The American Library Association (ALA) announced the top books, video and audio books for children and young adults, including the Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Newbery and Printz awards at LibLearnX: The Library Learning Experience in Baltimore today.
A list of 2024 award winners follows:
Seventh-grader Wesley Wilder is thinking about a lot of things. For example, her Upper Skagit community and heritage, which she loves being part of as much as she can. Then, there's the school newspaper publishing her poem celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day. And wait, isn’t it weird that her English teacher at her new school doesn’t give her extra credit for the Indigenous Peoples’ Day poem, even though it satisfied all the requirements? And what’s going to happen with Wesley and her mom’s wonderfully unique living situation? Also, is her favorite gamer Indigenous, too?
I have been an avid audio book reader for a long time, but I have recently been exploring kid friendly titles to listen to with my own children as they grow up. How to Train Your Dragon is not a new title - it originally came out in 2004 - and I usually associate it with the animated movies and now apparently a series on Netflix? But holy cow, have I been missing out on the hilarity of these books for a long time! And maybe you have too! Rather than being 8 or the parent of an 8 year old in the early 2000's I was a moody high schooler.
There's a new cat in town! Peaches the bunny, Mango the calico and Pogi the puppy live in Pocketon and have a theory about the new cat, Taro. They think Taro is a magical cat! No matter how hard they try to get to know Taro, their attempts to become friends fail. It's as if Taro disappears into thin air! There's definitely something mysterious going on.
I'm always in the mood for that! Milk & Mocha are sweet bears in love whether times are good or bad. They find happiness in the little moments and even though they differ, they are perfectly compatible. Milk is peppy, affectionate and never stops talking. Mocha is quiet, patient and provides comfort and rejuvenation when Milk's battery gets low, so to speak. They find joy in holding hands, snuggling under a blanket and sharing meals together.
It's fun to see trends in what books are being published, and recently I've noticed a bunch of new and forthcoming children's books about and inspired by bookish people! Authors, illustrators, editors, and especially librarians.
Bookish people:
Good Books for Bad Children by Beth Kephart, illustrated by Chloe Bristol - A picture book biography of legendary children's book editor, Ursula Nordstrom.
Name-Calling
Eliana Elizabeth Montgomery-Hofstein
That's my name,
My bestie, Viv,
and my parents call me
Ellie or El.
But most people call me Splash
or some synonym for whale.
Cannonball into a pool,
drenching everyone,
and wear a whale swimsuit
to your Under the Sea birthday party
when you're a chubby kid
who grows up to be a fat tween
and no one will let you live it down.
Ever.
When Zimdalamashkermishkada starts at a new school, he feels anxious about introducing himself to new people with a long name and decides to shrink his name to "Zim." But between his new friend, Elly, seeing him for who he truly is and not giving up practicing skateboarding, he begins to gain confidence about himself and his full name.
This uplifting story will inspire young readers to celebrate their authentic selves and learn that it's okay to take up space.
Action, adventure, magic, mystery, plot twists, betrayal, redemption. Tell was only expecting to take his precious black glass, mined by his injured father, to the trading town of Halfway to get medicine and get back as quickly as he could. He didn’t count on his younger sister, Wren, sneaking along or the series of events embroiling them in a fierce wizard battle for control of Halfway. Tell and Wren make some strange alliances and some deadly foes. How the story resolves is anyone’s guess. The final page commands us to wait with a large “TO BE CONTINUED”.
I recently got a question from someone with a library mystery - a picture book they were looking for about a woman who bakes away her sadness. It was kind of dark, with a house on a hill... but they couldn't remember the title!
This didn't ring any bells for me, but we have a great team with lots of combined experience with children's books, so I put out a call to crowd source the title and one of my colleagues came up with the answer: Mrs. Biddlebox, which does indeed have a dark swirly cover and the title page features a house on a hill.
