I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Denver for ALA Midwinter. While I was there, they announced the winner of this year’s Newbery medal: Neil Gaiman‘s Graveyard Book. I’ve been hoping to get around to this book– but if it’s anywhere near as well-written as Gaiman’s other juvenile titles (like Coraline), the Newbery committee chose well. (You can hear an interview with Neil, and an excerpt from the book, on NPR’s website.) Congratulations to Neil, and to the other authors who won Newbery honors and ALA’s other awards for children’s books this year.
When I blogged about last year’s Newbery awards, I noted that most of the 1922 medalists and honorees were online, and that about a dozen later Newbery honorees were also out of copyright and could go online. Since then, my partner-in-bookery Mary has found and digitized many of those later books for a special Celebration of Women Writers exhibit, “Newbery Honor Books and Medal Winners by Women, 1922-1964“. You can also find these and other online prize-winners from my Prize Winning Books Online page.
(As I mentioned in a previous post, I went out to ALA Midwinter to give a couple of talks on the future of library catalog interfaces and data. I’ll have a post with pointers to slides and notes for those talks shortly.)
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Add writer Neil Gaiman to the celebrity Scientology list. Neil Gaiman was a class VIII auditor and Executive Director of the Birmingham Org. He was a Case Supervisor at the Guardian Office. In 1983 Neil Gaiman is supposedly declared “suppressive” but in 1988, FIVE YEARS AFTER THE DECLARE, Neil’s name appears in graduate lists in The Auditor Worldwide as completing three courses. His family members are heavy-weight Scientologists; father David Gaiman was head of the Guardian Office and is active in Russia, sister Claire Edwards is an executive in Scientology Missions International (recruiting end of Scieno), wife Mary Gaiman is listed as “clear” in 2002, Mother Sheila Gaiman is a big time Scientologist with her own site and is also active in Russia. Other sister Lizzie Calcione “runs a Scientology practice in East Grinstead , that is a mixture of auditing and WISE delivery.” The Gaiman Family are listed as founding US “Patrons” of Scientology for 2004 & 2006 so they donate large amounts of money to “clear the planet.” According to Celebrity Scientology blog-writer Grahame when asked about Neil’s scientology current status: “My answer is that I heard from a close relative of his that he (Neil Gaiman) is taking services at Flag.”