Alexander, Santat win top children's book prizes

Kwame Alexander's The Crossover, a novel in verse about basketball and coming of age, has won the John Newbery Medal for the year's best children's book. Author-illustrator Dan Santat's The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, a fantasy featuring an island for pretend playmates, received the Randolph Caldecott Medal for best picture book.

The awards were announced on Sunday in Chicago by the American Library Association, currently hosting its annual midwinter meeting. The Newbery and Caldecott awards are widely regarded as the highest honors in children's publishing, near-guarantors of increased sales and lasting places on school and library shelves. Both books were out of stock on Amazon.com as of midday on Monday.

Another coming-of-age story in verse, Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming, won the Coretta Scott King author prize for outstanding work by an African-American. Woodson, last fall's winner of the National Book Award, was a finalist on Monday for the Newbery medal and the Sibert medal for "most distinguished informational book".