Chesterfield author Patricia C. McKissack has won a Coretta Scott King author honor award for her 2011 picture book "Never Forgotten," illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon.

This year's Caldecott Medal goes to "A Ball for Daisy" by Chris Raschka, the American Library Association announced today.

Three Caldecott Honor Books also were named: “Blackout,” illustrated and written by John Rocco; "Grandpa Green" illustrated and written by Lane Smith; and “Me … Jane,” illustrated and written by Patrick McDonnell.

This year's Newbery Award goes to "Dead End in Norvelt" by Jack Gantos. Honor books are  "Inside Out & Back Again," written by Thanhha Lai  and "Breaking Stalin’s Nose,” written and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin.

The Newbery, Caldecott and King awards are considered the Academy Awards for children's books. They usually ensure a long life for their winners and often high sales.

They are given every January by the American Library Association, which this year is meeting in Dallas.

Kadir Nelson has won the Coretta Scott King Award for "Heart and Soul." He also won a King Illustrator honor for the same book.

Patricia McKissack has written more than 100 books, many with her husband, Fredrick. They often focus on African Americans or African American history. "Never Forgotten" is a story -- told in verse -- of an African boy captured by slave traders and lost, but not forgotten, by his family. A review in Publishers Weekly said:

McKissack's (The All-I'll-Ever-Want Christmas Doll) story about a Malian boy abducted and sold into slavery has frightening moments, but carries dignity and even triumph away from them. Forceful and iconic, the Dillons' (The Secret River) woodcut-style paintings use gentle colors and strong lines to telegraph scary sequences, but do not dwell on them. McKissack's free verse incorporates a Greek chorus of the elements Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind, who watch over the infant Musafa and assist his father, Dinga, in his blacksmith's work, but cannot save Musafa after he is brought to the New World. He surfaces in South Carolina, a gifted blacksmith like his father, and Wind, which has made itself into a hurricane to cross the ocean, is at last able to bring word to Dinga of his beloved son: "Though a slave, he lives!" Readers learn Musafa's owner may free him, but "In my mind," Wind hears Musafa say, "I have always been free,/ As free as Wind." The willingness to turn the dark history of the past into literature takes not just talent but courage. McKissack has both. All ages. (Oct.)

These announcements were on the American Library Association's Facebook page. I've just found a press release with the complete list of award winners.