The Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association (ALA) took place this past weekend in Seattle. It was a great show, full of enthusiastic, excited and inspiring librarians, teacher-librarians and other book lovers. The last day of the ALA Midwinter Meeting kicked off with the announcement of the winners of several prestigious awards for children’s and young adult literature, including the Newbery and Caldecott awards. These awards are selected by judging committees of librarians and other children’s literature experts, and encourage original and creative work. We’re thrilled to be distributing several of these award-winning books in Canada.

Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet, written and illustrated by David McLimans and published by Walker, was named a Caldecott Honor Book, an award that recognizes the distinguished American picture books for children.

“Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet” is a black-and-white iconic alphabet that is sophisticated enough to intrigue and captivate readers of any age. A contemporary interpretation of an illuminated alphabet melds animals and letters into 26 unique and elegant graphic images.

-- from the ALA press release

Move Over, Rover!, written by Karen Beaumont, illustrated by Jane Dyer and published by Harcourt, was named a Geisel Honor Book, an award that recognizes distinguished beginning reader books.

Beaumont’s patterned cumulative text in “Move Over, Rover!” is expanded by Dyer’s watercolors containing context clues to tell the story of creatures from Squirrel to Skunk seeking shelter by squeezing into Rover’s doghouse.

-- from the ALA press release

Two Raincoast-distributed books received the Alex Award. Each year, 10 books receive this award to recognize them as the best adult books that appeal to teen audiences. This year The Whistling Season, written by Ivan Doig and published by Harcourt, and Eagle Blue: A Team, A Tribe, and A High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska, written by Michael D’Orso and published by Bloomsbury were among the 10 award-winning titles.

Congratulations to the authors, illustrators and publishing houses behind all the award-winning and nominated books!

For a full list of the ALA award-winning books, visit the ALA wesbite.