Letter from Rachel Alexander to Paula Danziger Announcing Her Win of the Jo Osborne Award

This is a copy of a letter sent from Rachel Alexander to author Paula Danziger, announcing her selection as the 2004 winner of the Jo Osborne Award for Humor in Children's Literature, which was established in memory of librarian Jo Osborne.

Danziger was the author of over 30 books for children, including her 1974 debut novel "The Cat Ate My Gymsuit," which won the Massachusetts Children's Book Award. She began her career as a teacher but started writing after surviving two automobile accidents, which prompted her to follow her longtime dream. Her Amber Brown series of books was made into an Apple TV+ show that aired in 2022. Danziger often said that her alternative career choice would have been stand-up comedian, and she was a popular speaker in schools.

Jo Osborne was a children's librarian at Worthington Libraries from 1979 until her death at age 59 in 1995. The Jo Osborne Award for Humor in Children's Literature was established in 1996 to honor her commitment to bringing children, books and humor together. The award recognizes the art of humor in either a single children's book or in the body of work of a children's literature author. As described in the brochure for the award, Jo "sought out the silly, the funny, the poignant, the witty for storytelling and puppet shows to impart a love of books to all the children who were lucky enough to cross her path" during her years as a librarian.

Danziger received her award during a ceremony at The Ohio State University's Children's Literature Conference, which took place in January, 2004.

In addition to Danziger's receipt of the award in 2004, the other Jo Osborne Award winners were Patricia Polacco (1996), Sid Fleischman (1997), Steven Kellogg (1998), Jon Scieszka (1999), William Steig (2000), Rosemary Wells (2001), Kevin Henkes (2002), Tomie dePaola (2003), Daniel Pinkwater (2010), and Betsy Lewin (2011).

Rachel Alexander was the chairperson for the Jo Osborne Award selection committee. She worked for Worthington Libraries from 1976 to 1985, and again from 1997 to 2008; during that time she served many roles, including community services librarian, children’s librarian, youth services manager and youth services materials selector.

The letter pictured here has been altered to remove the address and email of the sender.