Tuesday, January 19, 2010

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.

25 comments:

  1. Marsha1:43 PM

    Thanks, as always, Christy. I now have all sorts of new things on my wish list.

    My kids are currently big Elephant and Piggie fans - I read Elephants Cannot Dance approximately 30 times last night. And I've sadly discovered that my 5 year old does not find Amelia Bedelia very amusing.

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  2. christy in nyc2:07 PM

    Wow, I included so many more supplementary links last time! The NYT did have an article about WYRM's New York roots, but I thought it might be weird to include an article that talks in depth about a book, right after saying it's probably best read cold.

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  3. Eric J.2:08 PM

    I have a 6 year old who's just starting to read by herself, and an 8 year old who's halfway through "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" having started Sorcerer's Stone in November. I originally didn't want him to progress much further than Chamber of Secrets for a few years, thinking the books would be too advanced and disturbing for him, but he's been so voracious and committed, that I couldn't  withold the next book from him as he finished each one. Now I'm worried about how he's going to react to the various deaths coming up, but I think he'll be fine. Now I just need to figure out what's next. I wonder if I can get him hooked on Heinlen juveniles.

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  4. Genevieve3:42 PM

    So so very pleased about When You Reach Me!  I loved this book tremendously, gave it to my son, and he then pressed it on all his friends.  He said that several of his friends said it was one of the best books they'd ever read (he agreed).  It's one of my favorite children's books ever.

    However, I was really disappointed Marcelo in the Real World didn't get a Printz Medal or Honor - thought it was a marvelous and original book, beautifully written, with a surprising plot (not just 'boy on the autistic spectrum has to learn to deal with the real world' - he has to deal with complicated ethical problems that would challenge anyone, and it's actually a page-turner to see what he will do). I'm very glad it got the Schneider, but would've liked to have seen it also get the wider recognition of the Printz.

    Eric, my 9-year-old is crazy for the five Percy Jackson books (starting with The Lightning Thief).  They're more like the later Harry Potter books in terms of deaths/intensity, but he started them at age 8, I think.  (He started the Harry Potter series a couple years younger than yours, so I didn't want him to get to the more disturbing ones until he was a little older, and he held off at Goblet of Fire until he was 8 and then read the rest, and he was fine with it then.  Every kid varies, of course, just saying that I hear you on thinking about books to see if they'll be too intense, and also that 8 may indeed be fine.)

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  5. sconstant3:49 PM

    I put When You Reach Me! on reserve at the library yesterday (and then quickly stopped reading about it), and will do the same with <span>Marcelo in the Real World today.  Thanks everyone, esp. Christy for the great continuing coverage.
    </span>

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  6. So what should my Wimpy Kid-loving six year old daughter be reading next?

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  7. Genevieve4:21 PM

    Yes, thank you, Christy!  I was glad to hear from you that most observers seemed truly pleased at the results.

    Sconstant and others, I'll recommend for your 'also worth a read' list:  The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (Newbery Honor - 1899, girl desperately wants to be a scientist, not fast-paced but ot has great character portrayals and interesting facts and details); Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Newbery Honor, good for the younger end of the Newbery range, like 6 and up, Chinese folktales woven into a quest story that tips its hat a bit to The Wizard of Oz); Marching for Freedom (didn't get any honors, sadly, but it may have been overshadowed by Claudette Colvin which got two - but it's terrific, about the kids who were involved in the march from Selma to Montgomery and everything that led up to it, extremely well researched so that the kids' memories are woven into the text and the photographs - see excerpts here http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6702366.html ). 
    (Yeah, that was a bit much to include in a parenthetical.)

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  8. Genevieve4:42 PM

    Ellie McDoodle:  Have Pen, Will Travel!  http://elliemcdoodle.blogspot.com/  Though these are listed for ages 8-12, I bet Wimpy Kid is recommended for that age too.

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  9. Genevieve4:46 PM

    Also, Clementine by Sara Pennypacker (and its 2 sequels).  Illustrated throughout, about a third-grader so it's closer to her age then Wimpy Kid or Ellie McDoodle, and very funny.  Then try the Ivy and Bean books by Annie Barrows and Sophie Blackall.

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  10. Girl Detective5:03 PM

    We have the Theodor Seuss Geisel winner, Benny and Penny in the Big No No. It's good, but not one of our favorites, as are the Elephant and Piggy books. Two new HUGE favorite picture books with my 3 yo and 6yo kids are Monkey with a Tool Belt by Chris Monroe (no, not the 4th angel) and Adventure of Meno by Tony and Angela Terlizzi.

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  11. Rebecca K5:23 PM

    Just want to recommend one of the Caldecott Honor Books, All the World by Liz Garton Scanlan and illustrations by Marla Frazee (who also illustrates the Clementine books)-- beautiful illustrations and a sweet story!

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  12. I read When You Reach Me over the holidays and really enjoyed it. I also finally read Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson about a girl in slavery during the Revolutionary War, which was excellent. Calpurnia Tate is next on my list.

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  13. I ordered Lion and the Mouse yesterday from Amazon, and it is in my hands already. (thank you, Amazon Prime!) I've been reading Pinkney's Little Red Riding Hood to my students, and now I can't wait to show them this Caldecott winner.  It is truly beautiful and written (illustrated) in such a tender way.  One of Jerry's best books.

