March 28, 2021
Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away Wins the 2021 Margaret Wise Brown Prize in Children’s Literature
On Friday, Hollins University, here in Virginia, announced that my picture book, Evelyn Del Rey is Moving Away, has won the 2021 Margaret Wise Brown Prize in Children's Literature. The honor book this year is Christian Robinson's You Matter (Atheneum 2020). I'm delighted to be honored with Christian whose work I so admire. And I am so grateful to the many friends and colleagues who sent sweet messages my way as soon as they saw the news on social media. Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away has enjoyed success beyond what I could have ever predicted - which goes to prove that, in publishing, your career includes so many things that you can't control. I wrote the book remembering my childhood friends, and I was sure it would be turn out to be a quiet book that would resonate with a core of readers. What I didn't know, of course, was that Covid 19 would upend our lives and make us long for our loved ones in new ways. I didn't know that kids might need an emotional roadmap on how to stay connected with friends. I didn't know that Jumpstart's "Read for the Record" would come along and bring the story to millions of kids. The medal is a beautiful honor also because it's named for Margaret Wise Brown, who graduated from Hollins in 1932, and went on to write Goodnight Moon, The Runaway Bunny, and other children’s classics before she died suddenly, doing a can-can kick that caused an…
