Myers, Carle Named U.S. Nominees for Hans Christian Andersen Award

Walter Dean Myers and Eric Carle are the United States nominees for the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Awards, sometimes referred to as the Nobel Prize of children's literature.

The awards are presented every two years by IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) to an author and an illustrator whose complete works have made an important and lasting contribution to children's literature worldwide.

This year, 29 authors and 27 illustrators were nominated as candidates for the award by IBBY members in 33 countries.

An international jury from 11 countries on four continents will select the final winners, which will be announced at a press conference at the Bologna Children's Bookfair on Monday, March 22, 2010.

“Our committee chose Walter Dean Myers and Eric Carle as the US nominees for the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Awards because each is an American cultural and literary icon,” says Amy McClure, professor of education at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, OH, and chair of the committee that selected USBBY’s   nominees for the award. “Walter Dean Myers is a versatile writer whose work has been praised for its candid voice, memorable characters, and gritty realism. He has a unique understanding of young people and the challenges they face negotiating contemporary realities. Eric Carle’s picture books are known and loved all over the world. His brightly colored collage illustrations are deceptively simple yet intellectually complex in their portrayal of universal themes that resonate with young children.”

The honor also coincides with the 40th anniversary of Carle’s publication of The Very Hungry Caterpillar..

Past USBBY nominees who have won the Hans Christian Andersen Medal are Meindert DeJong (Author, 1962), Maurice Sendak (Illustrator, 1970), Scott O'Dell (Author, 1972), Paula Fox (Author, 1978), Virginia Hamilton (Author, 1992), and Katherine Paterson (Author, 1998).

Click here for the complete list of nominees.