Américas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature

Just In Case (Roaring Brook, 2008) by Yuyi Morales and The Surrender Tree (Holt, 2008) by Margarita Engle, were the winners of the Américas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature, sponsored by the national Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP). Additional titles were recognized as honor or commended titles.

The Américas Award is given in recognition of U.S. works of fiction, poetry, folklore, or selected non-fiction (from picture books to works for young adults) published in the previous year in English or Spanish that authentically and engagingly portray Latin America, the Caribbean, or Latinos in the United States. By combining both and linking the Americas, the award reaches beyond geographic borders, as well as multicultural-international boundaries, focusing instead upon cultural heritages within the hemisphere.

The award winners and commended titles are selected for their 1) distinctive literary quality; 2) cultural contextualization; 3) exceptional integration of text, illustration and design; and 4) potential for classroom use. The winning books were honored at a ceremony (October 17, 2009) at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Américas Award Winners

Just in Case: A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book by Yuyi Morales. Roaring Brook Press (A Neal Porter Book), 2008. 32 pgs. ISBN 978-1-59643-329-8

Señor Calavera is back again and ready to celebrate Grandma Beetle’s birthday. Since Mexican etiquette requires that a guest never attends a cumpleaños empty-handed, our poor friend must find the perfect gift. But, what does Grandma Beetle really want for her birthday? Readers follow Señor Calavera as he collects a series of regalitos, each representative of the twenty nine letters of the Spanish alphabet, until he ultimately finds the present that Grandma Beetle loves the most. Morales’ vibrantly-hued illustrations include layers of meaning imbued with cultural content and literary allusions. Many of the images in the Mexican Lotería cards on the endpapers are hidden within the pages of the humorous tale and little details, peppered throughout the illustrations, draw readers back to the pages again and again. Truly this is a visual fiesta that will have readers returning again and again “just in case” they missed something in Morales’ well-crafted illustrations. (gr K-4)

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle. Holt, 2008. 169 pgs. ISBN 978-0-8050-8674-4

Written in breathtaking verse, The Surrender Tree portrays Cuba’s three wars for independence spanning thirty years in the nineteenth century. As with her previous book: Juan Francisco Manzano, the Poet Slave of Cuba, Engle develops the story by presenting different points of view, especially from Rosa, a freed slave. Rosa, known in Cuba as Rosa la Bayomesa, healed the injured during the wars, turning caves into hospitals, using wild plants as her medicines. In a final proof of her humanity she treats the lieutenant who has sworn to kill her. The book describes the suffering and horrors during the wars, including the first systematic use of concentration camps, but the main message of the book is that freedom exists only when everyone shares it. (gr 8-10)

The members of the Review Committee for the Américas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature were:

Kristel Foster (Sunnyside Unified School District, Tucson)

Jamie Campbell Naidoo (University of South Carolina)

Hollis Rudiger (Madison, WI)

Elena Serapiglia (Yale University)

Patricia Velasco (Columbia Teachers College)

Julie Kline is the Américas Award Coordinator for the CLASP Committee on Teaching and Outreach:

The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201
(414) 229-5986 phone
(414) 229-2879 fax

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