The very recent closing of the much-beloved Toad Hall makes this a heartbreaking posthumous award. We hate to think of Austin kids without Barbara Thomas and her well-informed, book-loving staff to choose just the right book to feed eager, inquiring minds. If the loss of a nationally respected independent children's bookstore is part of the price of local prosperity, we're paying too damn much. Toad Hall is a priceless, irreplaceable jewel.
