Sophie Blackall Wins the 2019 Caldecott Medal for HELLO LIGHTHOUSE

ALA Award News for Little, Brown Books for Young Readers:
Grace Lin Wins a 2019 Caldecott Honor for Big Mooncake for Little Star
Oge Mora Wins a Caldecott Honor for Thank You, Omu!
Oge Mora Wins the 2019 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award for Thank You, Omu!
Ashley Herring Blake Receives an Honor from the Stonewall – Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award for Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World
Emily X.R. Pan Receives an Honor from the Asian/Pacific American Library Association Award Committee for The Astonishing Color of After
L.C. Rosen’s Jack of Hearts Appears on the Rainbow Committee’s Top Ten List

New York, NY — January 28, 2019

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, a division of Hachette Book Group, is pleased to share the following accolades announced today at the 2019 American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting in Seattle. Sophie Blackall has received the 2019 Caldecott Medal for Hello Lighthouse. The Caldecott Medal is bestowed annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the ALA, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. Grace Lin has received a 2019 Caldecott Honor for A Big Mooncake for Little Star. Oge Mora has received a 2019 Caldecott Honor for Thank You, Omu! The Caldecott Honors are bestowed to artists whose books are also truly distinguished. Oge Mora has also received the 2019 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award for Thank You, Omu! The Coretta Scott King Book Awards annually recognize outstanding books for young adults and children by African American authors and illustrators that reflect the African American experience. This award is established to affirm new talent and to offer visibility to excellence in writing and illustration. Ashley Herring Blake receives an Honor from the Stonewall ‐ Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award for Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World. The Stonewall Book Awards are presented to English language books that have exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience. Emily X.R. Pan receives an Honor from the Asian/Pacific American Library Association Award Committee for The Astonishing Color of After. The goal of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature is to honor and recognize individual work about Asian/Pacific Americans and their heritage, based on literary and artistic merit. L. C. Rosen’s Jack of Hearts (and other parts) appears on the Rainbow Book Committee’s Top Ten list. The list is a curated bibliography highlighting books with significant gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer/questioning content, aimed at children and youth from birth to age eighteen.

“We are overwhelmed by this stunning news—2019 is truly a banner year at the ALA Awards for Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (LBYR),” said Megan Tingley, Executive Vice President and Publisher of LBYR. “Sophie Blackall’s win of the 2019 Caldecott Medal marks the fifth time in the past nine years that LBYR has taken home this most prestigious award. It also marks the second time the brilliant Sophie Blackall has won the award with LBYR. Hello Lighthouse was a passion project for Sophie and resulted in a spectacular tour de force. We’re also exceedingly proud to have accolades for our longtime author/artist Grace Lin and debut talent Oge Mora.”

Hello Lighthouse, edited by Susan Rich (Editor-at-Large, LBYR), transports readers back in time to a wondrous lighthouse by the sea. The nostalgia-rich story shares the daily life of the lighthouse keeper and his family. The keeper tends to the light, guiding sailors to safety, and writes in his logbook day in and day out. Blackall undertook meticulous research to capture the bravery, monotony, and adventure of a lighthouse keeper. Blackall’s Chinese ink-and-watercolor illustrations beautifully display the patterns of the oceans and warm horizons and the dollhouse-like interior scenes. Hello Lighthouse received five starred reviews, and was named a best book of 2018 by People, the Boston Globe, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and The Horn Book. The New York Times, which named it a Notable Children’s Book, praised, “I will be surprised if a more exquisite book will be published this year.”

Sophie Blackall is an award-winning artist and recipient of the 2016 Caldecott Medal for Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear. Blackall was raised in Australia, where she completed a bachelor of design degree in Sydney before moving to New York City in 2000. Her editorial illustrations have appeared in many publications, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, Architectural Digest, Town & Country, Vogue, and Gourmet. She has illustrated over thirty books for children, including the New York Times-bestselling Ivy & Bean series. The MTA Arts for Transit program commissioned Blackall to create artwork to appear in subway cars all over New York City in 2012. Blackall lives in Brooklyn, New York.

