Sydney Taylor Blog Tour Round Up

Last week was the 2011 Sydney Taylor Blog Tour. The blog of the Association of Jewish Libraries, People of the Books, has daily round ups of the tour with quotes and links to the blog tour stops:

Tour Day 1: Carla Jablonski, author of Resistance (Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Older Readers Category); Leland Purvis, illustrator of Resistance (Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Older Readers Category); and Sarah Gershman, author of Modeh Ani: A Good Morning Book (Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category).

Tour Day 2: Linda Glaser, author of Emma’s Poem: The Voice of the Statue of Liberty (Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category); Claire Nivola, illustrator of Emma’s Poem: The Voice of the Statue of Liberty (Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category); Evelyn Krieger, author of One Is Not a Lonely Number (Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Older Readers Category)

Tour Day 3: Barbara Diamond Goldin, author of Cakes and Miracles: A Purim Tale (Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category); Jaime Zollars, illustrator of Cakes and Miracles: A Purim Tale (Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category); Susan Lynn Meyer, author of Black Radishes (Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Older Readers Category)

Tour Day 4: Howard Schwartz, author of Gathering Sparks (Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Younger Readers Category); Barry Deutsch, author and illustrator of Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword (Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Older Readers Category); Dana Reinhardt, author of The Things a Brother Knows (Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Teen Readers Category) (here).

Tour Day 5: Kristina Swarner, illustrator of Gathering Sparks (Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Younger Readers Category) and illustrator of Modeh Ani: A Good Morning Book
(Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Younger Readers Category); Sarah Darer Littman, author of Life, After (Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Teen Readers Category); Eishes Chayil, author of Hush (Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Teen Readers Category)

Tour Day 6: Morris Gleitzman, author of Once (Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Teen Readers Category); and Sydney Taylor Award Winners – Wrap-Up. The wrap up includes a bunch of the Award and Honor authors talking — very interesting and a lot of fun!

2011 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour

Today begins the 2011 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour! (My post on the 2011 Sydney Taylor Book Award).

As explained in the AJL Blog, People of the Books, “The Sydney Taylor Book Award will be celebrating and showcasing its 2011 gold and silver medalists with a Blog Tour, February 6-11, 2011! Interviews with winning authors and illustrators will appear on a wide variety of Jewish, kidlit, and family-interest blogs. For those of you who have not yet experienced a Blog Tour, it’s basically a virtual book tour. Instead of going to a library or bookstore to see an author or illustrator speak, you go to a website on or after the advertised date to read an author’s or illustrator’s interview.”

Go to the AJL Blog for the full list of dates and blogs, authors and illustrators.

Dana Reinhardt, of The Things a Brother Knows, Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Teen Readers Category will be here on Wednesday, February 9. My review of The Things a Brother Knows will appear Tuesday, February 8.

2011 Sydney Taylor Book Awards

The Sydney Taylor Book Award was announced January 2011.

The award is presented to “outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience.” It is presented by the Association of Jewish Libraries and “encourages the publication and widespread use of quality Judaic literature.”

Gold medals are presented in three categories: Younger Readers, Older Readers, and Teen Readers. Honor Books are awarded silver medals, and Notable Books are named in each category.

Full information and all titles are available in the Press Release as well as at the AJL Blog.

Here is the video:

For Teen Readers, the Book Award Winner is The Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt, Wendy Lamb Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books. Tomorrow I will post my review of The Things a Brother Knows; and, on Wednesday, I will have an interview with Reinhardt. The interview will be part of a blog tour featuring interviews with winning authors and illustrators. The full blog tour schedule will appear on the Association of Jewish Libraries’ blog “People of the Books.”

The Teen Readers, the Honor Award Winners are: Hush by Eishes Chayil, Walker & Company, a division of Bloomsbury Publishing (my review), Once by Morris Gleitzman (Henry Holt and Company), and Life, After by Sarah Darer Littman, Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic, Inc.

For Older Readers, the Book Award Winner is Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch, Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams.

For Younger Readers, the Book Award Winner is Gathering Sparks by Howard Schwartz with illustrations by Kristina Swarner, Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.

Check out the full List of all 2011 Award, Honor, and Notable Books.

There will be a Blog Tour of the winning authors and illustrators from February 6 to February 11. I’ll post more details closer to the tour; but in the meanwhile, a full list of dates, blogs, authors and illustrators is at the AJL Blog, People of the Book. Tea Cozy will be a stop on the tour, with Dana Reinhardt, author of the Book Award for Teen Readers Award!