ALA Youth Media Awards 2014

It's that time of year again.  The Oscars of the book industry.  The time when we find out which books we've never even heard of have won prestigious awards.  The ALA Youth Media Awards!  The really only interesting thing that happens at Midwinter!  Here we go!

Let's start off with the big one!  The Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to American Literature for children went to Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by K.G. Campbell.

There were four Newbery Honor books:
Doll Bones by Holly Black
The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Hankes
One Came Home by Amy Timberlake
Paperboy by Vince Vawker

The Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children went to Locomotive, written and illustrated by Brian Floca.

There were three Caldecott Honor books:
Journey, written and illustrated by Aaron Becker
Flora and the Flamingo, written and illustrated by Molly Idle
Mr. Wuffles, written and illustrated by David Wiesner

The Printz Award for the best book written for young adults went to Midwinter Blood by Marcus Sedgwick.

There were four Printz Honor books:
The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Coral
Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner

Oh Printz awards.  The only one I read was Eleanor & Park.  I've never even heard of Navigating Early.  I'm sure they're all lovely books.

Other winners:
The Belpre Award goes to Meg Medina for Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass
YALSA Nonfiction Award goes to The Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb
The Morris Award goes to Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn
The Coretta Scott King Author Award goes to P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia

You can see the full list of all wniners at ala.org/yma.  When they get around to putting them up, that is.

Newbery Caldecott Wilder Awards Banquet

 Sunday evening we got ourselves all fancied up (I mean, comparatively speaking) and off we went to the Newbery-Caldecott-Wilder banquet.  Before they let us into the ballroom where the banquet was held, they entertained us with cocktails and Caldecott bingo.  The bingo sheet was full of questions about the history and past winners of the awards.  It was a special year, because it was the 75 anniversary of the awards.  We got special cookies for the occasion.
Anna, Alana and I were able to answer far less questions than we'd like to admit.  We had to resort to looking things up.  Hey, we're librarians.  We may not know everything, but we can find anything out!

The banquet was delightful, although due to dietary restrictions I was getting a special meal, and the server seemed uninformed that there were special meals.  And he was kind of rude about it.  But other than that, delightful.  They were showing some interviews with the illustrators and authors of the honor books, and there was a fabulous short film from Jon Klassen called "This is Not my Caldecott" which showed the little fish from the book swimming off with an award around his neck.

MSLA: Awards Dinner and Jack Gantos

 The MSLA Awards Dinner is when awards such as the Library Advocate award, the service award, and the lifetime achievement award is given out.  It is also the time when the Web Seal of Excellence is given out, by my school was a recipient this year, thanks to our awesome website overhaul by fabulous middle school librarian Sam Musher.  Yay!  We are awesome.

 

Me and Jack Gantos.  Hearts.

 

As I sat down to eat my 12 plate of vegetables of the day (MSLA did a better job this year have dairy free and meat free options, there were none last year, but dairy-free and meat free options all equaled the same thing - plate of vegetables) the highlight of evening began.  And the highlight was last year's Newbury medal winner Jack Gantos.  Who is fabulous, and also quite dapper.

 

Jamie, Anna, Jack Gantos, and Sam

Youth Media Awards 2013

So I am fairly happy with the winners of the Youth Media Awards this year.  Usually, I am filled with rage afterwards.  No rage this year, I'm glad to announce.  I'm happy that my favorite book of the year, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (which I will review soon, I swear) won two awards and was an honor book for the Printz.  I was also very happy that Seraphina won the Morris Award.  That book was awesome.  And now, the winners!

The winner of this year's Printz Award (for excellence in literature written for young adults) is In Darkness by Nick Lake.

Honor Books: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (yay!) by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, Dodger by Terry Pratchett and The White Bicycle (none of us had heard of this one) by Beverley Brenna.

The winner of this year's Newbery Medal(for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature) is (to no one's surprise) The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.

Honor books: Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz, Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin  and Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage 

The winner of the Caldecott Medal (for the most distinguished American picture book for children) is This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen.

Honor Books: Creepy Carrots! illustrated by Peter Brown, written by Aaron Reynolds, Extra Yarn illustrated by Jon Klassen, written by Mac Barnett, Green illustrated and written by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, One Cool Friend illustrated by David Small, written by Toni Buzzeo, and Sleep Like a Tiger illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski.

The winner of the Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award (recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults) is Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America by Andrea Davis Pinkney and illustrated by Brian Pinkney.

Honor Books: Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by E. B. Lewis and No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie.

The winner of this year's Pura Belpré (Author) Award (honoring a Latino writer and illustrator whose children's books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience) is Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (yay!).

Honor Book: The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano by Sonia Manzano

The winner of the Stonewall Book Award - Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award (given annually to English-language children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience) is Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (yay again!)

Honor Books: Drama written and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier, Gone, Gone, Gone by Hannah Moskowitz, October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman, and Sparks: The Epic, Completely True Blue, (Almost) Holy Quest of Debbie by S. J. Adams.

