
With a core of regular committee members, the award has become a way to contribute to an ongoing conversation about literature for inexperienced readers and to draw attention to the literature that offers, in many different ways, originality, accessibility, and high quality for that audience.Īccording to committee chair Deborah Stevenson, Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie, which follows a young girl’s adjustment as her beloved babysitter moves away, “provides a sympathetic and respectful treatment of a child’s experience of loss in a highly readable format. The prize is awarded to the author of an outstanding English language work of fiction or non-fiction for which the primary audience is children in kindergarten through fourth grade, and which best exemplifies those qualities that successfully bridge the gap in difficulty between books for reading aloud to children and books for practiced readers. This year’s committee was chaired by Deborah Stevenson, director of the Center for Children’s Books, and Kate Quealy-Gainer, assistant editor of the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. The Gryphon Award, which includes a $1,000 prize, is given annually by the Center for Children’s Books. Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie, written by Julie Sternberg, illustrated by Matthew Cordell, and published by Amulet Books, is the winner of the 2012 Gryphon Award for Children’s Literature.
