Birthday Books

My parents always get me books for my birthday, specifically some of the ALA award winners and honor books. The announcement for these awards comes in late January, perfect timing for my mid-February birthday. They started by getting me the Newbery and Caldecott winners each year, thinking they'd be fun for me to collect. Now they've expanded to picking out even more for me; we have a discussion about the books after the winners are announced, and they pay close attention to the ones that I sound most interested in and excited about. I never know exactly which ones they will choose, which makes it a lot of fun.

Last fall, my mom gave me this year's Newbery winner, Flora and Ulysses. I can't wait to read it with my kids (once we're done with this first Warriors cats series of six books)! Above, you can see the beautiful packages I picked up at our local bookstore; I think they look forward to the order as much as I do! Aren't they lovely? Okay, ready for the Big Reveal? And the winners are...

Knock Knock: My Dad's Dream for Me

by Daniel Beaty, illustrated by Bryan Collier

Winner of the Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award

Niño Wrestles the World

written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales

Winner of the Pura Belpré (Illustrator) Award

P.S. Be Eleven

by Rita Williams-Garcia

Winner of the Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

by Meg Medina

Winner of the Pura Belpré (Author) Award

Handbook for Dragon Slayers

by Merrie Haskell

Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award

Midwinterblood

by Marcus Sedgwick

Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award

And coming soon:

Locomotive

written and illustrated by Brian Floca

Winner of the Randolph Caldecott Medal