Carmen Tafolla Wins Zolotow Award
RSSBy SLJ -- School Library Journal, 01/14/2010
Carmen Tafolla’s What Can You Do with a Paleta? ( Tricycle Press), about a young Mexican-American girl’s delight with a popsicle on a hot summer day, is this year’s winner of the Charlotte Zolotow Award for outstanding writing in a picture book.
The award, given by the Cooperative Children's Book Center, a library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, also named three honor books: Birds (Greenwillow) by Kevin Henkes and illustrated by Laura Dronzek; Pouch! (Putnam) by David Ezra Stein; and Princess Hyacinth: (The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated) (Random) by Florence Parry Heide and illustrated by Lane Smith.
Tafolla’s What Can You Do with a Paleta? highlights a hot summer afternoon and appeals to all of our senses with rich imagery and crisp language as the paleta vendor arrives with crispy tacos and delicious fruit popsicles. The book, which includes a sprinkling of Spanish words and is illustrated by Magaly Morales, invites readers to think of all the creative things that can be done with a paleta, from painting your tongue purple or giving yourself a blue mustache to making a new friend or learning to make tough 
decisions.
The 2010 Zolotow award committee also cited four titles as highly commended. They are: Hello Baby! (S & S0 by Mem Fox and illustrated by Steve Jenkins; Ready for Anything! (Penguin) by Keiko Kasza; Under the Snow (Peachtree) by Melissa Stewart and illustrated by Constance R. Bergum; and Who Will I Be, Lord? (Random) by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and illustrated by Sean Qualls.
Established in 1998, the Charlotte Zolotow Award honors the work of Charlotte Zolotow, a children's book editor for 38 years with Harper Junior Books and author of more than 70 picture books, including such classic works as Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present (1962) and William's Doll (1972, both Harper).
Zolotow attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison deom 1933 to 1936 on a writing scholarship and studied there with Professor Helen C. White. The award is given annually for outstanding writing in a picture 
book for children in the birth through seven age range published in the United States in the preceding year.
Members of the 2010 Zolotow Award committee were: Chair Kathleen T. Horning (director of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center in Madison, WI); Carling Febry (librarian at theCooperative Children's Book Center); Svetha Hetzler (head of youth services at the Middleton Public Library in Middleton, WI), Tracy Moore (children’s librarian at Madison Public Library in Madison, WI); and Jolen Neumann (school librarian in Madison, WI).
The Cooperative Children's Book Center is a noncirculating library for adults with a professional, career or academic interest in children's and young adult literature.
