The library Oscars

Tomorrow I fly to Boston for the Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association. About 10,000 librarians will be there, working on a huge variety of projects. The most well-known outcome of the meeting is the press conference on Monday morning at which the winners of various children's book awards are announced. The most well-known of those are the Caldecott Medal and the Newbery Medal. This is an intense selection process for those who are involved. The members of the two committees receive books from publishers throughout the year. They share nominations with one another, then at the Midwinter Meeting meet for hours upon hours making their deliberations. (I'm tempted to say "Picture a smoke-filled room populated by sweaty people with their sleeves rolled up, cartons of leftover food strewn around, piles of paper everywhere, and a lot of raw nerves in evidence. Actually, it's probably all true except for the smoke-filled part).

What many people don't realize is that there are a number of other notable book awards given out at this time as well. There's the Batchelder Award, given for an outstanding children's book published in a foreign language and translated into English. And the Belpre Medal, given for outstanding children's literature and illustration that celebrates the Latino/a cultural experience. And the Carnegie Medal, given for excellence in children's video. And the Printz Award, given for excellence in young adult literature. And the Sibert Award, given to the author of the most distinguished informational (nonfiction) book for children. And believe it or not, there are more besides these I've mentioned.

The press conference for the children's book awards will be Monday morning from 8:15 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. So starting around 8:30 Central time, you'll be able to see winners' names posted to the ALA website. And for real devotees, the next morning some of the winners will appear on the Today Show.