Caldecott Medal

Karen Cushman and Peggy Rathmann yesterday were named the 1996 winners of the nation's most prestigious prizes in kiddie lit. Cushman won the John Newbery Medal for her book The Midwife's Apprentice, about a homeless waif who becomes a midwife's student. Last year Cushman's book Catherine Called Birdy was named a Newbery Honor Book. Rathmann won the Randolph Caldecott Medal for the illustrations she did for her book Officer Buckle and Gloria, about a whimsical police dog and a straight-arrow safety cop. The American Library Association, which awards the medals, also gave a lifetime achievement award to Judy Blume, cited Paul R. Gayne's kid-vid Owen, and gave Tom Feelings (The Middle Passage: White Ships, Black Cargo)

Print collectors have been described as the vegetarians of art, settling for a smaller piece of the action but unswervingly loyal in their narrowness. Only in a limited sense does this description fit the two collectors whose holdings are highlighted in an exceptionally fine print show, "Toulouse- Lautrec to Picasso: Masterprints from Winterthur, Switzerland," at the Delaware Art Museum. Items by these artists make up the bulk of about 8,000 prints amassed by the late Swiss businessman Oskar Reinhart, from which 101 items are on loan from the museum that bears his name.

If you've never had a hungry lion chase you under your bed or hopped on board a Christmas Eve train bound for the North Pole, you may just get a chance this weekend. On Sunday at 12:30, author-illustrator Chris Van Allsburg will be at Borders Book Shop, 1727 Walnut St. A two-time winner of the prestigious Caldecott medal for children's literature, Van Allsburg has enabled an entire generation of kids to romp with rhinos in "Jumanji" or meet the guy in the red suit in "The Polar Express.

From the tattered world of used-book sales, here's a cheap tale: Fifty-thousand previously owned books, records and Super-8 movies went on public sale yesterday at the main branch of the Camden County Library in Voorhees. Imagine it - a sea of paperbacks at 25 cents apiece. Hardcovers for 50 cents. Films for $1. Consider the possibilities: A set of The American People's Encyclopedia for 10 bucks. A dozen throbbing Harlequin Romance novels - how about Man Hunt or Saved from Sin?

In 1958, Michael S. Brown left Cheltenham High School after graduation to pursue two interests - writing and science. On Friday, 29 years later, he returned to his alma mater with an M.D. after his name and a Nobel Prize in medicine under his belt to urge Cheltenham High School students to pursue careers in science, even if they are not academic leaders of their class. "I would love to have a few of you follow in my footsteps," Brown told almost 300 students gathered in the high school's Little Theater.

Get ready to take off at the Franklin Air Show, the newest attraction at the Franklin Institute. After seven months of renovation and preparation, the 5,000-square-foot permanent exhibition will open Saturday. The exhibition is divided into three areas: the aircraft hangar, the midway, and a pilot training area. More than 20 interactive devices are designed to educate visitors about what makes flight possible. A full-motion flight simulator (hop aboard for a $3, three-minute ride)

At age 4, Bryan Collier read a picture book about a boy playing in a city blanketed by fresh snow. "I was drawn to it, but I couldn't articulate what I was feeling at 4. It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized how important that book was - because it was the first time where there was this kid who looked like me and I saw myself in a book," said Collier, 42. Collier read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, a son of Polish immigrants, who...

Danielle Korhonen took yesterday morning off school to watch the plot of Virginia Lee Burton's 1942 Caldecott Medal winner unfold on the shady streets of Langhorne Borough. The Little House, which Danielle read last year in second grade, tells the tale of a country house saddened by construction around her. After being jacked up on a truck and wheeled to a cozy new spot, the one-story bungalow smiles once again. The Langhorne adaptation had builder Brad McGowan moving a three-story Victorian house out of the way of a planned 100-unit assisted-living complex on Pine Street.

Thomas J. Titto, chief of the Riverside, N.J., Police Department for the past 29 years, died Tuesday. He was 60 and a lifelong resident of Riverside. Titto spent a total of 38 years on the police force. After graduating from Riverside High School, he joined the U.S. Navy, and served in the Pacific during World War II as a gunner's mate aboard a destroyer. He was a member of the New Jersey, South Jersey and Burlington County police chiefs associations, and Local 37 of the Policeman's Benevolent Association of Burlington County.

Paule Turner never thought about the World Trade Center towers before Sept. 11, 2001. Seven years later, they are the source of his artistic vision. The Philadelphia director-choreographer's original dance work The Man Who Walked Between the Towers will be presented at Rowan University next week. Inspired by Mordecai Gerstein's Caldecott Medal-winning picture book of the same name, Towers juxtaposes the events of 9/11 with details of French aerialist Philippe Petit's 1974 high-wire walk between the twin towers.