March 1: 2009 Hopkins Poetry Award winners announced
Penn State University Libraries and the Pennsylvania Center for the Book are pleased to announce the winner of the 2009 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award. This year's winner is Diamond Willow by Helen Frost, published by Frances Foster Books, an imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers. The award and a $1000 prize will be presented on May 1, 2009, at the Pennsylvania School Librarians' Association Conference in State College, Pennsylvania.
"A coming of age story beautifully crafted in diamond-shaped narrative verse," is what one of our judges called this book. Another described it as, "a beautifully crafted story of a young girl's search for acceptance, forgiveness, and hopefulness." Another gave it this high praise: "Frost's use of diamond shapes and bold-faced print to reveal Willow's thoughts on several levels is pure genius. This work of art has universal appeal and will be read for generations."
Established in 1993, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award is presented annually to an American poet or anthologist for the most outstanding new book of poetry for children published in the previous calendar year. Additionally, judges gave honor awards to Patricia C. McKissack for Stitchin' and Pullin' a Gee's Bend Quilt (Random House Children's Books), and to Margarita Engle for The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom (Henry Holt and Company).
This prestigious award is named for Lee Bennett Hopkins, the internationally renowned educator, poet, anthologist, and passionate advocate of poetry for young people. Selected by a panel of teachers, librarians, and scholars, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award was the first award of its kind in the United States. The Pennsylvania Center for the Book, the University Libraries, and Mr. Hopkins share joint administration of the annual award. The Pennsylvania School Librarians' Association was added as a co-sponsor in 2006.
The judges for this year's Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award are Chair Karla M. Schmit, education and behavioral sciences librarian, University Park, Pennsylvania; Jaime Adoff, young adult novelist and poet, Yellow Springs, Ohio ; Cheryl Fredenburg, past president, North Dakota Reading Association, Edgeley, North Dakota; Eileen Kern, school librarian, Kratzer Elementary, Parkland School District, Allentown, Pennsylvania; and Michael Leonard, instructor, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Dominican University, River Forest, Illinois.
For more information about the Hopkins Award, contact Steven Herb at 814.863.2141 or visit the web site: www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/activities/hopkins/index.html.
"A coming of age story beautifully crafted in diamond-shaped narrative verse," is what one of our judges called this book. Another described it as, "a beautifully crafted story of a young girl's search for acceptance, forgiveness, and hopefulness." Another gave it this high praise: "Frost's use of diamond shapes and bold-faced print to reveal Willow's thoughts on several levels is pure genius. This work of art has universal appeal and will be read for generations."
Established in 1993, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award is presented annually to an American poet or anthologist for the most outstanding new book of poetry for children published in the previous calendar year. Additionally, judges gave honor awards to Patricia C. McKissack for Stitchin' and Pullin' a Gee's Bend Quilt (Random House Children's Books), and to Margarita Engle for The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom (Henry Holt and Company).
This prestigious award is named for Lee Bennett Hopkins, the internationally renowned educator, poet, anthologist, and passionate advocate of poetry for young people. Selected by a panel of teachers, librarians, and scholars, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award was the first award of its kind in the United States. The Pennsylvania Center for the Book, the University Libraries, and Mr. Hopkins share joint administration of the annual award. The Pennsylvania School Librarians' Association was added as a co-sponsor in 2006.
The judges for this year's Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award are Chair Karla M. Schmit, education and behavioral sciences librarian, University Park, Pennsylvania; Jaime Adoff, young adult novelist and poet, Yellow Springs, Ohio ; Cheryl Fredenburg, past president, North Dakota Reading Association, Edgeley, North Dakota; Eileen Kern, school librarian, Kratzer Elementary, Parkland School District, Allentown, Pennsylvania; and Michael Leonard, instructor, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Dominican University, River Forest, Illinois.
For more information about the Hopkins Award, contact Steven Herb at 814.863.2141 or visit the web site: www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/activities/hopkins/index.html.
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