The Jane Addams Peace Association and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom are pleased to announce that the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award 56th Annual Award Ceremony will be held on Friday, October 16th at 2:30 PM at the 777 United Nations Plaza (2nd Floor) in New York City, NY. This event is free and open to all. Reservations are not needed.

Join us for a memorable afternoon of award presentation and responses by authors and illustrators. Come meet and talk with the honored guests, including Award winner Margarita Engle and honorees Anne Laurel Carter, Lucia Gonzalez, Lulu Delacre, Scott Reynolds Nelson, and Marc Aronson. Enjoy a reception and an opportunity for book signing after formal presentation of the awards. All the award books will be available for purchase.

The Award Winners:

Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai written and illustrated by Claire A. Nivola is the winner in the Books for Younger Children Category.

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle is the winner in the Books for Older Children Category.

The Honor Books:

Books for Younger Children:

The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos written by Lucía González and illustrated by Lulu Delacre

Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad written and illustrated by James Rumford

Books for Older Children:

The Shepherd’s Granddaughter by Anne Laurel Carter

Ain’t Nothing But a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry by Scott Reynolds Nelson with Marc Aronson

For additional information about the Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards and a complete list of books honored since 1953, click here.

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with award-winning author Margarita Engle at the annual meeting of ANCA, the Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature, located in Fresno, California.

On Friday, September 25, following a reception at 6:00 p.m., Margarita will deliver her presentation “Finding the Poetry in History”. ANCA president Denise Sciandra will then introduce a presentation of Jane Addams Award-winning books by community activist Ellie Bluestein. There is no admission charge for this event but you must make a reservation so click here for details.

Margarita is the Cuban-American author of three novels, written in free verse, for young people:

* The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano, which won the Pura Belpré Award, the Americas Award, and many other national awards;

* The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom, about a freed slave who treated the wounded from both sides in Cuba’s 19th-century struggle for independence; winner of the Pura Belpré Award, the Americas Award and the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and a 2009 Newbery Honor book;

* Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba, published in April 2009, and already winning rave reviews.

Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards are given annually to children’s books published the preceding year that effectively promote the cause of peace, social justice, world community, and the equality of the sexes and all races, as well as meeting conventional standards for excellence. Margarita’s book The Surrender Tree won this year’s award in the Books for Older Children category.

Press Release
The Américas Award is given in recognition of U.S. works of fiction, poetry, folklore, or selected non-fiction (from picture books to works for young adults) published in the previous year in English or Spanish that authentically and engagingly portray Latin America, the Caribbean, or Latinos in the United States. By combining both and linking the Americas, the award reaches beyond geographic borders, as well as multicultural-international boundaries, focusing instead upon cultural heritages within the hemisphere.The award is sponsored by the national Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP).

The award winners and commended titles are selected for their 1) distinctive literary quality; 2) cultural contextualization; 3) exceptional integration of text, illustration and design; and 4) potential for classroom use. The winning books will be honored at a ceremony (fall 2009) during Hispanic Heritage Month at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

2009 Américas Award Winners:

Just in Case: A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book by Yuyi Morales. Roaring Brook Press (A Neal Porter Book), 2008.

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle. Holt, 2008.

2009 Américas Award Honorable Mentions:

The Best Gift of All:The Legend of La Vieja Belén / El Mejor Regalo del Mundo:La Leyenda de la Vieja Belén by Julia Alvarez. Illustrated by Ruddy Nuñez. Alfaguara/Santillana, 2008.

Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos.Atheneum, 2008.

The Storyteller’s Candle / La velita de los cuentos by Lucia Gonzalez. Illustrated by Lulu Delacre. Children’s Book Press, 2008.

For additional information including a list of the 2009 Américas Award Commended Titles winners click here.

Press Release

Winners of the 2009 Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards were announced today by the Jane Addams Peace Association. Books commended by the Award address themes or topics that engage children in thinking about peace, justice, world community, and/or equality of the sexes and all races. The books also must meet conventional standards of literary and artistic excellence.

Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai, written and illustrated by Claire A. Nivola, Frances Foster Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, is the winner in the “Books for Younger Children” category.

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle, published by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, is the winner in the “Books for Older Children” category.

Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai profiles the first woman from Africa to win the Nobel Peace Prize (2004) (more…)