The winner of this year's Morris Award (for a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens) is Seraphina by Rachel Hartman.

See the full list of all the award winners.

Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

Cullen lives in a tiny southern town, where the most exciting thing to happen is the possible reemergence of the believed-to-be-extinct Lazarus woodpecker.  That's the same summer and Cullen's younger brother, Gabriel, disappears without a trace and Cullen and his family have figure out how to carry on with their lives.

There are two seemingly unrelated stories being told.  The first is Cullen's story, which is told in first person.  I like Cullen's voice as a narrator very much, and the matter-of-fact way he spoke about things.  The other story is first that of a boy named Brenton Sage and then switches to his roommate, Cabot Searcy.  It is not clear for much of the book how these two stories are related or will come together.

As I'm sure you know, Where Things Come Back won the Printz award.  So I was waiting for everything to come together in an awesome and mind blowing way.  Something that was going to take this from being an enjoyable and thoughtful read to something amazing that would justify it winning the Printz.  It didn't happen.  Things came together, but there was nothing amazing or mind blowing about it.  Things were explained, wrapped up and then it ended and I was left staring at the covering and thinking, "what was so special about that?"  Thanks a lot, Printz committee.  You've ruined what would have been a perfectly good reading experience.  Because Where Things Come Back was a good book, and I'm glad I read it, but I didn't think there was anything especially amazing about it.

I still think Chime was the best thing I read all year and I'm cranky it didn't even get honored.

What's interesting is that Where Things Come Back isn't exactly about anything in particular, and I usually don't really like those books.  It's kind of about how people cope with the terrible things that happen in life.  I did want to know what happened to Gabriel, I think that helped keep me involved, but most of the story is just what happens over the summer as the town goes crazy over the thought that a bird may have come back to life and Cullen's family and friends try to deal with Gabriel being gone.  Each character deals with grief and stress in a completely different way, from disengaging from life to pretending everything's fine, to keeping busy, to taking care of other people and so on.  Everyone keeps themselves together in different ways, and so work better than others.

So I quite enjoyed Where Things Come Back and totally recommended it, it's just that I was expecting something completely amazing and didn't get it.  I should have known.  The Printz committee and I have been in a fight for several years now.

2012 ALA Youth Media Awards

The results of the Youth Media Awards are in, and per usual, they go to books I've never heard of!  Huzzah!

  The Printz Award Winner: Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

Honor Books:
Why We Broke Up, written by Daniel Handler, art by Maira Kalman (Look!  One I've actually read!)
The Returning, written by Christine Hinwood
Jasper Jones, written by Craig Silvey
The Scorpio Races, written by Maggie Stiefvater

Newbery Medal Winner: Dead End in Norvelt written by Jack Gantos

Honor Books: 
Inside Out & Back Again written by Thanhha Lai
Breaking Stalin’s Nose written and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin

 Caldecott Medal Winner: A Ball for Daisy illustrated and written by Chris Raschka

Honor Books:
Blackout illustrated and written by John Rocco
Grandpa Green illustrated and written by Lane Smith (Yay Lane Smith!)
Me … Jane illustrated and written by Patrick McDonnell

Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award: Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson

Honor Books:
The Great Migration: Journey to the North by Eloise Greenfield
Never Forgotten by Patricia C. McKissack






Get full results for all awards here.

So there you have it.  What do you think?  I'm starting to get super annoyed with the Printz committee.  Where's Chime?  Where's Daughter of Smoke and Bones?  They're not even honor books? What is this Where Things Come Back that no one has ever heard of?  It better be pretty flipping fabulous.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Shaun Tan on winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Short!

Cybils 2010 Winners

Check out the winners of the Cybils, the Children and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards.  I am delighted that Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry won for science fiction and fantasy.

News

A little late, but you'll be ready for next year! I think this is a great idea. All Hallows Read. Idea originally from the the ever fabulous Neil Gaiman.

Oh hurrah! Teens haven't shelved reading for pleasure! And you were so worried! From The Washington Post.

I have discovered a place I can go to covet other peoples' bookshelves. Amazing, fabulous bookshelves. Why doesn't my apartment look like this? Clearly I need more bookshelves. Also books.

Awesome. Prize is created for gay literature for young readers. From The New York Times.

Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards

This past Friday I got to attend the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, which were held at Simmons College. It was delightful, although in all honesty not super exciting. Horn Book is not one of the publications we get at my library, but it's a lovely journal. We got a copy of the latest edition in the folder they gave us, and it happens to have the most adorable cover ever. As my colleague said, "I would wear that on a shirt." Me too.

The Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards are a bit different than other awards. First of all, the book does not have to be written or illustrated by an American citizen, although it does have to published in the US. Also, when a book wins, both the author and illustrator (if applicable) gets the award, which I think is lovely and totally makes sense since so often it's the two together that makes the book excellent. There are only three categories, nonfiction, picture book, and fiction/poetry. There are two honor books and one winner in each category.