Alumnus Honored with Second Newberry

Christopher Paul Curtis ('00 BGS) has won his second Newberry Honor Book award. He won the same award in 1996 and is also the recipient of a Coretta Scott King Award.

The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The awards were announced on January 14, 2008.

Curtis received the award for his book Elijah of Buxton (Scholastic). In Elijah of Buxton, Elijah is the first free-born child in Buxton, a Canadian community of escaped slaves, in 1860. With masterful storytelling, vibrant humor, and poignant insight into the realities of slavery and the meaning of freedom, Curtis takes readers on a journey that transforms a "fra-gile" 11-year-old boy into a courageous hero.

Curtis received his first Honor Book for The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963. The book was also selected for a special community reading program sponsored by the Flint Library.