ALA Awards Are Announced, and Milwaukee Turns Out to be a Big Winner. No, Not in Author Home Towns, but in Author Visits.

We knew we had a great year for children's book programming last year, but the reality didn't really set in until we got the list of awards and honorees announced at the American Library Associations mid-winter conference. Hannah sent a note about this to her educators' contact list, and I asked if I could forward her enthusiasm.

"With the ALA Awards just announced this week, I am so pumped and so proud for Milwaukee. Last year we hosted so many of the authors/ books they featured. Your students got to interact with incredible writers who are also now award winners"

"For the Newbery, we hosted Newbery honor winners Holly Black for Doll Bones, Amy Timberlake for One Came Home and Kevin Henkes for The Year of Billy Miller." (I should note that One Came Home was also picked by Jim Higgins as one of his favorite books of 2013, and was shortlisted for an Edgar award, no less.)

"For the Caldecott, we hosted the winner, Brian Floca for Locomotive and Caldecott honor winner David Wiesner for Mr. Wuffles"

"For the Printz, we hosted honor winner, Rainbow Rowell for Eleanor and Park."

"For the Stonewall, we hosted honor winner, Tim Federle for Better Nate than Ever who we are hosting again on Tuesday." (He'll be doing three school events and a cocktail reception at Art Bar for the Cream City Foundation, at 5:30 pm.)

"Kevin Henkes won a Geisel Honor for Penny and Her Marble."

We couldn't get these authors if we didn't have a good school outreach program in place, and I'm grateful to Hannah for taking it to the next level. If you're a school educator who thinks your school could do a great job hosting authors, along with the necessary book sales to keep it going, you should contact her.

In addition to our school and in-store events, several area libraries got to host these wonderful authors--congrats to Cudahy, St. Francis, Greenfield, and Oak Creek for hosting an honor-winning author last year.

And to all of you, next time we say that Brian Floca is really great, believe us!

Next week in the blog, I'm hoping to put together of our confirmed kids' events for this spring.