A Big Mooncake for Little Star, edited by Alvina Ling (VP, Editor-in-Chief, LBYR), tells a whimsical origin story of the phases of the moon. When Little Star’s mother bakes a delicious-°©‐looking mooncake, she leaves it in the night sky to cool. But Little Star can’t wait, and every night she must take a little nibble of the perfectly round confection! As she takes a bite, readers see that the moon itself wanes, passing through each phase until it becomes a new moon. This warm and soothing story received five starred reviews and has been hailed as “clever and radiant” by Kirkus Reviews.

Grace Lin is the award-winning and bestselling author and illustrator of When the Sea Turned to Silver, Starry River of the Sky, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, The Year of the Dog, The Year of the Rat, Dumpling Days, and the Ling & Ting series, as well as picture books such as The Ugly Vegetables and Dim Sum for Everyone! Grace is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and lives in Massachusetts.

Thank You, Omu! edited by Andrea Spooner (VP, Editorial Director, LBYR), is a heartwarming tale of gratitude and community. Everyone in the neighborhood dreams of a taste of Omu’s delicious stew! One by one, they follow their noses to the source of its scrumptious scent, and one by one, she offers a portion of her meal to everyone. Mora’s poignant colorful cut-paper designs made this unique book a New York Times Notable Children’s Book of 2018, a Publishers Weekly Flying Start of 2018, and a Boston Globe Best Children’s Book of 2018.

Oge Mora graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a bachelor of fine arts in illustration. When not painting in her studio, Oge is in the kitchen cooking her late grandmother’s recipes. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World, edited by Nikki Garcia (Associate Editor, LBYR), is a poignant coming-of-age tale about a young girl struggling with budding romantic feelings for other girls amid the backdrop of her home being destroyed by a tornado. Named one of NPR’s Best Books of 2018 and praised by the New York Times Book Review, Ashley Herring Blake’s first middle grade novel wowed critics, receiving three starred reviews, and made a lasting impression on young readers across the country.

Ashley Herring Blake lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband and two sons. She is the author of the young adult novels Suffer Love, How to Make a Wish, and Girl Made of Stars, as well as the middle grade novels Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World and the upcoming The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James.

The Astonishing Color of After, edited by Alvina Ling (VP, Editor-in-Chief, LBYR), is the New York Times-bestselling debut novel from Emily X.R. Pan. The novel has been called “poetic,” [Wall Street Journal], “suspenseful” [New York Times], and “luminous” [Entertainment Weekly]. Beloved bestselling author John Green said it is a “very special” book. Alternating between contemporary and magical realism, past and present, romance and despair, The Astonishing Color of After is a novel about finding oneself through family history, art, friendship, and love.

Emily X.R. Pan currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, but was originally born in the midwestern United States to immigrant parents from Taiwan. She received her master of fine arts in fiction from the NYU Creative Writing Program, where she was a Goldwater Fellow. She is the founding editor-in-chief of Bodega magazine, and a 2017 artist-in-residence at Djerassi. The Astonishing Color of After is her first novel.

Jack of Hearts (and other parts), edited by Alvina Ling (VP, Editor-in-Chief, LBYR), is a groundbreaking and bold YA debut about an apologetically sexually active queer teen working to uncover a blackmailer attempting to threaten him back into the closet. When Jack starts writing a teen sex advice column for an online site, he begins to receive threatening love letters that attempt to curb his sexuality. Now it’s up to Jack and his friends to uncover the secret admirer. “Fresh, sex-positive, and unabashedly entertaining,” (Booklist), Jack of Hearts (and other parts) shines a light on the important conversation surrounding sex-positivity.

L. C. Rosen, also known as Lev Rosen, has written several books for adults and children. Jack of Hearts (and other parts) is his young adult debut. His books have been featured on numerous best of the year lists and nominated for several awards.

ABOUT LITTLE, BROWN BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers is a division of Hachette Book Group, a leading trade publisher based in New York and a division of Hachette Livre (a Lagardère company), the third-largest trade and educational publisher in the world. HBG is made up of eight publishing groups: Little, Brown and Company; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Grand Central Publishing; Perseus Books; Orbit; Hachette Nashville; and Hachette Audio. For more information, visit hbgusa.com.