‘Hello, Universe’ by Erin Entrada Kelly wins Newbery Medal for best children’s book

The American author won the 80-years-old John Newbery Medal for her book Hello, Universe, a nuanced account of a diverse group of middle school students and their unexpected encounters.

Erin Entrada Kelly’s Hello, Universe, a nuanced account of a diverse group of middle school students and their unexpected encounters, has won the John Newbery Medal for the outstanding children’s book of 2017. The Randolph Caldecott Medal for best illustration went to Matthew Cordell and his near-wordless story of a girl and the wolf pup she saves, Wolf in the Snow.

The John Newbery Medal is more than 80 years old, with previous winners including Neil Gaiman and Lois Lowry.

The awards were announced on February 12 by the American Library Association, which has gathered in Denver for its annual mid-winter meeting. Both the Newbery and Caldecott medals are more than 80 years old, with previous winners including Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming and Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time.

Renee Watson’s Piecing Me Together won the Coretta Scott King Award for outstanding book by an African-American. The King award for best illustrator went to Ekua Holmes for Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets. Eloise Greenfield, whose dozens of books include Honey, I Love and In the Land of Words, won the King award for lifetime achievement.

The Pura Belpre Award for best Latino book was given to Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar. The Pura Belpre illustrator prize went to Juana Martinez-Neal and La Princesa and the Pea.

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