Disbelief is always the reaction, because you don’t know, you’re not nominated. I mean, the publisher sends your book to the committee and they look at it. I had won an honor earlier for a book called Time Flies. I had that experience before. But you just don’t, it just doesn’t cross your mind.
There’s something in the back of your mind that knows that’s the time that, you know, late January, early February when they give the awards. But I guess I wasn’t thinking about it. Can I tell you a short, story about when I won the award the first time, the Caldecott honor, my family was gathered together, my cousin Paul was about five years older than me, he goes so you won this award, this big deal award in your field, so how much did you get for it?
I said well, actually there’s no monetary award at all, I mean, you sell more books, but there’s no monetary award. He nodded, and he said well, do you get to like go to London or New York or something. I said well, this year it’s actually in Chicago, so I’ll probably just take the train down. He nodded, and he said well, what about the trophy, do you get a trophy or anything?
I said well, you get this little certificate. He nodded. After that he referred to it as the Cul-de-Sac Award, because in my family it just really didn’t go anywhere. Of course, that’s what family does, they keep you grounded, you know. It’s so endearing now to me, people say oh, was that insulting to you. In no way because that’s what family does is they keep you who you are as opposed to who you might start to believe you are.