Kansas students select 2008 William Allen White Children’s Book Award winners

“A Dog’s Life: The Autobiography of a Stray,” by Ann M. Martin and “Airball: My Life in Briefs,” by L. D. Harkrader are this year’s winners of the William Allen White Children’s Book Awards.

The awards will be presented at the 56th annual William Allen White Children’s Book Awards ceremony Saturday, Oct. 4 at William Lindsay White Auditorium in Emporia. The event caps two days of activities ranging from author autographs to story telling, attracting school children from across Kansas.

This year, more than 50,000 third- through eighth-graders in Kansas schools participated in naming the two White Award-winning books. “A Dog’s Life” was the choice of third through fifth graders; “Airball” won the sixth through eighth grade award.

Ann M. Martin’s “A Dog’s Life” is the story of a stray puppy named Squirrel as she makes her way in the world, facing busy highways, changing seasons, and humans both gentle and brutal. Martin lives in Hudson Valley, N. Y., and is the author of the popular “The Baby-sitters Club” series of children’s books.

“Airball: My Life in Briefs” is Kansas author L. D. Harkrader’s story of an uncoordinated Kansas seventh-grader who braves his coach’s ire and becomes captain of the basketball team in order to help him prove that NBA star Brett McGrew is the father he has never known.

Martin and Harkrader are first-time William Allen White Children’s Book Award winners. They will be invited to participate in the October awards presentation.

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

Since its inception in 1952, more than 3.7-million votes have been cast by Kansas schoolchildren to select the annual winners of the White Book Awards. The 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. Gagliardo guided the White Award Program from 1952 until her death in 1980.

ABOUT THE BOOKS:

Martin, Ann M. A Dog’s Life: The Autobiography of a Stray. New York, Scholastic Press, 2005

Last Updated April 24, 2008>