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Willey wins Zolotow award

January 10, 2002

Margaret Willey, author of “Clever Beatrice” published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, and edited by Caitlyn Dlouhy, is the fifth annual winner of the Charlotte Zolotow Award for outstanding writing in a picture book.

The award is made by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, a library of the School of Education. The award will be officially presented Monday, April 29, in Madison.

A tall tale set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, “Clever Beatrice” features a small, quick-witted girl who challenges a rich, gullible giant to a contest of strength in order to win his gold. More than once Beatrice manages not only to outsmart the giant without so much as lifting a finger but to leave him feeling lucky to have gotten by with losing only a bit of his gold. The spirited, lively retelling, illustrated by Heather Solomon, is based on an amalgam of French-Canadian stories originally told in Michigan lumber camps.

The award committee named one honor book, “Five Creatures,” written by Emily Jenkins and illustrated by Tomek Bogacki, edited by Frances Foster and published by Frances Foster Books, an imprint of Farrar Straus Giroux. The two cats, two adults and one child who share a household are continually categorized and recategorized according to tastes and abilities in a playful portrait of family life.

Established in 1998, the award honors the work of Charlotte Zolotow, a distinguished children’s book editor for 38 years with Harper Junior Books, and author of more than 65 picture books, including such classic works as “Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present” (Harper, 1962) and “William’s Doll” (Harper, 1972). Zolotow attended the University of Wisconsin on a writing scholarship from 1933-36, where she studied with professor Helen C. White.

The award committee also cited five titles as “highly commended”:

  • “Come Back, Hannah” by Marisabina Russo (Greenwillow/HarperCollins).
  • “Grump” by Janet S. Wong (McElderry).
  • “Gugu’s House” by Catherine Stock (Clarion).
  • “Henry’s First Moon Birthday” by Lenore Look (Anne Schwartz /Atheneum).
  • “Mabela the Clever” by Margaret Read MacDonald (Albert Whitman).

Members of the 2002 Award Committee were Merri Lindgren, chair (Baraboo, Wis.); Amy Brandt (librarian, Madison Public Library, Wis.); Carole DeJardin (librarian, Appleton Public Library, Wis.); Megan Schliesman (librarian, Cooperative Children’s Book Center, Madison, Wis.); George Theoharis (principal, Falk Elementary School, Madison, Wis.); and Kathleen T. Horning, (librarian, Cooperative Children’s Book Center).

The Cooperative Children’s Book Center is a noncirculating library for adults with a professional, career or academic interest in children’s and young adult literature. The Friends of the CCBC, Inc., is a nonprofit organization offering lectures, speaker receptions, book sales and other benefits for members, as well as assistance to the CCBC.

For more information, contact Kathleen T. Horning, Cooperative Children’s Book Center, (608) 263-3930, horning@education.wisc.edu.