2009 Caldecott & Newbery Awards

The American Booksellers Association announced this morning the Newbery and Caldecott Medal Awards for 2009:
 2009 Newbery Medal for most outstanding contribution to children’s literature:
Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book  (HarperCollins)

Newbery Honor Books:

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt (S&S/Atheneum)
The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle (Henry Holt)
Savvy by Ingrid Law (Dial/Walden Media)
After [...]

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Edith Wharton ~ January 24, 1862

Today is the birthday of Edith Wharton (1862-1937) in New York City.  Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1921 for The Age of Innocence, Wharton was the first woman to receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from Yale University and the Gold Medal of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

Some further reading: [with [...]

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Elizabeth Alexander’s Inaugural Poem

Praise song for the day
Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others’ eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, [...]

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Edgar Allan Poe ~ January 19, 1809

The Bicentennial of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe [1809-1849] is quite the celebration.  There are yearlong events in all of the cities that claim him as their “Favorite Son.”  The story of his life is as interesting and strange as most of his macabre tales.  Poe endures.
One of the more memorable moments in my life [...]

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Anne Bronte ~ January 17, 1820

Today we celebrate the birthday of Anne Bronte, January 17, 1820 - May 28,  1849, youngest of the Bronte sisters.  Author of the novels Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), published under the name of “Acton Bell;”  poems for the Gondal saga with Emily Bronte; and over twenty of her poems  published in [...]

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Jane Austen’s “Emma” for sale in Hong Kong

I direct you to my other blog, Jane Austen in Vermont, to read about the upcoming Hong Kong Book Fair:  Anne Sharp’s copy of “Emma”, signed by Jane Austen to her friend, lately sold at a Bonhams auction, and now for sale at the International Antiquarian Book Fair for HK $3.95 million.

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The Lake Champlain Quadricentennial

This year marks the quadricentennial [400th!] celebration of Samuel de Champlain’s “founding” and naming of the Lake that bears his name.  2009 will see many festivities and exhibits about Lake Champlain at area art galleries, theaters, museums, and libraries ~ indeed they started on New Year’s Eve at the First Night in Burlington Vermont! ~ for more [...]

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Round-up ~ All Things Books…

A few random tidbits for this week, all things books….
*article at Publisher’s Weekly summarizes the child safety act provisions regarding books, to include used books…
*Milne’s Pooh to have a sequel 80 years later.  See this article at BBC News
*A thoughtful essay on the value of books at the Bookshop Blog, i.e the value beyond the [...]

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Abebooks Most Expensive Top 10

Another list from Abebooks, this the listing of the most expensive sales in 2008:

Etudes à l’Eau-Forte by Francis Seymour Haden – $17,216
A collection of 25 etchings by Seymour Hayden – 24 of the plates depict the landscape around London, the Thames, Ireland and Wales and the final one is a portrait of Thomas Haden.  The text reproduces [...]

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Abebooks Top 10 for 2008

Abebooks.com has announced its Top Ten books sold in 2008:

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Dreams from My [...]

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