Monday, February 17th, the major children's books awards were announced. This event is the Academy Awards of children's books for true devotees . After all these years of award watching, I prefer theorizing after the awards are given. I see them as touchstones measuring current culture and trends. This year the Caldecott, the Newbery and both Coretta Scott King awards were given to books of spirit.

The Caldecott, honoring best picture book, was given to David Wisniewski's Golem (Clarion, $15.95; ages 9 and up). At first this award surprised me because its subject is so mature. The story tells of the Golem, a Jewish lore giant brought to life from clay to save the Jews from persecution in 1580 Prague. He's raised when the Hebrew characters for truth, emet, are placed on his forehead and returned to clay when the first letter is removed and then the letters, met, spell death. The Caldecott is given for pictures and author-illustrator David Wisniewski has long amazed the children's book world with his intricate paper cuts. These illustrations are a match and eloquent expression for the mystery and wonder of a creature beyond human imagining who can save an entire downtrodden people. It's a miracle how the elaborate cuts in paper show story moods. There's the blazing glory of magical creation, the dark rage of hatred, the golden life of royalty, and the darkness of Golem's destruction. The nuances Wisniewski achieves with paper are varied and incredible. We watch flesh return to clay before our eyes or see from vantage points that make the Golem seem sometimes Christlike, sometimes monstrous.

There were so many excellent novels, the committee of librarians must have had a difficult task in choosing the Newbery, which is given to best novel. The prize goes to E.L. Konigsburg for The View from Saturday (Atheneum, $16.00; ages 11 and up). The many-layered novel tells the story four sixth-grade children selected for an Academic Bowl team. When you look below the plot surface you see a web of interconnections. Though at first the children seem quite different, two of the children are "related" when their grandparents marry and a third is, through a string of accidents, best man at this wedding. The fourth boy, is an East Indian newly arrived in America, who unites the team with his instincts about their shared sensibilities. Throughout, there is a strong sense of larger forces at work. Who put the team together? Mrs. Olinski, the paraplegic teacher who can't explain her choices to administration or herself. Or did the children chose her? And why do each of the children's specific knowledge bases show up in the contest questions? Konisburg brilliant quarters the story's telling, letting each child tell a part while Mrs. Olinski provides the narrative mortar. And the telling is a connected flow of story which, as with the team, is a very great whole. Language is a blend of childspeak and the kind of lyricism you might discover when four bright children who move in awe of a force that unites their various gifts.

The Coretta Scott King Awards both have the deep human spirit one must discover through reaching deep down inside. The picture book award was given to Alan Schroder's Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney (Dial, $16.99; ages 6-10). Schroeder gives a slice of Tubman's early life reflecting her spirited desire for freedom and the impossibilities she faced in its attainment. The illustrations by Pinkey bring us the surface prettiness of the Brodas Plantation in Maryland , the hate-filled rage of the white mistress, and the warmth of loving adults who comfort young Minty and affirm her self-belief while urging self-protection.

Walter Dean Myers' Slam! (Scholastic, $15.95; ages 12 and up) tells the story of a Harlem high school boy who has basketball in his heart and trouble with the academics of a challenging new school he's beginning. Those aren't the only storms he faces. His grandmother's sick and his Moms is grieving. His Pops is out of work again and drinking. His young brother won't go out to get dinner cold cuts because "they had a drive-by on 141st Street...a little girl got nicked." His white coach is on his case and readers will wonder who's the one with attitude. Slam deals with the difference between sexuality stemming from want and that coming from love, learning his closest friend is dealing crack and keeping his cool amid the prejudice of teachers and peers. As his girlfriend Mtisha says, "you're letting everything mess with you, you need to have your emotional immune system checked out." This is a character and story adolescent boys will love; it's got sex, drugs, sports and drama. To an adult, the most admirable part might be Myers refusal to be glib or pretty in telling his story, making characters and dialogue so real they can't help but be felt. For example, Slam and a white student embark on a video project; he films and she edits. She begins to see the commercial potential of this "ghetto" portrayal, while Slam views his hood living its life. A teacher affirms his talent in seeing and the girls' "immature attitude" and then later the same teacher almost provokes Slam to violence by slandering his use of be, asking if "Is that directly from your African background? Maybe from the We-Be tribe?" Myers asks readers to see beyond the race lines. Slam's best advisor, retired white coach Goldy, tells him "the only difference between on the court and off the court is that everybody is in the game off the court. You're in the game, Slam whether you want to be or not."

These four books offer hopefulness and honesty in times when adults wonder how the young can keep believing and seeing the good in themselves and the world around them.