Ivan Wins!

 

 

By now, the world knows that THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN by the awesome Katherine Applegate is the winner of the 2013 Newbery Award. I am still so incredibly happy about this, especially because I was able to attend ALA Midwinter and be at the awards announcement yesterday morning.

Now I am back home in Texas thinking about all of this.

Here's why I am happy about this:
(Told in a timeline)

• I read THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN in February of 2012 and LOVED it.
• I read THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN aloud to my class in April and THEY loved it.
• We Skyped with Katherine Applegate in May of 2012 and she was amazing!
• I met Katherine Applegate at ALA Annual in Anaheim in June (2012). I presented her with a banner my students made in class. Great moment!
• I read THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN aloud to my next class in October of 2012 for Global Read-Aloud. They ALSO loved it. I had no doubt!
• On Jan. 28th, I was present at the ALA Youth Media Awards when THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN won the Newbery.

Do you see now why I'm so happy?

But the timeline does not come to an end here. More people will know about the book, more books will be purchased, and as my students told me, I could now put it in the Newbery basket in our classroom library.

The next event in the timeline occurs June 30, 2013. I'll let you guess the event.

And I'll go back to being happy and hugging my stuffed Ivan.