The Tale of Despereaux

Our book club selection for the month of April is a wonderful book by author Kate DiCamillo entitled, "The Tale of Despereaux." This book won the prestigious Newbery Award in 2004. It is a wonderful tale about a mouse named Despereaux Tilling, who is not like any mouse you've ever known. He is in love with music, stories, and a princess named Pea. It is also the story of a rat called Roscuro and a slow-witted serving girl named Miggery Sow. These three characters embark on a fantastic journey. I know you're going to love this book!

Just an explanation about the name "Despereaux" -- it is pronounced like this: Des-per-row. I often hear kids mispronounce this title because of the unusual spelling.

Have fun reading this month and I'll see you at our next book club meeting on Thursday, April, at 7 p.m.

The Newbery and Caldecott Awards!

Each year, the American Library Association announces two important awards: The Newbery Medal and the Caldecott Medal. The Newbery is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The Caldecott is given to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. It is a great honor for an author/book to win a Newbery or Caldecott.

The winners were announced on Jan. 15. They were:

Newbery Winner:

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz

Newbery Honor Books:

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson

Caldecott Winner:

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Caldecott Honor Books:

Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad by illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Ellen Levine

First the Egg, written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, written and illustrated by Peter Sís

Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity, written and illustrated Mo Willems

These books are sure to be wonderful to read! If you have read one of these books, post a comment and let us know what you thought of it!

Elaine Lobl Konigsburg, Author Extraordinaire

Personal Information:
E.L. Konisburg was born February 10, 1930, in New York City. She spent her childhood in growing up in the small mill towns of Pennsylvania. Her family was poor but she really wanted to attend college, so she devised a plan to combine part-time jobs, scholarships, and work-study opportunities to pay for school. She attended Carnegie Mellon University where she earned a B.S. in Chemistry. She then married David Konigsburg in 1952 and together they moved to Florida, where she taught science for several years in an all-girls school. Konigsburg left teaching when the first of her three children was born and she became a full time mother. In 1962, the family moved to New York City and, with all her children in school, Konigsburg began her writing career. She says that she read all her work to her children first. If they liked it, she would continue. But if they didn’t find it interesting, she would revise and rewrite. She is now 77 years old and lives on the beach in North Florida. She continues to write and publish.

Books:
Her first two books were published in 1967 and were a phenomenal success. The first, Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, was a Newbery Honor Book. Her second book, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, won the Newbery Medal the same year! Konigsburg is the only author to have two books on the Newbury list in the same year (1968). She also drew the illustrations for these books. Kongisburg won a second Newbery Medal in 1997 for The View From Saturday, 29 years later, the longest span between any two Newberys awarded to one author. She has published more than 20 books for children and 2 books for adults and won numerous other awards. Her most recent book was just published in 2007 and is titled, The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World.