FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 26, 2007

Media contact: Dana J. Callaway, media@emporia.edu, 620-341-5454

For more information contact: Miss Joyce Davis, jdavis@emporia.edu, 620-341-5208

2007 William Allen White Book Award winners selected

EMPORIA , KANSAS – “The Report Card” by Andrew Clements and “So B. It” by Sarah Weeks are the newest winners of the William Allen White Children’s Book Award.

This is the third White Award for Clements, who won in 1999 for “Frindle” and in 2002 for “The Landry News.” His latest winner, “The Report Card” is about a young genius named Nora who hides her intelligence so she won’t be singled out. Only the school librarian realizes the truth: that Nora is determined to prove that test scores have nothing to do with intelligence.

“So B. It” is about Heidi, whose mother is mentally handicapped, possessing a vocabulary of 23 words. Her mother’s life is a mystery, right down to her real name — when first asked by a neighbor; her mother said simply “So be it.” So when Heidi finds some old Christmas photos from Liberty, N.Y., she decides to go there in order to piece together her past at last.

The White awards will be presented Sept. 29 at William Lindsay White Auditorium. A full day of activities ranging from author autographs to face painting to story telling will be held prior to the awards ceremony.

More than 60,000 Kansas boys and girls in the third through eighth grades participated in the voting for this year’s awards. A wards are chosen each year by Kansas schoolchildren from a master list books. "The Report Card" was chosen for the third through fifth grade award, while "So B. It" won the sixth through eighth grade award.

The White Awards Program, which is the nation’s first statewide reader’s choice award, is directed by Emporia State University and is supported by the Trusler Foundation.

Since 1952, more than 3,700,000 votes have been cast by the children of Kansas to select the annual winners of the White Book Awards. The White Award Program was founded by Ruth Carver Gagliardo, a specialist in Children’s Literature, to honor the memory of one of the state’s most distinguished citizens by encouraging the boys and girls of Kansas to read and enjoy good books. Gagaliardo’s dedicated and inspired leadership guided the White Award Program from 1952 until her death on January 5, 1980.