It's the iPhone of the children's book world. It's a traditionally bound novel that combines several ways to get information: text, pictures and film (well, stills anyway). All that's missing is wireless connectivity.

When "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" won the Caldecott Medal on Monday, it seemed to put an exclamation point on the new century for children's literature. Although the thick novel is an old-fashioned orphan-boy tale that alludes more to the past than the future, it's 21st century in the way it mixes graphics and words.

"Hugo Cabret" is the first novel to win the Caldecott, a 70-year-old picture book award. The book alternates sections of text and pictures to tell its story over 533 pages. The pictures are detailed, realistic pencil drawings by artist Brian Selznick, and they move the plot forward separately from the text.

Selznick also reprints drawings by French film director Georges Méliès, and a few film stills, such as one of silent movie actor Harold Lloyd. The books' credits included a list of websites about the innovative filmmaker's early 20th-century work and his interest in automata (mechanical wind-up figures).

Not just a lot of topics, but a lot of forms for a mere "kids' picture book."

Although Selznick says it's not a graphic novel, the high-profile Caldecott is a reminder that the melding of words and pictures in new ways is no longer a basement endeavor. It's mainstream. "Hugo Cabret" is even published by Scholastic, the favorite of school book fairs.

"We always look for innovation in the field," another children's book publisher, Neil Porter of Roaring Brook Press, said Wednesday from New York.

One of his titles, "First the Egg" by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, received a Caldecott Honor on Monday. Die-cuts help tell its story of transformations. Last year, Roaring Brook's "American Born Chinese" was the first graphic novel to win a Printz Award, a young-adult literature award from the American Library Association.

"For years, comics and comics-style artwork was kind of held with disdain," he says. "Now, the graphic-novel format is being increasingly accepted not only by the public and the kids, but by librarians."

The children's book awards given by the ALA are the most prestigious in U.S. children's literature. They usually mean thousands of dollars in sales and a much longer shelf life for books that otherwise receive limited notice in the media.

For Sarah Debraski, graphic novels aren't even "an on-the-edge form of literature anymore." The president-elect of the Young Adult Library Services Association says the group compiles a graphic-novel list for teens. Debraski, of Neshanic, N.J., says people should not think that graphics-heavy books are necessarily easier to read.

"A lot of the benefit of reading is in being able to interpret and analyze literature, and graphic novels demand that, too," she says.

Several children's book award winners this year played with graphic formats, including:

— "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!," the Newbery Medal winner, has medieval characters tell their stories in verse. Written by Laura Amy Schlitz, a librarian, the stories are meant to be performed on stage by schoolchildren learning about medieval times. Pen-and-ink drawings by Robert Byrd were inspired by medieval illuminated manuscripts, while the cast of characters obviously owes a nod to Chaucer.

— "Knuffle Bunny Too" by Mo Willems, a Caldecott Honor book, merges photography, ink drawings and digital coloring.

— "The Wall" by Peter Sìs, a Caldecott Honor book and Sibert Award winner, is a memoir about growing up behind the Iron Curtain. It is told in forms that include drawn panels, diary entries, psychedelic-style art and propaganda posters. Some of the text is bordered by artwork; some artwork is bordered by text.

— "Let It Shine" by Ashley Bryan, King Illustrator Award winner, offers construction-paper collages to illustrate classic spirituals.

High-quality children's books that use illustrations need a "perfect marriage of text and image," art collector and children's author Jan Greenberg says. "The text and art are equally important."

Greenberg's works have been honored by the ALA several times. Her book "Heart to Heart," in which she asked poets to write poems inspired by 20th-century works of art, is used by teachers and librarians all over the country.

This year, the Clayton author is repeating the concept with "Side by Side," an April book that uses international art and poetry. Not only are the poems and artwork married, the text is reprinted in the original language, requiring a multitude of alphabets and fonts.

Computers and new technology have ratcheted up innovative forms over the past decade. Artwork can be done by hand or on computers and be e-mailed to publishers.

For bookstores, the graphic-novel revolution means finding more shelf space.

"It's pretty much a constant expansion," said Susan Allen, general manager of Borders in Sunset Hills.

Graphic-novel sales in the United States and Canada have quadrupled since 2001, to $330 million, according to ICv2, an online trade publication that tracks pop-culture trends.

"Publishers are starting to come out with more for younger readers, and we're always looking for more," Allen said.

Although illustrators and writers of children's books have always been innovators, "graphic novels are the latest example of how books change," publisher Porter says. "We try to stay with the times."



For more prize winners, go to www.ala.org. For great graphic novels for teens, see http://tinyurl.com/2nokvf.

jhenderson@post-dispatch.com

314-340-8107