Book Awards Announced at Library Convention in Denver

The American Library Association meets twice a year, in June and in January. At last week's Midwinter convention in Denver, children's book awards were announced. Neil Gaiman won the 2009 Newbery Medal for The Graveyard Book. Beth Krommes won the 2009 Caldecott Medal for The House in the Night, written by Susan Marie Swanson. The Newbery award celebrates writing and the Caldecott is awarded for illustration.
This week the literary world said goodbye to John Updike who died Tuesday. Best known for his series of books about the fictional Rabbit, Updike chronicled life in post-war American suburbs.
At BHPL, Oprah's book selections and movie tie-ins continue to drive the holds list. If you need book recommendations tailored just for your tastes, be sure to ask at the Reference Desk. We use Novelist to find lists of "Read-alikes." (If you liked such and such then try so and so, in other words.) We call this kind of question, "readers advisory." But the lingo of the librarian world doesn't have much meaning outside of the profession sometimes. So even though we do offer Readers Advisory service to our patrons, just come up and ask for something good to read and we'll see what we can come up with.