Author Neil Gaiman has been honored with the most prestigious writing award in American children's literature for „The Graveyard Book,” which tells the story of an orphan that is raised by ghosts.

Since the English novelist, graphic novelist and screenwriter has been living in Minnesota, he was thus eligible for the American Library Association-sponsored Newbery Medal.

The Association’s Caldecott Medal for children's book illustration was awarded to Beth Krommes for „The House in the Night,” while the Printz Award for young adult literature was earned by Melina Marchetta for her „Jellicoe Road” novel. The latter, which is the writer’s third novel, revolves around the life Taylor Markam, who is a boarder at the Jellicoe School and leads a very complex life rife with turmoil and hardships.

Speaking of his book at the National Book Festival last fall, Gaiman said that it had been the one that had taken him the longest time to write and that it had stemmed from his idea of writing something similar to Rudyard Kipling's „The Jungle Books,” only instead of having the character brought up by animals, he had chosen to have him raised by a graveyard full of ghosts.

Monday, the 2009 Youth Media Awards were announced in Denver at the American Library Association's midwinter meeting, with Kadir Nelson, who wrote and illustrated „We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball,” having won the Coretta Scott King Award, while the King illustration award was earned by „The Blacker the Berry,” which was illustrated by Floyd Cooper.