Alan Silberberg received the 2011 Sid Fleischman Humor Award from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators for Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze, a story about a boy who copes after the death of his mother. Not the usual fare one would expect to find in a humor book, but Milo is also Silberberg’s personal story. “This was something I experienced as a kid,” he says. When he was in third grade, his mother complained of headaches and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Two months later she passed away. “Third grade will always be that before and after moment of my life.” A funny kid before his mother died, Silberberg shielded himself with humor to deflect any talk of death. More…