Bob Minzesheimer

USA TODAY

Brian Floca%27s %27Locomotive%27 wins Caldecott Medal for best illustrated book

Top prizes in children%27s literature are awarded

DiCamillo%27s %27The Tale of Despereaux%27 and %27Because of Winn-Dixie%27 became films

Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by K.G.Campbell, a sweet and funny fantasy about a cynical 10-year-old girl obsessed with comic books and a flying squirrel who can type poetry, has won the Newbery Medal as the best children's book of 2013.

The Caldecott Medal for best illustrated book goes to Brian Floca, writer and illustrator of Locomotive, about a family's train trip from Omaha to Sacramento in 1869.

The prizes, the most prestigious in children's literature, were announced Monday by the American Library Association at its convention in Philadelphia.

It's the second Newbery for DiCamillo, 49, who won the award for her 2003 novel, TheTale of Despereaux. "I'm been crying all morning, but happy, happy tears," DiCamillo said in a phone interview from her home in Minneapolis, where she noted it was 15 degrees below zero.

She called her second Newbery Medal "even more stunning than the first, maybe because I'm older and everything resonates more."

Her superhero squirrel was inspired in part by a real-life squirrel who seemed to be dying on her front steps but crawled away. That made her think of E.B. White's essay The Death of a Pig and how he brought the pig back to life in his classic novel, Charlotte's Web.

DiCamillo's 2000 novel, Because of Winn-Dixie, was a runner-up, or Newbery Honor Book. It and Despereaux were made into movies that propelled both books higher on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list: Winn-Dixie to No. 5 and Despereaux to No. 26.

Flora & Ulysses, published in September, has yet to crack the list, but that's expected to change now that it has won the Newbery. There are no movie plans yet for the book, but DiCamillo said, "after this morning, anything is possible."

DiCamillo, who began writing for children while working in a Minneapolis book warehouse, was named recently as the new National Ambassador for Young People's Literature by the Library of Congress.

Decided by committees of librarians, the Newbery and Caldecott are the oldest awards in children's literature. They boost sales and literary reputations of the winners. Many libraries and bookstores have sections reserved for the winners.

The runner-ups, announced Monday, are:

Newbery Honor Books -- Doll Bones by Holly Black, The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes, One Came Home by Amy Timberlake and Paperboy by Vince Vawter.

Caldecott Honor Books -- Journey, written and illustrated by Aaron Becker, Flora and the Flamingo, written and illustrated by Molly Idle, and Mr. Wuffles! written and illustrated by David Wiesner.

The Newbery, named for 18th-century British publisher John Newbery, was first awarded in 1922. The Caldecott, named for 19th-century British illustrator Randolph Caldecott, started in 1938.

Information on other awards announced Monday is at ala.org/yma.