Neil Gaiman wins the Newbery
This will make Nancy's day. One of her literary heroes, master of imagination Neil Gaiman, has won the 2009 John Newbery Medal. (Here's her review of the book. I'm new to Gaiman, and am preparing to read American Gods, which Nancy loaned to me. Now she gets to say, "I told you so" -- which she seems to do about once a week.)
"I am so wonderfully befuddled," the best-selling author said Monday, according to AP, after winning the 88th annual Newbery for "The Graveyard Book," a spooky, but (he says) family friendly story about a boy raised by a vampire, a werewolf and a witch.
"I never really thought of myself as a Newbery winner. It's such a very establishment kind of award, in the right kind of way, with the world of librarians pointing at the book saying, `This is worthy of the ages.' And I'm so very used to working in, and enjoying working in, essentially the gutter."
The Newbery and other awards were announced by the American Library Association, currently meeting in Denver, AP said. Also Monday, the Randolph Caldecott Medal, given to the illustrator ...
of the best picture book, went to Beth Krommes for "The House in the Night," written by Susan Marie Swanson. The Coretta Scott King Award for best author was given to Kadir Nelson, for "We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball." The illustrator award went to Floyd Cooper for "The Blacker the Berry." The King prizes were founded 40 years ago to honor the works of black Americans.
Other winners included Melina Marchetta's "Jellicoe Road," given the Michael L. Printz Award for young adult literature, and two Pura Belpre awards for Latino writing — best author to Margarita Engle's "The Surrender Tree" and best illustrator to Yuyi Morales for "Just in Case."
Comments
AND he wrote the book and screenplay for Coraline, which opens Feb. 6.
Also, word on Twitter is that he'll be the Today Show guest tomorrow morning.
Posted by: Nancy | January 26, 2009 3:33 PM
Congrats to Mr. Gaiman. I have not read him yet but have heard good things about him
Posted by: Cheryl | January 26, 2009 9:09 PM
The Graveyard Book is at the top of my tbr pile right now, so I'll be diving into that next. I have very high expectations of it now!
Posted by: Belle @ MsBookish | January 27, 2009 12:19 AM
I've never read Gaiman, though I'm going to have to read American Gods soon, because a friend of mine was cleaning house and gave me her copy of Anansi Boys. I've heard such good things about him for ages; I'm glad that he's won some recognition for his children's work.
Posted by: Amy | January 27, 2009 10:01 AM
I'll have to add that to my Amazon list.
:Grumble: Why do you do this to me?
Here's my current read.
Posted by: Daniel | January 27, 2009 3:46 PM
A big congratulations to Neil Gaiman! Mr. Gaiman was a guest on NBC's Today Show along with the Enoch Pratt Free Library's Deborah Taylor and Randolph Caldecott Honor Book Winner Beth Krommes ("The House in the Night"). If you missed Tuesday's show visit todayshow.com or here's a link to the video:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/18424824#28873383
Enjoy!
Posted by: Roswell Encina | January 28, 2009 10:32 AM
For those of you that saw the movie, "Stardust," Neil Gaiman wrote that too. An amazing author - and the award is WELL-deserved.
Posted by: Lauretta Nagel | January 29, 2009 3:08 PM