Last week the annual awards for children’s books were announced at Midwinter ALA.
The Newbery Winner, Lynne Rae Perkins, is from Sutton’s Bay, MI.
Criss Cross (Greenwillow Books) follows the lives of four 14-year-olds in a small town, each at their own crossroads. This ensemble cast explores new thoughts and feelings in their quest to find the meaning of life and love. Find it in the Young Adult books.
“Writing in a wry, omniscient third-person narrative voice, Perkins deftly captures the tentativeness and incompleteness of adolescence,” said Award Committee Chair Barbara Barstow. “In 38 brief chapters, this poetic, postmodern novel experiments with a variety of styles: haiku, song lyrics, question-and-answer dialogue and split-screen scenarios. With seeming yet deliberate randomness, Perkins writes an orderly, innovative, and risk-taking book in which nothing happens and everything happens.”

The Caldecott Medal winner is The Hello, Goodbye Window illustrated by Chris Raschka and written by Norton Juster (Michael di Capua Books, an imprint of Hyperion Books for Children). Find it in the library in the JUV collection. In this sunny portrait of familial love, a little girl tells us about her everyday experiences visiting her grandparents’ house. Raschka’s style resembles the spontaneous drawings of children, perfectly mirroring the guileless young narrator’s exuberant voice. White space balances the density of the layered colors, creating a visual experience that is surprisingly sophisticated.
With a few energetic lines, Raschka suggests a world filled with affection and humor,” said Award Committee Chair Gratia Banta. “The richly textured tones of these expressive illustrations convey the emotional warmth of the intergenerational connection.”

Several additional book awards were also announced. See the ALA homepage for the winners. www.ala.org

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient…
Article 2, Section 3. of the Constitution of the United States

Tuesday night President Bush delivered his sixth State of the Union Address. This year’s State of the Union can easily be found on the White House web site and Bush’s previous Addresses can also be found on the web site with just a little digging, but where do you go if you want previous presidents’ State of the Union Addresses?

Many State of the Union Addresses going back to the Johnson Administration can be found by performing a title search for “state of the union” in the University Libraries catalog. Earlier Addresses can be found in State of the Union messages of the Presidents, 1790-1966.

A final place to look for State of the Union Addresses and other presidential speeches is the Public Papers of the President. These volumes, which cover the Hoover Administration though the current Bush Administration, can be found in the University Libraries and also online in collections developed by the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Michigan. It should be noted that FDR’s papers were privately published under a different title (The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt), but can still be found in the University Libraries and in both the UCSB and U-M online collections.