2019 CALA Best Book Award Recipients

It is the pleasure of our committee to announce the winners of CALA Best Book Awards 2019:

1. Written by Christina Matula and Illustrated by Pearl Law The Shadow in the Moon Charlesbridge Christina Matula 9781580897464 July 2018

2. Kelly Yang Front Desk Scholastic Inc. Emily Heddleson 9781338157796 May 2018

We received 4 nominated titles. The committee carefully evaluated them, made comments and then castes our votes.

Front Desk

Author Kelly Yang tells a story about the family of Chinese immigrants who has been struggling with every day’s life, from the view of a ten-year-old girl who takes over the front desk of a motel that her parents manage. With her parents, this little girl needs to deal with a cruel and exploitive owner while handling all kinds of problem pertaining to the routine management as well as racism, dangers, and bully encountered. Even with enormous hardship, the author uses a positive tone throughout to describe a successful story that this immigrant family has experienced.

The Shadow in the Moon

The author brings together several important Chinese cultural elements into this little children’s book: fairy tales, moon stories, shooting down the suns, moon cakes etc.. The author did a good job by rendering them into a readable story.

Sincerely,

Li Sun

CALA Best Book Award 2018-2019

Li Sun (lisun@rutgers.edu) (Co-Chair)

Daniel Xiao (danxiao@library.tamu.edu)

Hong Li (Li-H@mssu.edu)

Esther De Leon (esther.de-leon@ttu.edu)

Hilda LoGuan (HLOHGUAN@santa-clarita.com) (Co-Chair)