Showing posts with label Zolotow Award. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zolotow Award. Show all posts

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Celebrate!


Ruth Ayres has a link-up on weekends where people link to posts that are celebrations about their week. I love this reminder to celebrate every week and I appreciate the community we have through this link-up.

Our Zolotow Display at School

Last week I was celebrating the Zolotow Award. This week I am celebrating the same thing only I can also tell you which book won - A Different Pond by Bao Phi illustrated by Thi Bui. Here is the formal press release.


I'm happy to be celebrating this lovely book about an immigrant family. Bao Phi wrote this based on his childhood experiences. It's not strictly memoir, but it's a way he's honoring his parents and all they did to make a good life for their family in this country after leaving Vietnam.



To learn more, check out the resources at All the Wonders & listen to their podcast with the author.

Five honor books were named:

  • Niko Draws a Feeling by Bob Raczka, illustrated by Simone Shin
  • Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall
  • Buster and the Baby by Amy Hest
  • Baby Goes to Market by Atinuke, illustrated by Angela Brooksbank
  • Herbert's First Halloween by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Stephen Henry

In addition, there were eight Highly Commended titles:


This week was a stressful one if a person was watching the news, but the Zolotow Award announcement was a bright spot in the middle of it all. Have a great week.

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Celebrating the Charlotte Zolotow Award


Ruth Ayres has a link-up on weekends where people link to posts that are celebrations about their week. I love this reminder to celebrate every week and I appreciate the community we have through this link-up.

Me & Margarita Engle with her Zolotow Award

Two years ago, I went to the Charlotte Zolotow Award event and met Margarita Engle. She won the Zolotow award for her book Drum Dream Girl. The award ceremonies for the Zolotow are generally small affairs and are wonderful because we all hear from the author, but have some time to talk to the author individually also. 

That day, I had no idea that I would be serving on the committee within a few years, and I'm so glad to have had this experience. It was a huge task to read hundreds of picture books throughout 2017. The hardest part was narrowing it down to a small list. Today I celebrate the opportunity to be a part of the committee and having the time to spend with so many wonderful books.

The Zolotow Award is administered through the CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center) part of the school of education at UW Madison. The announcement of this year's award books will be made before the end of the month.

I learned so much through this experience and also got to talk about books with the committee members. Time spent reading and talking about picture books is always a gift.

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Celebrate!



Ruth Ayres has a link-up on weekends where people link to posts that are celebrations about their week. I love this reminder to celebrate every week.




This is a super busy weekend, so this will be a short post, but today, I am celebrating authors. I was able to see Margarita Engle receive the Charlotte Zolotow Award for Drum Dream Girl. She spoke a bit about how the book came to be and afterwards, I got to get my book signed. Very fun.

Miranda Paul and Kevin Henkes were also there because Water is Water and Waiting were also two of the highly commended titles. I love hearing from authors and getting to meet them too. It was also nice to chat with other book loving people. I even met a twitter friend for the first time too. That all makes for a happy day.