Writer Jacqueline Woodson and artist Albertine are the winners of this year’s Hans Christian Andersen Awards, widely considered among the most prestigious prizes in children’s literature.
The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) announced the winners of the prizes in a press release on Monday.
Woodson, known for books such as Brown Girl Dreaming, Harbor Me, and After Tupac and D Foster, was cited by IBBY for her work’s “lyrical language, powerful characters, and an abiding sense of hope.”
She’s one of the most acclaimed children’s authors in America, having won a Newbery Honor, a National Book Award, and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. She has served as the Young People’s Poet Laureate and the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.
The mononymous Albertine is a Swiss artist known for her illustrations in books like Marta and the Bicycle, Little Bird, and Line 135, all of which were written by her husband, Germano Zullo. IBBY says that she’s “known for work that expresses spontaneity combined with attention to detail, infinite precision, as well as a sense of humor.”
The Andersen Awards, often called “the Nobel Prize of children’s literature,” are given to authors and illustrators not for a specific book, but rather as a reflection of their entire career. Previous winners of the biennial prizes include Maurice Sendak, Paula Fox, Virginia Hamilton, and Katherine Paterson.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
