A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

GREG HEFFLEY IS NOT PLEASED: For the fourth straight year, we are blessed to have our friend Christy in NYC recap the annual American Library Association children's book awards, handed out yesterday:

Hello, friends! It has come time again to discuss the winners of the many distinguished awards the American Library Association gives out in January to books for young people, announced yesterday morning. I think it's safe to say that the awards this year, in contrast with the past few years' awards, did not contain many surprises. Most of the honored books had been expected, and most of the expected books were honored. But I'm also getting the sense that most observers, rather than being let down by the lack of surprise or controversy, are truly pleased that the books that readers loved this year were also the books that librarians recognized this year.

The Newbery Medal for most distinguished book for children goes to When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. This was the least surprising of the bunch (though the Caldecott is a close second), because as soon as it started being read and reviewed, people immediately recognized it as a practically inevitable award winner and, at the same time, enthusiastically recommended it (the two don't always go hand in hand). Kidlit bloggers use it as the example of a book that has benefitted enormously from organic buzz. It's a difficult book to talk about with people who haven't read it, and the type of book best read without too much information about the story. But it pays big homage to both New York City and A Wrinkle in Time.

The Caldecott Medal for most distinguished picture book goes to The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney. Pinkney has been awarded a whopping five Caldecott honors over the past twenty years, as well as a truckload of other important awards and honors, but this is his first time winning the Caldecott gold. He is also the first individual African American illustrator to receive this award (Leo Dillon has shared the medal twice with his wife Diane). Pinkney's work has garnered praise for decades, but his almost wordless version of The Lion and the Mouse really plays to his strengths and distinguishes itself both from his body of work and from the picture book landscape. Design nerds will also note with interest that the Caldecott went to a picture book with no words on the front cover.

The Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature goes to Going Bovine by Libba Bray. Like Stead, Bray is a New Yorker. Her previous books are the bestselling A Great and Terrible Beauty and its sequels, which are lush, romantic, feminist, gothic Victorian novels with real magic. Going Bovine is a contemporary road trip novel featuring a boy protagonist with Mad Cow disease, a hypochondriac dwarf, a talking lawn gnome, and a punk rock angel. It involves string theory and Disney World and snow globes. It's a surreal comedy, which is a departure for Bray and for the Printz award. I don't know what Bray's core fan base of YA romance readers thought of this book, but it has clearly found its people. This is the only major award that was a bit of a surprise—the big favorite going in, Marcelo in the Real World, wasn't among the Printz honor books, though it did win the Schneider Family Book Award for portrayal of disabilities.

The ALA website has the full list of winners and honorees, including the Coretta Scott King Award, the Theodore Seuss Geisel award, the brand-new YALSA Non-fiction award, and tons more. Let's discuss them in the comments! And I for one want to know what you and your kids have been reading and loving in the world of children's and YA books.