Tale of Magical Squirrel Takes Newbery Medal
Kate
DiCamillo, who was recently named the national ambassador for young
people’s literature, received another one of the field’s highest honors
on Monday: The John Newbery Medal went to her book “Flora and Ulysses” (Candlewick Press), the story of a girl who befriends a squirrel with magical powers.
“Locomotive”
(Simon & Schuster), a richly drawn book by the writer and
illustrator Brian Floca about the beginnings of the transcontinental
railroad in the United States, was awarded the Randolph Caldecott Medal.
The prizes were announced on Monday at the American Library
Association’s annual midwinter meeting in Philadelphia.
The
award for “Flora and Ulysses,” illustrated by K. G. Campbell, is the
second Newbery for Ms. DiCamillo, 49, who won in 2004 for “The Tale of Despereaux.”
Each prize bestows a children’s book with prestige, publicity and a
shiny metallic sticker that proclaims its status in bookstores.
In
a telephone interview, Ms. DiCamillo said she received a call at 5:30
a.m. from members of the Newbery committee at her home in Minneapolis.
Although she had won before, she was even more surprised this time, she
said. “I just couldn’t believe it,” she said. “As soon as I hung up, I
wondered if I had dreamed the whole thing.”
She
said the concept for her book began to emerge in early 2009. Her mother
had recently died and left a beloved vacuum cleaner stored in Ms.
DiCamillo’s garage. Every time Ms. DiCamillo saw it, she recalled, she
was faced with a small reminder of her mother’s death.
Around
the same time, Ms. DiCamillo found a sick squirrel on her front step,
“draped across there in a ‘this is the end of my life’ kind of way,” she
said. The squirrel’s predicament reminded her of E. B. White’s 1948
essay “Death of a Pig,” an account of his efforts to save an ailing pig
that is thought to have inspired “Charlotte’s Web.”
“I started to think about ways to save this very interesting squirrel’s life,” Ms. DiCamillo said.
Mr.
Floca said in an interview from his studio in Gowanus, Brooklyn, that
he spent four years researching, writing and illustrating “Locomotive.”
At one point, he drove a real steam locomotive in Essex, Conn., that is a
popular tourist attraction, and he traveled to Utah to climb on
replicas of trains.
“It’s
a whole system designed for getting people across the country,” said
Mr. Floca, 45. “Then you start getting into the history of the West. So
the research actually felt bottomless at times.”
The association also announced that Marcus Sedgwick, author of “Midwinter Blood,” had been awarded the Michael L. Printz Award for the year’s best book written for young adults.
Markus
Zusak, author of “The Book Thief,” received the Margaret A. Edwards
Award for “significant and lasting contribution to young adult
literature.”