May
- June 2004
by Connie C. Epstein
The Children’s Book Committee at Bank Street College of Education in Manhattan announced its 2003 children’s book awards at a breakfast gathering of 150 educators, publishers, writers, and illustrators on March 18, 2004. This year four prizes were presented with Karla Kuskin receiving a first-time Lifetime Achievement Award certificate for Moon, Have You Met My Mother?, which brings together the body of her work with some new poems as well. The other three prizes of $500 each with certificates were: the Josette Frank Award for fiction to The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, the Flora Stieglitz Straus Award for nonfiction to Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine, and the Claudia Lewis Poetry Award divided between The Way a Door Closes by Hope Anita Smith, illustrated by Shane W.Evans, and Yesterday I Had the Blues by Jeron Ashford Frame, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie.
First of the winners on hand to accept her honor in person was Shannon Hale, whose baby Max, also serenely on hand,was born the previous September, the same month The Goose Girl was published. Another coincidence, she reported, was that the software she used to learn to write on the family Apple computer was the Bank Street Writer, eventually leading her to this original adventure based on the Grimm’s fairy tale. Next Abby Levine, Editor with Albert Whitman, stepped in for her author Karen Levin (no relation), who was leaving on a trip to bring Hana’s Suitcase to Germany and England. Already published in Japan, where it has sold 100,000 copies, this account of the work a Japanese educator did to piece together the short life story of a Holocaust victim will soon be published in 26 countries.
Before Hope Smith spoke about how she came to write The Way a Door Closes, Christy Ottaviano of Holt read the remarks sent by illustrator Shane Evans congratulating the author. Then Smith talked about her choice of a boy’s point of view for her collection of poems about the divorce of a child’s parents. The need was to separate herself from her own father’s departure, in order to be able to change the story into one that shows a father coming home and being able to right a mistake. Gregory Christie, illustrator of the second Lewis winner Yesterday I Had the Blues, also sent a written response to the honor, which was read by Children’s Book Committee chair Alice Belgray. His vision for the book, he explained, was to balance realistic detail with the use of colors to represent emotions, ending with the salute to the “kind of family that makes you feel all golden.” Author Jeron Frame then followed, saying that though the idea for the book came to her in the rhythm of the blues, she didn’t realize her intertwining of color, mood, and movement would be considered poetry until after it was finished.
In conclusion, both illustrator Sergio Ruzzier, who came to the U.S. only ten years ago from Italy, and author Karla Kuskin spoke about their work on Moon, Have You Met My Mother? Though she had broken her foot just two days earlier and needed crutches to walk, Kuskin still was able to come to the podium to express her appreciation. She did so with a new poem, written for the occasion, ending with the words “standing anew in my brand-new Velcro shoe.”
Again the committee publication “The Best Children’s Books of the Year,” including 600 titles from the year 2003, was presented as part of the program. Priced at $8, it may be ordered from: The Children’s Book Committee at Bank Street College, 610 West 112th Street, New York, NY 10025; 212-875-4540.
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