Monday, January 25th, was more or less the Super Bowl for librarians as the Youth Media Awards were announced for 2021. The award ceremony of the annual Midwinter Conference of the American Library Association features the highly anticipated announcement of the recipients of a growing list of awards. Each award has distinctive criteria that recognize contributions to children and young adult literature and reflect diversity in media format, authorship, and genre.
This is the first time in its 80 year history an Indigenous person has won the Caldecott Medal.
Some of the awards are designed to acknowledge the lifetime achievements of authors and illustrators who are trailblazers and have added to the greater body of children's literature as well as fostering the evolution of #ownvoices and #weneeddiversebooks. You can find the entire list of this year's winners here. Some of the recipients earn knowing nods of approval and applause (albeit remotely this year) as they are the odds on favorite while other nominees surprise us with an unexpected win or fewer accolades than we thought they deserved.
This year as always, there were many worthy recipients and as is the rule of late, some were of a historic nature including the Caldecott Award winner, We Are Water Protectors, by Carole Lindstrom (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe) and illustrator Michaela Goade (Tlingit, Raven moiety and Kiks.ádi Clan from Sitka, Alaska). You may remember seeing this book on our best of 2020 list. This is the first time an Indigenous person has won this award. According to the ALA website: The Caldecott Medal is named after the 19th-century illustrator Randolph Caldecott and is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. The book, which teaches about the importance of water conservation and Indigenous-led environmental justice, is illustrated with beautiful watercolor paintings.
This year as always, there were many worthy recipients and as is the rule of late, some were of a historic nature including the Caldecott Award winner, We Are Water Protectors, by Carole Lindstrom (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe) and illustrator Michaela Goade (Tlingit, Raven moiety and Kiks.ádi Clan from Sitka, Alaska). You may remember seeing this book on our best of 2020 list. This is the first time an Indigenous person has won this award. According to the ALA website: The Caldecott Medal is named after the 19th-century illustrator Randolph Caldecott and is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. The book, which teaches about the importance of water conservation and Indigenous-led environmental justice, is illustrated with beautiful watercolor paintings.
How satisfying to see two Indigenous women recognized for their work as they preserve culture both past and present.
As I've mentioned in previous posts, I worked for two years at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in the children's research library. It was a pivotal experience for me as a professional and in my personal journey. I am not an enrolled member of a Tribal Nation. Still, this particular award made me very happy. Having worked with a collection nearly twenty years ago of contemporary Indigenous authors and illustrators that was one-fifth the size of the "historic collection" of Native American stories told by the dominant culture and deeply embedded with stereotypes, this award was thrilling. Imagine how it felt for Native Americans who have experienced centuries of "cancel culture" from white society. (Read the post from Debbie Reese's blog, American Indians in Children's Literature). How satisfying to see two Tribally Enrolled women recognized for their work as they preserve the culture and tell the story of activism both past and present. Enjoy this beautiful book, which hopefully, is the first among many.