Speare and Nutmeg Collections

Award Winning Junior Fiction

Speare Collection
Winners of the prestigious Newbery Medal and Newbery Honor awards for juvenile fiction are housed in the children's collection in honor of Easton author and Newbery Medal recipient Elizabeth Speare.

The Newbery Medal is awarded annually by the American Library Association for the most distinguished American children's book published the previous year. On June 21, 1921, Frederic G. Melcher proposed the award to the American Library Association meeting of the Children's Librarians' Section and suggested that it be named for the eighteenth-century English bookseller John Newbery. The idea was enthusiastically accepted by the children's librarians, and Melcher's official proposal was approved by the ALA Executive Board in 1922. In Melcher's formal agreement with the board, the purpose of the Newbery Medal was stated as follows: "To encourage original creative work in the field of books for children. To emphasize to the public that contributions to the literature for children deserve similar recognition to poetry, plays, or novels. To give those librarians, who make it their life work to serve children's reading interests, an opportunity to encourage good writing in this field." (Courtesy of ala.org)

Nutmeg Collection
The Nutmeg Children's Book Award encourages children in grades 4-6 to read quality literature and to choose their favorite from a list of ten nominated titles. Jointly sponsored by the Connecticut Library Association (CLA) and the Connecticut Educational Media Association (CEMA) , the Nutmeg Committee is comprised of children's librarians, school library media specialists, teachers and students. (Courtesy of biblio.org) The Easton Library has a number of nutmeg titles which can be found in our catalog.