Winners of 2012 Newbery Medal and Caldecott Medal Announced

Posted on January 23, 2012

Jack Gantos is the winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal for his novel, Dead End in Norvelt. The book was published by Farrar Straus Giroux. The annual Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery.

Newbery Medal Committee Chair Viki Ash says, "Who knew obituaries and old lady death could be this funny and this tender?"

The 2012 Newbery honor books are Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai (HarperCollins Children's Books) and Breaking Stalin's Nose (Henry Holt and Company, LLC).

A Ball for Daisy (Schwartz & Wade Books) by Chris Raschka won the Randolph Caldecott award for best illustration. Caldecott Medal Committee Chair Steven L. Herb says, "Chris Raschka's deceptively simple paintings of watercolor, gouache and ink explore universal themes of love and loss that permit thousands of possible variants. A Ball for Daisy holds as many unique stories as there will be young readers and re-readers."

The 2012 Caldecott honor books are Blackout, written and illustrated by John Rocco (Hyperion Books) and Grandpa Green, written and illustrated by Lane Smith (Roaring Brook Press).