

Posted via email from daphnelee's posterous

Mon, 01/10/2011 - 11:45

SAN DIEGO - The American Library Association (ALA) today announced the top books, video and audiobooks for children and young adults – including the Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Newbery and Printz awards – at its Midwinter Meeting in San Diego.

R.I.P: Babe creator Dick King-Smith dies aged 88 | Books | guardian.co.uk

Children's author Dick King-Smith, whose much-loved tale The Sheep-Pig was adapted into the hit film Babe, has died at the age of 88, at home in his sleep.

After fighting in Italy with the Grenadier Guards in the second world war, King-Smith was a farmer for 20 years before turning to teaching and came to writing late in life. His first book, The Fox Busters, was published in 1978 when he was in his 50s. He went on to write more than 100 books, most of which drew on his knowledge of farms and animals because "I like them, I've always kept a lot of pets, and because it's fun putting words in their mouths". King-Smith called this genre of speaking-animal stories "farmyard fantasy" and often wrote about pigs, his favourite animals. One of his early popular books, Saddlebottom, featured a porcine hero, much scorned for the unusual white saddle-shaped patch on his bottom, who runs away on adventures with a cat.

Debut writer wins Costa award - Herald Scotland | News | Home News

Debut writer wins Costa award

Phil Miller, Arts Correspondent

 5 Jan 2011

 

Jason Wallace, 41, a web designer, has won the Costa Children’s Book Award for Out Of Shadows, set in newly-independent Zimbabwe under Robert  Mugabe.

By winning the category, he receives a cheque for £5000, but also a chance to win the overall Costa Book of the Year prize, worth £30,000, which will be announced on January 25.

The judges declared Wallace’s book to be an “extraordinary debut novel” and “unanimous winner”, saying: “This compelling portrayal of a nation in crisis gripped us from start to finish and has stayed with us since.”