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Local librarians to help decide 'Academy Award' children's book winners Date published: 1/9/2007
WHEN THE "Academy Rebecca Purdy, youth services manager at the headquarters library, is serving on this year's Sibert Committee, which chooses the creators of the year's most distinguished informational book for readers through age 14. I am serving on the Caldecott Committee, which selects the most distinguished picture book of the year. Both of us are spending all our spare time between now and then rereading, taking notes and checking reviews in preparation for our three days of intensive discussion in Seattle. Here in Fredericksburg, the library's youth services staff is planning a mock awards discussion of our own. While we make no promises that we've chosen the winning book, here's a look at what we're considering for Sibert. "The Adventures of Marco Polo" by Russell Freedman recounts the marvelous stories that have entertained readers for more than 600 years--deadly sandstorms, treacherous expeditions over mountains, and a lengthy stay in the court of Kublai Khan among them. But Freedman goes beyond the "wow" factor to discuss how much of the story is actually true. Citing contemporary scholarship as well as the reactions of Polo's own family (who begged him to confess on his deathbed that he had made it all up), Freedman weaves a story filled with mystery as well as adventure. In "It's Not the Stork! A Book about Girls, Boys, Babies, Bodies, Families, and Friends" by Robie Harris and Michael Emberley, two cartoon characters, a bird and a bee, ask and answer the normal questions about their bodies that most kids between
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