Award Winners

2008 Newbery Medal Winner

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies book cover imageThe 2008 Newbery Medal winner is Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz , published by Candlewick.

In “Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village,” thirteenth-century England springs to life using 21 dramatic individual narratives that introduce young inhabitants of village and manor; from Hugo, the lord's nephew, to Nelly, the sniggler. Schlitz's elegant monologues and dialogues draw back the curtain on the period, revealing character and relationships, hinting at stories untold. Explanatory interludes add information and round out this historical and theatrical presentation.

“Schlitz adds a new dimension to books for young readers - performance,” said Committee Chair Nina Lindsay. “Varied poetic forms and styles offer humor, pathos and true insight into the human condition. Each entry is superb in itself, and together the pieces create a pageant that transports readers to a different time and place.”

The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

 

2008 Caldecott Medal Winner

Hugo Cabret book cover image
The 2008 Caldecott Medal winner is The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic)

From an opening shot of the full moon setting over an awakening Paris in 1931, this tale casts a new light on the picture book form. Hugo is a young orphan secretly living in the walls of a train station where he labors to complete a mysterious invention left by his father. In a work of more than 500 pages, the suspenseful text and wordless double-page spreads narrate the tale in turns. Neither words nor pictures alone tell this story, which is filled with cinematic intrigue. Black & white pencil illustrations evoke the flickering images of the silent films to which the book pays homage.


2008 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecturer

David Macaulay

Batchelder Award

Delacorte Press, publisher of The Pull of the Ocean, by Jean-Claude Mourlevat

Batchelder Honor Books

Delacorte Press, publisher of The Killer's Tears, by Anne-Laure Bondoux

Hyperion/Miramax, publisher of The Last Dragon, by Silvana De Mari

Carnegie Medal

Mo Willems, author/illustrator, and Weston Woods Studios, producers of Knuffle Bunny

Geisel Award

Zelda and Ivy: The Runaways, by Laura McGee Kvasnosky

Geisel Honor Books

Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride, written by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Chris Van Dusen

Move Over, Rover!, written by Karen Beaumont and illustrated by Jane Dyer

Not a Box, by Antoinette Portis

Sibert Medal

Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon by Catherine Thimmesh

Sibert Honor Book

Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement by Ann Bausum

Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea, written by Sy Montgomery, photos by Nic Bishop

To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel, written by Siena Cherson Siegel, illustrated by Mark Siegel

Wilder Medal

James Marshall

 

PAST Newbery Winners

PAST Caldecott Winners