The Guardian's Take on Gaiman's Medal

Here is the latest from the Guardian blog.

Yesterday's news that Neil Gaiman won the Newbery Medal, America's most prestigious award for children's literature, was a welcome surprise for a number of reasons. There was Gaiman's high-spirited, profanity-laced reaction to the news on his Twitter feed – two qualities not commonly associated with children's book authors of yore. There was the more measured and amusing take on his blog (Merrilee-my-agent: "You didn't start swearing, did you?" Me: "No." Her: "Oh good."). But Gaiman's win for The Graveyard Book, about a boy raised by ghosts who faces the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead, also appears to put to bed the notion that the Newbery Medal is out of touch with what people are reading.

Read the entire article, entitled Gaiman's Newbery win is a vote for populism - and for excellence.