2022 Aesop Prize Winners and Accolades

Winners

The Children’s Folklore section’s Aesop Prize committee has awarded one of the two 2022 Aesop prizes to Blancaflor, The Hero with Secret Powers: A Folktale from Latin America written by Nadja Spiegelman, illustrated by Sergio García Sánchez and published by Toon Books. Blancaflor employs vivid narrative and illustrations to relate this popular Latin American folktale of female and native empowerment and does so with fresh, fun dialogue that preserves andbcommunicates the folkloric tradition it comes from with many notes on where and how the tradition has evolved to produce this fine work.

The Children’s Folklore section’s Aesop Prize committee has also awarded the 2022 Aesop prize to A Bedtime Full of Stories: 50 Folktales from around the World written by Angela McAllister, illustrated by Anna Shepeta and published by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books. A Bedtime Full of Stories employs simple but beautiful narrative to relate folktales both familiar and new from all over the world that both use and subvert the well-known folktale tropes that will delight and surprise readers of all ages.

Accolades

The Children’s Folklore section’s Aesop Prize committee has awarded a 2022 Aesop accolade to The Man of the Moon written by Gunvor Bjerre, illustrated by Miki Jacobsen and published by
Inhabit Media. The Man of the Moon, published for the first time in English, is a delight for readers of all ages with its surprising and humorous tales and evocative watercolor illustrations that will bring the people and folklore of Greenland to life for English-speaking audiences around the world.

The Children’s Folklore section’s Aesop Prize committee has also awarded a 2022 Aesop accolade to Across the Rainbow Bridge: Stories of Norse Gods and Humans written by Kevin Crossley-Holland, illustrated by Jeffrey Alan Love, and published by Candlewick Press. Across the Rainbow Bridge is a companion volume to North Myths: Tales of Odin, Thor, and Loki but stands on its own as a brilliant volume that focuses less on the tales of creation and epic feats and more on the small-scale interactions between the Norse gods and regular people. The combination of compelling storytelling in poetic prose and stark, expressionist illustrations still emphasizes the towering effect the gods have over human’s lives, even small, quiet ones.