2004 Beatty Award Winner
James Haskins will be awarded the 2004 John and Patricia Beatty Award for his enthralling young adult biography entitled Cecil Poole, A Life in the Law.
Readers will meet an Alabama-born black man whose quiet heroism and judicial temperament provide an understanding of the American judicial system, and the inner workings of the government from the 1950s through the 1980s. Mr. Poole served as San Francisco City Attorney; was an appointee of Governor Pat Brown; served as a U.S. Attorney; and finally became a member of the history-making Ninth Federal District Court in San Francisco.
This biography gives a wonderful and eye-opening experience into the San Francisco of the mid-1900s and beyond. What we think of as a fairly enlightened city was in the past a city of cross burnings and segregated housing and schools, along with the not-so-surprising protests against U.S. atomic explosions in the Pacific and rock concerts with questionable beverages.
All of this experience is seen through the prism of Poole's judicial decisions. His calm temperament and meticulous work helped keep this country together during turbulent times.
The 2004 Beatty Award Committee, consisting of Elizabeth Krieger of SLO City/County Library; Julie Passalacqua of Santa Clary City Library; Chuck Ashton of Redwood City Public Library; and Chair Laura Remer of Anthony Chabot Elementary School Library in Oakland met in San Luis Obispo in March to discuss the nearly 60 entries for the award. If "Beatty Honor" books were awarded, this committee would give honor awards to picture book biography Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull, and a highly entertaining chapter book with a Southern California setting entitled Ruby Electric by Theresa Nelson.
Look for 20 of these titles to be included on an updated Eureka bibliography, and congratulations to James Haskins and his fascinating biography, Cecil Poole, A Life in the Law.