TCCL News & Events

Newbery Medal-winning author Christopher Paul Curtis is the winner of the Tulsa Library Trust’s 2009 Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers’ Literature. He will accept his award at a public presentation at Central Library, Fourth Street and Denver Avenue, Aug. 28, 2009.

Bursting on the literary scene with his first children’s book in 1995, “The Watson’s Go to Birmingham – 1963,” Curtis received praise for combining factual and fictional events of an African-American family and the racism they encounter during a road trip from Flint, Mich. to Alabama. This debut novel received a Newbery Honor and the Coretta Scott King Award.

Building on that success, his next book, “Bud, Not Buddy,” was awarded the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award in 2000. This was the first time an author has received both awards for the same book. Again, the setting is Flint, where the story follows a main character looking for his father and details a search filled with equal parts of sadness and hope.

Raised in Flint, Curtis worked for 13 years as an automobile assembly line worker. His wife, Kaysandra, encouraged him to return to college and pursue his desire to write. He has written six novels including “Bucking the Sarge,” “Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money,” “Mr. Chickee’s Messy Mission” and the 2008 Newbery Honor book “Elijah of Buxton.”

The Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers’ Literature gives formal recognition, on behalf of the Tulsa County community, to a nationally acclaimed author who has made a significant contribution to the field of literature and young adults. The award consists of a $7,500 cash prize and an engraved crystal book.

For more information on the Zarrow award or other library programming, call the AskUs Hotline, 596-7977, or visit the library’s Web site, www.tuslalibrary.org.