Susan Patron has won the John Newbery Medal for her novel The Higher Power of Lucky, illustrated by Matt Phelan (S&S/Jackson), and David Wiesner won the Randolph Caldecott Medal for Flotsam (Clarion). Wiesner had won the Caldecott twice previously, for The Three Pigs and Tuesday, and a Caldecott Honor for Sector 7. The awards were announced this morning at the ALA’s midwinter conference in Seattle.

View the rest of the award winners in the Publishers Weekly article; Yahoo! News has an article on the same subject here.

Yahoo News reports:

British children’s author Philippa Pearce, best known for “Tom’s Midnight Garden,” has died aged 86, her publisher said on Wednesday.

Pearce suffered a stroke and passed away on December 21, according to Puffin, part of the Penguin Group publishers.

“Her books are outstanding, classics which have delighted and inspired generations of children and for many people ‘Tom’s Midnight Garden’ is their absolutely favorite children’s book.”

Read the full Yahoo News article here.  The Guardian has a more in-depth article here.

The magic abandoned Bloomsbury Publishing late last night as the publisher of the hugely successful Harry Potter books sneaked out a dire profit warning after the stock market had closed.The company, which has raked in tens of millions of pounds from JK Rowling’s success but does not have a new instalment this year, blamed the collapse in its annual profits on a poor run-up to Christmas and problems selling electronic rights to some of its reference titles.

You can read the full story on Guardian Unlimited Books. The seventh Harry Potter book is likely to be released sometime in 2007, though no official date is set yet.

Wendy Cooling has been awarded the Eleanor Farjeon award for a life spent promoting children’s literature. She ran the Children’s Book Foundation and National Chidren’s Book Week, and founded Bookstart, a national programme which gives free books to every child in the UK.

The Eleanor Farjeon award is given in recognition of an individual’s contribution to the world of children’s books; recent winners have included the children’s laureate Jacqueline Wilson, writers Philip Pullman and Malorie Blackman, and Julia Eccleshare, the Guardian’s children’s books editor.

Read the full Guardian Unlimited article here.

In a not so surprising play by Scottland based, Aultbea Publishing, who have become known for pushing the works of “child prodigies”, a 1,500 word book by six year old Christopher Beale was launched yesterday in the UK, garnering both a place in the Guiness Book of World Records for youngest published author.  Though some questions have arisen as to past “investment” from parents, Beale’s book, Last Season’s Excursions, is proported to be non-subsidy published and expected to be a hit with collectors.

Read more here

The nominations for the 2006 Carnegie medal - the UK’s most prestigious children’s literary award - have been unveiled, and titles range from Jeanette Winterson’s ideas-fuelled novel of time and space, Tanglewreck, to Conn and Hal Iggulden’s attempt to get boys climbing trees and building go-carts, The Dangerous Book for Boys.

Guardian Unlimited Books has the full story, which gives a more detailed summary of the nominations.

Judith Viorst’s 2 million plus selling children’s book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, has been acquired by Columbia Pictures. Mike Bender is penning the adaptation and Neil Moritz is set to produce. Moritz credits his son for the project’s inception.

“This is one of my son’s favorite books, and I would read it to him every day,” Moritz said. “And a few months ago, out of the blue, he asked, ‘When are they making this into a movie, Daddy?’ And I said, Why didn’t I think of that?”

Read the Book Standard/Hollywood Reporter Article

A picture book about two male penguins raising a baby penguin is getting a chilly reception among some parents in this village [Shiloh, Ill.] who worry about the book’s availability to elementary students — and the reluctance of administrators to restrict access to it.

You can read the AP article over on Yahoo News. If memory serves, this isn’t the first time people have tried to get And Tango Makes Three banned at a school library.