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  14. How about DRAGONBREATH by Ursula Vernon. http://www.amazon.com/Dragonbreath-Ursula-Vernon/dp/0803733631? I can send you a copy. And does she have any BABYMOUSE books?

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  15. <p><span>The room definitely went wild for both Stead and Pinkney. Reminded me (a bit) of the year Holes won. And beyond WYRM, the Newbery honor list was a satisfying one for many. And a generally kid-friendly one. It’s a shame there were only two Caldecott honors.</span>
    </p><p><span> </span>
    </p><p><span>There was also a lot of satisfaction with many of the various nonfiction honors, with big applause for The Day-Glo Brothers and Moonshot. And, yes, the Printz list was the one with some surprising shutouts.</span>
    </p><p><span> </span>
    </p><p><span>Didn’t hear about the 17-minutes-too-early tweet from RH Kids announcing the Newbery until I was back.</span>
    </p><p><span> </span>
    </p><p><span>Most of the YA being read around these parts won’t be published for quite some time, but in my son’s old-and-new current rotation are The Curious Garden, Piggie Pie!, Nate the Great, and Jeremy Draws a Monster.</span>
    </p>

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  16. sconstant8:59 AM

    Eeek.  My local library system (which is vast (e.g. 64 copies of Throwingwife's latest) and normally wonderful) has ZERO copies of Marcelo in the Real World.  (Another e.g.: they have 4 copies of Calpurnia Tate, I am grabbing one soon.)

    So, if you're going to give a book to your local library system, can you just buy it at a store or does it have to be a library binding edition of some sort?  (I know, you can't just give them willy nilly, but I know the children's librarian in one of the two largest branches and can make a case from it given what you said above.)

    What's the deal with the 17-minutes-too-early-tweet, then?

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  17. She has neither!

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  18. Genevieve9:27 AM

    Monkey with a Tool Belt looks liks so much fun - I'm waiting for my 1-year-old cousin to get older and I'll give it to him.  I think there's a stuffed Monkey With a Tool Belt out there, too . . .

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  19. Genevieve9:40 AM

    Moonshot is by a college classmate of mine, who wrote a really good comic in the college newspaper - it's been so cool to watch his career and buy his books for friends' kids.   I was rooting for it to get a Caldecott Honor, sad that it didn't, but glad that it got a Sibert Honor.

    Excited to see Julia Alvarez get a Pura Belpre award (for Latina/o authors) for Return to Sender, as I've liked all her adult and young adult fiction.

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  20. Genevieve9:47 AM

    Oh, that's rotten that they don't have it, sconstant, but so wonderful that you will give them a copy?  (don't know the answer re library binding edition, hope someone else does but if not I hope your librarian friend will know.)

    Forgot to add one of my son's other favorite books this year, The Brooklyn Nine, by Alan Gratz.  One family's interaction with baseball over nine generations (nine chapters, each one a different era).  The history and the characters are well done - it's one of the books he re-reads because he enjoyed it so much.

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  21. Genevieve10:40 AM

    I'm sorry that I'm commenting all over the place here - I don't want to be rude.  But I had to come back and post Mitali Perkins' (author of some great middle-grade and YA books) 10 reasons that she loves Marcelo in the Real World (additional facts for sconstant's case to the librarian).  Those of you who aren't usually YA readers may love this one as well - I'd forgotten the deep exploration of music and all the workplace aspects.
    http://www.mitaliblog.com/2010/01/why-i-loved-marcelo-in-real-world.html#links

    This is what Mitali said:

    Here are ten reasons I'll be happy if this year's ALA Printz Award goes to MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD by Francisco X. Stork:
    10.  The story is classic bildungsroman.

    9.  We get a Latino teen guy protagonist who isn't in a gang, on the streets, or primarily defined by cultural angst.
    8.  We're intrigued and captivated by descriptions of music. (Stork even created a playlist to accompany the book for the New York Times' blog, Paper Cuts.)
    7. We're given a stark, honest portrayal of sexual tensions in the workplace.

    6. Who doesn't enjoy a good legal thriller?

    5.  We root with all our might for a flawed but brave hero in Marcelo.

    4. We come to love a flawed but strong character in Jasmine.

    3. We'll want to know more about an individual's situation the next time we hear the word "autism."

    2.  Faith is expressed and explored freely.

    1.  Justice rolls down as the "weak" are able to right wrongs perpetrated by the "strong."


    Best of all, perhaps, is that I couldn't put it down. I really did love it, in the way that Stork himself defines the verb.  I'm looking forward to his THE LAST SUMMER OF THE DEATH WARRIORS, coming March 1, 2010 from Arthur A. Levine Books.

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  22. The RH Kids official Twitter tweeted the medal win 17 minutes before it was announced at the press conference.

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  23. calliekl3:22 PM

    This post and the one after Christmas kind of makes me wish we had a Throwingthings book club. I know book clubs are kind of lame, but I know I would enjoy being in one with this community more than most!

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  24. christy in nyc8:00 PM

    Yeah, you should probably just ask the librarian what to do. Some buy the publisher-issued library edition, some buy the hardcover, some buy third-party rebound editions etc. Probably just explain what you want to give and why, and they'll tell you how best to do it.

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  25. christy in nyc8:13 PM

    And I'm not sure why your library didn't pick up Marcelo in the first place, but it has gotten at least three starred reviews, which is often a good reason for them to consider changing their minds.

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