The Editing Life: On Children's Books--Award Winners

On Monday, ALA announced the winners of the most prestigious awards in children's books. It's an announcement children's publishing people anticipate all year long. There's a lot of pomp and circumstance and general good cheer. Authors whose names have been bandied about as potential winners don't often sleep the night before wondering if their phone will ring at some ungodly hour--The Call. Their publishers would have contributed to this restless night before THE announcements by asking to confirm their telephone numbers.

Getting THE call that you have won an ALA award can be life-changing for many authors and put them in a different bracket of author than they had been in previously. Suffice it to say, ALA Awards are a big freakin' deal. For the editors and agents and publishers, it's also a validation of tastes and all the work that goes into a book before it appears on a shelf. It's a time we get to pat ourselves on the back and sigh with relief that someone noticed all our toiling away. Yes, awards are nice.

For me as an editor, especially this year, it was also an opportunity to hear about many wonderful books I had not previously heard about or gotten a chance to check out because my head was always buried in a manuscript. The morning of these award announcements is a great time to raise my head and look around. And while many great books I'd heard of and read were recognized, there were many others I had been hearing about for the very first time. This is what's great about these awards. Even when busy editors aren't paying attention, you can bet busy librarians are. So of the award winners, those I'm most eager to check out that are new to me are: