EJK New Writer Award

Meg Medina

 

“I’m about strong girls, tough circumstances, and the connecting power of culture,” says Meg Medina about her books for young people. Her first picture book, which brings Meg the EJK New Writer Award for 2012, is based on her own memories of growing up in a storytelling Cuban family in New York. She was drawn to the genre, she says, because of its hopefulness. Meg lives with her family in Richmond, Virginia. Her latest book, The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind, was published in early 2012.

 

Tía Isa Wants a Car (Candlewick Press)

A young girl in Queens, New York, and her aunt Isa save up for a car that will take them to the beach—and remind them of the family that is still far away.

EJK New Illustrator Award

Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw

 

“Same, same but different” is a phrase Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw learned while teaching in Nepal and traveling in India and Thailand—a way of looking at different cultures and of bridging the distance between them. Jenny Sue has traveled extensively in Asia and currently lives in northern New Mexico with her family. She wrote and illustrated Same, Same but Different, which earns her both the EJK New Illustrator Award and a New Writer Honor.

Portrait © Elaine Sutton

Same, Same but Different (Christy Ottaviano Books/
Henry Holt)

Elliott, an American schoolboy, is a pen pal of Kailash, in India. Through their drawings and letters, these best friends share the similarities and differences of their worlds.

 


 

Interview with Meg Medina • Interview with Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw • EJK Book Award

 

 

Honor Books

 

New Writer Honor

Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw
Same, Same but Different

New Writer Honor

Nicola Winstanley
Cinnamon Baby
(Kids Can Press, Ltd.)

 

 

 

New Writer and New Illustrator Honor

Anna Witte (writer)
and Micha Archer (illustrator)
Lola’s Fandango
(Barefoot Books)

New Illustrator Honor

David Ercolini
Not Inside this House!
(Orchard Books)