PEN congratulates Members Chris Raschka, winner of the 2012 Caldecott Medal; Jack Gantos, winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal; Daniel Handler, a Printz Honor winner; and Marina Budhos, a finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults.

The Association of Library Services to Children (ALSC), a division of the ALA, awarded the Randolph Caldecott Medal to Chris Raschka’s A Ball for Daisy, published by Schwartz & Wade, an imprint of Random House. The wordless picture book depicts the emotional ups and downs of a dog’s busy day with a beloved red ball. The Caldecott is given “to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published in the United States the previous year.” Raschka previously won the Caldecott in 2006 for The Hello, Goodbye Window, written by Norton Juster, and a Caldecott Honor in 1994 for Yo! Yes?

Jack Gantos won the John Newbery Medal for his novel Dead End in Norvelt, published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. The book is a semiautobiographical story about a boy growing up in a Pennsylvania town during the Great Depression. The Newbury is given to the “most distinguished American children’s book published the previous year.” Gantos won the Newbery Honor in 2001, for Joey Pigza Loses Control, and a 2003 Printz Honor (for the most distinguished book for young adults) for Hole in My Life.

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), also a division of the ALA, awarded a Michael L. Printz Honor to Why We Broke Up, written by Daniel Handler, illustrated by Maira Kalman, and published by Little, Brown. The Printz is given each year to a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature.

Marina Budhos is one of five finalists for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults. Her book, co-authored with Marc Aronson, is Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom and Science, published by Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

More information can be found at Publishers Weekly.