Children’s library creates award to honor former student

The Cooperative Children’s Book Center has established an award and lecture series to honor Charlotte Zolotow, a distinguished editor of children’s books and a former UW–Madison student.

Zolotow worked as an editor for 38 years with Harper Junior Books and is the author of more than 65 picture books, including such classic works as Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present (Harper, 1962) and William’s Doll (Harper, 1972). From 1933 to 1936 she attended UW–Madison, where she studied with and was mentored by Helen C. White.

The first winner of the Charlotte Zolotow Award for picture book text is Vera B. Williams for Lucky Song, published by Greenwillow Books. The award will be officially presented Oct. 1 at the first annual Charlotte Zolotow lecture, at which poet Karla Kuskin will be the featured speaker.

The Cooperative Children’s Book Center, a library of the School of Education, is a non-circulating library for adults with a professional, career, or academic interest in children’s and young adult literature.