Rebecca Stead: 2010 Newbery Winner Leaked on Twitter

by Jordan Yerman | January 18, 2010 at 09:06 am

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The 2010 Newbery winner is When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead. We know this because it was leaked on Twitter ahead of the official announcement. I guess someone with access to the Random House's Twitter account got a bit trigger-happy, since Twitter was not supposed to be the platform for the 2010 Newbery winner (Random House is Rebecca Stead's publisher). Jerry Pinkney's The Lion & the Mouse won the Caldecott Medal . Both winners were announced via the American Library Association's Twitter feed.

The Newbery Award is given for the most distinguished contribution to American children's literature, as decided by the Association for Library Service to Children. The Caldecott Medal is awarded to the most distinguished picture book for children.

The official tweet from ALA came in at 8:38 a.m. and read: “#alayma Newbery 2010: “When You Reach Me” by Rebecca Stead.”

When contacted by email, Random House’s Adrienne Waintraub, director of school and library marketing, wrote, “Thank you. We saw and took it down.”

About When You Reach Me:

Twelve-year-old Miranda encounters shifting friendships, a sudden punch, a strange homeless man and mysterious notes that hint at knowledge of the future. These and other seemingly random events converge in a brilliantly constructed plot.

2010 Newbery Honors:
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, Phillip Hoose
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, Jacqueline Kelly
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Grace Lin
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg

About The Lion & the Mouse:

The screech of an owl, the squeak of a mouse and the roar of a lion transport readers to the Serengeti plains for this virtually wordless retelling of Aesop’s classic fable.

2010 Caldecott Honors: All the World, Marla Frazee and Liz Garton Scanlon