Seriously?
Kadir Nelson, for that blindingly spectacular book, We Are the Ship did not receive the Caldecott?
The Coretta Scott King honors for writing and illustration? Awesome.
The Silbert Medal — way, way cool.
But seriously? No Caldecott?
Once again I really wonder if they work out these awards in tandem, as in “oh, he’s already got one of those. Give it to someone else.”
If so…
I thought the exact same thing. I don’t want to hear about how the pictures weren’t directly related to the text or whatever – this was THE illustrated book for kids that everyone has been talking about. It is head and shoulders above everything else published last year (and there were some lovely books put out there).
I think there needs to be a Printz NF award for teens. The Sibert award just doesn’t seem to get nearly the attention that the big three get and NF for MG and YA readers is very important.
I’m still picking my jaw up off the floor. Kadir Nelson was robbed. But then again, maybe the Caldecott is like the Oscars, and they’ll give it to him when he illustrates GHOST. I don’t try to understand the whyfores of awards in books or movies. I’m grateful We Are The Ship was made, and now I’m going to buy multiple copies to show my support!
It’s really too bad…which is why I’m glad we bloggers have all been singing his praises for ages!
Hah! GHOST.
*snicker*
You’re absolutely correct — the opportunity to simply buy up more copies of the book and give it away as gifts is really all that the shiny gold sticker means.
The workings of award committees are a thing of mystery and I can say that having been a Cybils judge.
I asked a friend who had served on the Texas Bluebonnet committee if there were guidelines outlining required genres that had to be on the list each year.
Every year there is one picture book poetry book, one bilingual book, one nonfiction picture book and one novel that pushes the upper age limit of the targeted age range.
She assured me that there were not any criteria that required any specific genres. But that year (and in all subsequent years) there was one picture book poetry book and one bilingual book and one nonfiction picture book and one novel that pushes the upper age limit of the targeted readers.
I love the TX Bluebonnet Program because they offer such a terrific list every year but there HAS to be a mindset at work for the genres to be so uniform, year after year.
Did you watch the live webcast? It was fun to hear how people reacted every time this book was mentioned; it’s clearly much-beloved. That will be what endures in the long run.
Okay, I have to go out and buy this book, thanks.