Holt's Zachary Beaver Wins National Book Award

Staff -- School Library Journal, 12/1/1999

Kimberly Willis Holt, author of When Zachary Beaver Came to Town (Holt, 1999), received the 1999 National Book Award for Young People's Literature in New York City on November 17. In her acceptance remarks, Holt thanked the National Book Foundation for recognizing children's literature and thus, giving "honor to every children's book," said Holt. "I will remember this always."

Calling it "a wrenching, lyrical novel in the tradition of many great Southern stories," the judges chose it over Speak (Farrar, 1999) by Laurie Halse Anderson, The Birchbark House (Hyperion, 1999) by Louise Erdrich, The Trolls (Farrar, 1999) by Polly Horvath, and Monster (HarperCollins, 1999) by Walter Dean Myers. Hazel Rochman, YA book editor at Booklist, chaired the judging panel, which included writer Veronica Chambers, author Mary Ann McGuigan, Roger Sutton, editor of the Horn Book, and Zena Sutherland, editor of Children & Books, 9th edition (Addison Wesley, 1996).