Regal Recognition
In a May 28 ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall, HRH Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden presented the 2012 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award to Dutch author Guus Kuijer. The honor, which was announced at this year’s Bologna Book Fair, is administered by the Swedish Arts Council and is the largest prize in the children’s book world, with the winner receiving five million Swedish crowns (approximately $690,000).
Papa Please Preach
In honor of the recent publication of his first picture book, Daddies Do It Different (Disney), author Alan Lawrence Sitomer gave a reading at the First School in Santa Monica, Calif. The story, illustrated by Abby Carter, was inspired by Sitomer’s daughter, Sienna, who is a preschooler at the school. Sitomer, shown here with Sienna, is no stranger to the classroom: he was California’s Teacher of the Year in 2007.
Musical Cheers
Princess K.I.M the Musical, written by author-illustrator Maryann Cocca-Leffler, won first place in the Ronald M. Ruble New Play Festival at the Caryl Crane Children’s Theater in Huron, Ohio. The show, a staged reading of which is shown here, is based on two of Cocca-Leffler’s picture books: Princess K.I.M and the Lie that Grew and Princess Kim and Too Much Truth (Albert Whitman). A fully staged production returns to the Caryl Crane Children’s Theater in spring 2013, and a full production will also be held at the Amato Center for the Performing Arts in Milford, N.H., in October 2013.
