Best Children's Book Honors Announced

The Newbery and Caldecott prizes, the highest honors in U.S. children's literature, were announced Monday by the American Library Association.

Jack Gantos' Dead End in Norvelt won the John Newbery Medal for the best U.S. children's book of 2011, according to the Associated Press. Chris Raschka's A Ball for Daisy won the Randolph Caldecott award for best illustrated story, the report stated.

Gantos' novel follows the adventures of a boy named Jack Gantos who is grounded from a family vacation. Raschka's picture book recounts the saga of a dog whose favorite toy is destroyed.

"We do not have them yet but we certainly will be getting them!" Director Celia Morse wrote in an e-mail to Berkley Patch on Monday.

The Dead End in Norvelt is checked out at the , which does not own A Ball for Daisy. But the facility does have other Newbery and Caldecott Honor books, library Director Anne Hage said.