The mini-theme of this issue, part of our HB100 series of mini-themes, is awards — and the Horn Book’s relationship to awards over the past century is a big topic. Throughout the decades, the Horn Book has noted trends, published thoughtful and critical articles, presented eye-opening and personal profiles of award winners, expanded our coverage, and asked provocative questions.

Just slightly older than us, the Newbery Medal celebrated its centennial in 2022. Named for ­eighteenth-century English bookseller John Newbery (“the first to make attractive little books especially for children,” according to the Horn Book’s first editor, Bertha Mahony Miller) and intended to celebrate the “most distinguished ­American children’s book published the previous year,” the award was founded by Frederic G. Melcher, who was himself a mentor to Miller; as she wrote: “It is impossible to measure Frederic Melcher’s creative influence upon the publishing and distribution of books — especially children’s books — in this country.”

In 1934 our magazine published Cornelia Meigs’s Newbery acceptance speech for Invincible Louisa, with our own editorial commentary for that book beginning, “Never has the Newbery Medal been awarded so deeply to the satisfaction of The Horn Book.” More-or-less continuously since then, we have printed the speeches and shared profiles of the winners. Our May/June 2022 Special Issue: The Newbery ­Centennial explores the award from many deep and fascinating  perspectives­—including “After the Call” reminiscences by twenty-five medalists; a look at the very welcome shifting demographics of winners since the advent of We Need Diverse Books, written by Linda Sue Park; and entertaining and informative Newbery Knowledge trivia compiled by Kathleen T. Horning.

In 1938, the Magazine printed the very first Caldecott speech, by ­Dorothy P. Lathrop for Animals of the Bible, along with celebratory articles including “Artists Triumph” and “Randolph Caldecott,” both by Miller, heralding the award’s establishment in 1937: “If Caldecott’s friends could have been told then that his Picture Books would be children’s favorites half a century hence, and that an annual award for the best picture book published yearly in America would bear his name, they would have said, ‘But of course! How could it be otherwise?’” Since 2000, with only a few exceptions, each year’s Caldecott medalist has created original art for the July/August issue of the Magazine. In 2011 our Calling ­Caldecott blog (“What can win? What will win? What should win?”) had its auspicious debut and has ever since hosted its own mock Caldecott vote while speculating about what the real committee might choose. For more insight and history, see our yearlong print and web celebration of “Caldecott at 75” from 2013.

We launched our own book award, in partnership with the Boston Globe, in 1967, spearheaded by Horn Book editors Ethel and Paul Heins, and it’s still going strong today. A modest notice in the December 1967 “Hunt Breakfast” column (precursor to “Impromptu”) indicated the year’s winners — The Little Fishes by Erik Christian Haugaard for excellence in text and London Bridge Is Falling Down by Peter Spier for excellence in illustration — 
and named the three judges. A ­bigger to-do was made the following year, including formal call for submissions, up to five per publisher; and: “It is urgently requested that books be sent as soon as they are published and not all at once just before the deadline.” The Boston G­lobe–Horn Book Award is distinctive in its wide-open criteria — the main and almost only requirement being “excellence,” however it’s defined by that year’s committee. Rather than recognizing authors (like the Newbery) or illustrators (like the Caldecott), the BGHB Award celebrates books as a whole, with recognition going to both authors and illustrators (as well as, for example, translators, if applicable). Since 1981 we have published the award acceptance speeches by winners (later adding honorees), and in 2002 we began commissioning original art by one of that year’s winners to grace the cover of the January/February issue of the following year, in which the speeches now appear.

All of this is just the tip of the awards iceberg. We published the first Regina Medal speech in 1959 (Eleanor Farjeon) and a few others in the 1960s (including one for our own Miller). We began printing the Children’s Literature Legacy speech, established in 1954 as the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, in 1998, under Roger Sutton’s editorship. (Regarding the award’s name-change in 2018: “ALSC’s core values include integrity, respect, inclusiveness, and responsiveness, and we found we needed to review the names of awards with those values in mind.”)

In 2003 Paul O. Zelinsky’s “Beauty and the Brain” became the first instance of our printing the Zena Sutherland Lecture, named after Sutton’s library-school mentor and established in 1983. We were granted permission to start printing the Coretta Scott King Author and Illustrator awards speeches in 2009 and later added the CSK–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. The Horn Book celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the CSK Awards in our May/June 2019 special issue, with guest editors Rudine Sims Bishop and Andrea Davis Pinkney, and the ­twenty-fifth anniversary of the Pura ­Belpré Award in the May/June 2021 special issue, with consulting editor Sujei Lugo, both of which gave us the opportunity to hear from book creators and children’s book field luminaries who remembered those awards’ early days.

Of course, every year we have our own favorites. See our annual Fanfare list,  beginning in 1938, and, somewhat more snarkily, “Mind the Gap,” since 2008, for books that didn’t win at ALA. We began bestowing the Robin Smith Picture Book Prize in 2018 (see Dean Schneider’s article on page 76) and gave out the one-and-only MVP Award to Martha V. Parravano upon her retirement as book review editor last year—both ceremonial, but completely heartfelt.

See also hbook.com and the “Controversies & Kerfuffles” section of the Virtual History Exhibit for thought-provoking, and debate-stirring, articles from our archive, including “Where Do All the Prizes Go?: The Case for Nonfiction” by Milton ­Meltzer (February 1976), “Could Randolph Caldecott Win the Caldecott Medal?” by Anita Silvey (July/August 1986), “A Wider Vision for the Newbery” by Parravano and Lauren Adams (January/February 1996), “‘Alive and Vigorous’: Questioning the Newbery” by Parravano (July/August 1999), Horning’s July/August 2012 article, “The Search for Distinguished”; and any number of editorials by well-known provocateur Sutton, including “Don’t Speak!” (July/August 2014).

ALA committees are notoriously tight-lipped about their choices, and as long as there have been awards there has been second-guessing and Monday morning quarterbacking. As we’ve considered the last hundred years of the Horn Book’s history, and awards history, we come back around to questions. What are awards for? What can they do for a book and book creators? How are they a snapshot of their times/places/ideas/values? Who’s there on the lists, who’s missing? Are there too many? Not enough? Is there an ideal number of honorees? What about their speeches? Whether it’s in a committee meeting or outside one, awards bring with them plenty of excuses to talk about books…and that can be its own reward.

From the July/August 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine: Special Issue: ALA Awards. For more speeches, profiles, and articles, click the tag ALA 2024. For more Horn Book centennial coverage, click here.

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