Neil Gaiman wins prestigious John Newbery Medal
Neil Gaiman has received the top prize for children’s literature: The John Newbery Medal.
“I am so wonderfully befuddled,” the best-selling author said Monday after winning the 88th annual Newbery for “The Graveyard Book,” a spooky, but (he says) family friendly story about a boy raised by a vampire, a werewolf and a witch.
“I never really thought of myself as a Newbery winner. It’s such a very establishment kind of award, in the right kind of way, with the world of librarians pointing at the book saying, `This is worthy of the ages.’ And I’m so very used to working in, and enjoying working in, essentially the gutter.”
The Newbery and other awards were announced by the American Library Association, currently meeting in Denver.
Gaiman, known for his “Sandman” comic-book series, had worked on the “Graveyard Book” off and on for more than 20 years, an understandable delay for the author of more than 20 books and the winner of prizes for science fiction, fantasy and horror.
He says “The Graveyard Book” was inspired in part by “The Jungle Book,” Rudyard Kipling’s classic about a boy raised by animals. Gaiman’s book opens with a baby boy escaping an assassin who is massacred by his parents and older sister. The boy totters to a decrepit cemetery, where he’s adopted by ghosts, christened Nobody Owens (Bod for short) and given the Freedom of the Graveyard.
Gaiman said he has been following the debate about the Newbery, never imagining he would become part of it. Beloved by readers and book-sellers, he is certainly far more popular than the past few Newbery winners, and he doesn’t think his novel, beyond a little death and darkness, is upsetting.
“Apart from the first few pages, it doesn’t exist to frighten people or trouble people,” he said. “I’ve written my share of disturbing stuff, but this book is really a way of trying to think about the process of growing up, and, of course, the fundamentally joyous tragedy of being a parent, that if you do your job properly, your kids will grow up and leave you.”
Gaiman, 48, has three children. Two have grown and moved away.
Source: Associated Press
Neil Gaiman is one of the top ten living post-modern writers, and is a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama.
Neil Gaiman is the co-author, with Terry Pratchett, of Good Omens, a novel about how the world is going to end and how we’re all going to die. Good Omens spent 17 consecutive weeks on the Sunday Times bestseller list in 1990 and has gone on to become an international bestseller.
Neil Gaiman was the creator/writer of monthly cult DC Comics horror-weird series, Sandman, which won nine Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, including the award for best writer four times, and three Harvey Awards. Sandman #19 took the 1991 World Fantasy Award for best short story, making it the first comic ever to be awarded a literary award.
American Gods book review
Neverwhere book review
The Graveyard Book review
Posted: February 1st, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Neil Gaiman
Comments
[...] was announced yesterday that Gaiman is the 2009 Newbery Medal winner for The Graveyard Book, published by Harper Collins and illustrated by his longtime collaborator [...]
Do you have something to add to this post? Please leave a comment
Book of the Month
Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill
Some doors are better left closed . . . In Barrington House, an upmarket block in London, there is an empty apartment. No one goes in, no one comes out. And it’s been that way for fifty years. Until the night watchman hears a disturbance after midnight and investigates. What he experiences is enough to change his life forever.
Latest interviews
Interviews plus question and answer sessions with authors, narrators and publishers.
Must-reads
The following reviews are of books that begin the very best fantasy series available.
Competition: Win a signed copy of Graham Hancock's Entangled
Graham Hancock is the author of The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis, Heaven's Mirror, Supernatural and other bestselling investigations of historical mysteries. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages and have sold over five million copies worldwide. Written with the same page-turning appeal that has made his non-fiction so popular, Entangled is his first work of fiction. We have five signed copies of Entangled to give away as prizes. Email us the answer to the following question and the lucky winner, chosen at random, will receive a copy of the book, signed by the author.
Special Feature: Fantasy Book Review talks to the Book View Cafe
Book View Cafe is a cooperative site created by a group of writers - including internationally renowned authors Katharine Kerr, Ursula Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre - who want to take advantage of the internet's possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to their readers. The Book View Cafe is a place where you can find free, original fiction plus the authors' best and out-of-print work for a fee. Fantasy Book Review spoke to Book View Cafe member, science fiction author and memoirist Chris Dolley in February 2010.
Special Feature: Understanding the author of Alice in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll, the elusive author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, has been the subject of enduring fascination for the past hundred years. The destruction of many major documents about his personal life by his descendants has only magnified the mystery. Jenny Woolf's biography, published to coincide with the release of the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film, lays waste to the myths and suspicions that have obscured Carroll's reputation by placing him firmly in the context of his own time.
