The New York Public Library and the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation have announced the 2007 winners of the Ezra Jack Keats Book Awards. Acording to the press release,

• Brooklyn based Kristen Balouch will receive the New Illustrator Award for her book, Mystery Bottle (Hyperion, 2006), a heartwarming story about a young boy and his grandfather separated by the distance of their countries and united by a mysterious bottle.
• The 2007 New Writer Award will go to first-time children’s book writer Kelly Cunnane for For You Are A Kenyan Child (Atheneum, 2006), illustrated by previous Keats Book Award winner Ana Juan, which recounts a day in the life of a young boy growing up a small Kenyan village. Kelly Cunnane lived in Africa for many years but now resides in Beals, Maine.

For more about Ezra Jack Keats and his picture books, see The Magic of Ezra Jack Keats and Keat's Neighborhood: An Ezra Jack Keats Treasury, which was published in honor of the 40th anniversary of Keats' The Snowy Day. Do you and your family have favorite children's books by Ezra Jack Keats? If so, click on "comments" below and share your recommendations.