Press Release Fun: 2009 Golden Kite Award Winners!

The Golden Kite Award is the only award presented to children’s book authors and artists by their peers.

Golden Kite Award Winners:

Fiction:
DOWN SAND MOUNTAIN
by Steve Watkins
Candlewick Press

Nonfiction:
A LIFE IN THE WILD: GEORGE SCHALLER’S STRUGGLE TO SAVE THE LAST GREAT BEASTS
by Pamela S. Turner
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Picture Book Text:
A VISITOR FOR BEAR
by Bonny Becker, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton
Candlewick Press

Picture Book Illustration:
LAST NIGHT
Illustrated and written by Hyewon Yum
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Golden Kite Honor Recipients:

Fiction:
THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX
by Mary E. Pearson
Henry Holt Books for Young Readers

Nonfiction:
THE MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE: SUPERNOVAE, DARK ENERGY, AND BLACK HOLES
by Ellen Jackson; photographed and illustrated by Nic Bishop
Houghton Mifflin

Picture Book Text:
BEFORE JOHN WAS A JAZZ GIANT
by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Sean Qualls
Henry Holt Books for Young Readers

Picture Book Illustration:
I LOVE MY NEW TOY
Illustrated and written by Mo Willems
Hyperion

The Golden Kite Awards, given annually to recognize excellence in children’s literature in the previous calendar year, grant cash prizes of $2,500 to author and illustrator winners in four categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Picture Book Text, and Picture Book Illustration. Authors and illustrators will receive an expense-paid trip to Los Angeles to attend the award ceremony at the Golden Kite Luncheon at SCBWI’s Annual Summer Conference in August.

The SCBWI recognizes the work of editors and art directors who play pivotal roles in shaping the Golden Kite-winning books. Editors of winning books will receive $1,000, and for the winning book in the Picture Book Illustration category, an additional $1,000 will be given to the book’s art director.

The Golden Kite Awards are given each year to the most outstanding children’s books published during the previous year, and written or illustrated by members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Four panels of three judges each (one panel for each category, consisting of author or illustrator members of SCBWI whose own works are that of the category being judged), award the titles they feel exhibit excellence in writing or illustration, and that genuinely appeal to the interests and concerns of children. An Honor Book plaque is awarded in each category as well. A certificate of acknowledgment is presented to the author of the picture book illustration award book and the illustrator of the picture book text award book.

About the 2009 Golden Kite Award Recipients

Steve Watkins’s debut YA novel Down Sand Mountain receives this year’s Golden Kite award for Fiction. The award for Non-Fiction goes to A Life in the Wild by Pamela S. Turner. Turner wrote Hachiko: The True Story of a Loyal Dog which won the 2004 Golden Kite honor award for Picture Book Text. Bonny Becker is the author of this year’s Picture Book Text winner A Visitor for Bear, and the Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Illustration goes to Last Night, author/illustrator Hyewon Yum’s first book to be published in America.

About the 2009 Golden Kite Honor Recipients

Mary E. Pearson, author of the Fiction Honor recipient The Adoration of Jenna Fox won the 2005 Golden Kite Award in Fiction for A Room on Lorelei Street. Non-Fiction Honor-winner Mysterious Universe: Supernovae, Dark Energy, and Black Holes, was written by Ellen Jackson who has written more than 60 books for children. Award-winning author and poet, Carole Boston Weatherford receives the Picture Book Text honor award for Before John was a Jazz Giant, and I Love My New Toy, by writer, animator and children’s book author/illustrator Mo Willems is the recipient of the 2009 Picture Book Illustration honor award.

General Information

Founded in 1971, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is one of the largest existing writers’ and illustrators’ organizations, with over 22,000 members worldwide. It is the only organization specifically for those working in the fields of children’s literature, magazines, film, television, and multimedia. The organization was founded by Stephen Mooser (President) and Lin Oliver (Executive Director), both of whom are well-published children’s book authors and leaders in the world of children’s literature. Several of the most prestigious children’s literature professionals sit on the SCBWI Board of Directors.

The Golden Kite Awards will be presented to the winners on Sunday, August 9 at the Golden Kite Luncheon. This luncheon is part of the SCBWI’s 38 Annual Conference on Writing and Illustrating for Children, taking place at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel August 7-10, 2009. A list of previous Golden Kite Award winners and honor books is available on the SCBWI’s website:
www.scbwi.org.

Thanks to Aaron Hartzler for the press release.

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