Books on Film: A Brief History of Newbery/Caldecott on the Today Show
Looking for something to fill the void left when the Today Show failed to interview the 2012 Newbery and Caldecott winners? This one’s for you.
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First, a question or the masses:
Articles I read about the Today Show Newbery/Caldecott snub says the interview has taken place “for many years” or it was “traditional” or an “annual” event – does anyone have the inside scoop on how many years it actually occurred? After searching high and low, I was able to come up with four instances.
2010: Rebecca Stead and Jerry Pinkney
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2009: Neil Gaiman and Beth Krommes
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2008: Laura Amy Schlitz and Brian Selznick
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2005: Cynthia Kadohata and Kevin Henkes
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Filed under: Books on Film, News
About Travis Jonker
Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.
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I know that we all want the Caldecott and Newbery (and other!!!) book award winners to have the recognition of being on the Today show, but these interviews are also frustratingly brief. Give me an NPR interview over these any day of the week.
Can’t argue with you there – the NPR chats are always better. Fun to see children’s lit on the huge stage of the Today show, though.
I know it happened in the years in between because I used to tape it (on VHS!!!) to show to my students for our Mock Caldecott. I started that in 2004-05 so not sure about before that….
I figured the interview took place in 2006 and 2007, but it’s odd that they are nowhere to be seen online.
When the award winners did not appear last year, many articles mentioned that it was the first time this had happened in eleven years…meaning the tradition lasted from 1999 to 2010.
However, even before the authors began appearing, the TODAY SHOW would at least announce the winning titles on the air. I remember watching the show in 1973 when Gene Shalit held up copies of JULIE OF THE WOLVES and THE FUNNY LITTLE WOMAN and reported that they’d won the Newbery and Caldecott Awards.
Thanks for chiming in on this one Peter – adds some perspective to the discussion. And interesting to hear that the winners were mentioned on air – that’s the first time I’ve heard that.