Yesterday, the American Library Association ended the first virtual ALA Annual (held from June 24-26) with what executive director Tracie Hall called the "first ever ALA book awards celebration." In a video posted to the ALA YouTube channel, Hall went on to say that "over the next 11 hours, various divisions of ALA will highlight winning authors, illustrators and media producers who won awards." The chat box to the right of the screen allowed viewers to interact with each other and respond to the speeches in real time.
Coretta Scott King Awards
The celebration kicked off at 10 a.m. Eastern with speeches by the Coretta Scott King Award winners and honorees. Before every ceremony, a message appeared on screen: "Please note that many of today's videos were recorded prior to the killing of George Floyd. ALA stands with those who condemn violence, racism and bigotry towards Black, Indigenous and People of Color. Black Lives Matter."
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| CSK Illustrator winner Kadir Nelson with his Caldecott Medal (see below). | |
Kadir Nelson, though, the CSK Illustrator Award winner for The Undefeated (written by Kwame Alexander; Versify/HMH), spoke to current events. "As we consider the present moment, I feel more than ever that no time is better suited for using our creativity to make something beautiful and share it with the world." He continued, "As far back as we can remember, great artists and authors have inspired us to take an honest look at ourselves and... have encouraged empathy, understanding and hope for the path forward. When I consider their contributions... I am inspired to continue... creating works of art." Nelson finished, "We as a people have faced the unspeakable, survived the unmentionable and triumphed over the unfathomable. As a global community, as a country, as a people, we must remember where we've come from and be grateful for all those who faced down adversity and lifted us up so that we may see the light of tomorrow."
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| Kyle Lukoff (photo: Charles Ludeke) |
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Children's and Young Adult Literature Stonewall Book Award winner Kyle Lukoff continued Nelson's theme in his speech for When Aidan Became a Brother, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita (Lee & Low). After the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando in 2016, Lukoff said, he remembers thinking, "the enormity of queer loss required a constant output of queer joy, queer love, queer lives if we ever were going to tip the balance in our favor." He went on to say that, while the current moment is a brutal one, "The world has fallen apart many times before and gotten put back together in many ways. In fact, the world was always falling apart and always being put back together.... We can decide what comes next."
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| A.S. King (Krista Schumow Photography) |
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Printz Awards
During the Youth Adult Library Services Association's Michael L. Printz ceremony, A.S. King, now the second woman to win both a Printz Honor and Printz Award, spoke with passionate honesty. Her Printz Award-winning book, Dig (Dutton), is a depiction of how the privilege and unconscious bias of one generation affect the lives of the next. "To some of you listening, this might sound downright political or provocative. And that's because the victors set it up that way," King said. "Of course, we know the white supremacy of America is a machine. It will continue to run the way it's always run because it serves... white people. The very people who invented it. And when we look now, outraged, at our country's divisive f*ckery... we need to remember it was us who started it. By buying humans and killing humans." White people, she said, must deal with and take responsibility for their own discomfort, pain, frustration: "You didn't make the white supremacy we live in. You are only its willing caretaker. You may resign at any time. In order to grow you must face uncomfortable things.... You must, in short, feel bad. Feeling bad leads to great things. Feeling bad leads to atonement and apology. Feeling bad leads to truth."
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Caldecott honorees (clockwise) Rudy Gutierrez, LeUyen Pham, Caldecott chair Julie Roach and Daniel Minter |
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Newbery-Caldecott-Legacy
The final video of the day was the 2020 Newbery-Caldecott-Legacy banquet, a dinner event traditionally held on the last night of ALA. The chair of the Caldecott committee, Julie Roach, toasted and had a brief conversation with the Caldecott honorees, Rudy Gutierrez (Double Bass Blues, written by Andrea J. Loney; Knopf), LeUyen Pham (Bear Came Along, written by Richard T. Morris; Little, Brown) and Daniel Minter (Going Down Home with Daddy, written by Kelly Starling Lyons; Peachtree), before Kadir Nelson, the medalist winner, gave his speech. After Nelson's second speech of the day, Krishna Grady, chair of the John Newbery Committee, raised a toast to and spoke with the Newbery honorees, Alicia D. Williams (Genesis Begins Again, Caitlin Dlouhy/Atheneum), Jasmine Warga (Other Words for Home, Balzer + Bray), Christian McKay Heidicker (Scary Stories for Young Foxes, Holt) and Kwame Alexander (The Undefeated, illus. by Kadir Nelson; Versify/HMH), as well as Newbery Medal winner Jerry Craft (New Kid, Quill Tree/Harper).
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| Jerry Craft (photo: Hollis King) |
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Craft's Newbery speech followed a similar path to his CSK Author Award speech earlier in the day, discussing how he was not a reader as a child, how he hadn't seen himself in books, and how it wasn't until he was an adult that he began reading as a form of entertainment. "I was never exposed to mirrors in literature," Craft said, "Only runaway slaves, tormented kids of the civil rights era and victims of gang violence or police brutality.... I felt like the mirrors were often broken to the point that they became dangerous shards of glass that sliced into the comfort and naivety of my childhood." He wanted to create books for children, he said, that would allow them to have experiences he never had. "With New Kid, I wrote the book that I wish I had as a kid. I wrote the book that I wish I could have fond memories of today.... I wrote the book I wish I had been able to give to my sons and watch them carry around proudly."
Kevin Henkes, the winner of the Children's Literature Legacy Award, which honors an author or illustrator whose books have made a significant and lasting contribution to children's literature, was the final speaker of the day. Before his speech, which eloquently spoke to his lifelong love of books, these words appeared on the screen: "I wrote the speech you're about to hear in January. I amended it in April to acknowledge the global pandemic. And now, in June, I am adding the following statement: I hope that the worldwide recognition of systemic racism brings about long-needed change. I hope justice is served."
Readers can find all of the speeches on ALA's YouTube channel and read more on social media through #TheBookAwardCelebration. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor