Children's Book Awards

After discussing the variety of book awards that exist in children’s literature, I have begun to think more in depth about whether or not those awards are necessary. With the existence of the Caldecott and Newberry book awards, it seems as though the other awards only make it more acceptable that diverse literature does not get the recognition it is worthy of. These awards consider only diverse literature of a certain category which almost sets an allowance for the Newberry and Caldecott awards to look right over this type of literature. It is important to “mainstream” this diverse literature and keeping it separate in one aspect just furthers the separation in all aspects of literature.

Some may argue that these separate awards allow the book to gain recognition but if this type of literature is to be gaining the same type of respect that all other children’s literature is, it should be considered on the same level. The authors that are reaching out to readers to educate them in ways that are sparsely available and that is important. At the same time, these authors need to put themselves at the same level that other authors are at in terms of their expectations concerning literature recognition. All children's literature should be recognized and appreciated in the same ways and these extra book awards are just unnecessary and make that hard to do.