No Morning TV for Newbery/Caldecott Winners

A long-standing tradition was broken last year. The winners of the Newbery and Caldecott Awards were not invited to appear on the Today Show the day after the announcements. They were snubbed again this year, despite ALA’s efforts to reach out to the shows, as reported by Publishers Weekly.

It’s beginning to seem that the 2009 appearance, below, will be the last one.

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The winners were not overlooked by NPR, however, which featured an interview with Caldecott medalist Chris Raschka on All Things Considered. Newbery medalist Jack Gantos appeared on NPR’s comedy show, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! on Saturday.

As for the Today Show, it did feature a children’s title this week. On Wednesday, Henry Winkler talked about the debut of Zero to Hero, (Scholastic, Jan 1)the first book in his new Ghost Buddy series. Despite the attention, it currently falls far below the Newbery and Caldecott medalists on Amazon sales rankings.

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5 Responses to “No Morning TV for Newbery/Caldecott Winners”

  1. John Davis Says:

    As someone said to me long ago, the visuals are better on NPR.

  2. Nora Rawlinson Says:

    Well said!

  3. Joan Says:

    Why is it surprising that the main network stations did not respond to ALA’s request? Don’t give up so easily! The celebrity culture is the regular visitor on these networks. We need to demand more from them – otherwise they get away with it…and we continue to all be dumbed down!

  4. Chris Says:

    I think librarians should try to get the Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson to interview the ALA winners. Ferguson is a writer himself, and he has interviewed a fair number of writers on his show. I have seen Nick Hornby, Laura Lippman and Dennis Lehane. He has had Neil Gaiman on, too. Come on, let’s start writing!

  5. Terri Says:

    I don’t watch the Today Show any more…it has become one big tabloid show. They should try to get on CBS’s new morning show with Charlie Rose. He certainly takes authors seriously! I also like the idea of Craig Ferguson. He is crazy about authors!