National Book Award Finalists
The National Book Award nominees were announced last week. The finalists are an eclectic lot (see below). Indeed, the only book I had heard of was Stitches, which wasn’t even published as a YA novel. Is this fair? I’m all for inclusion, and “crossover” books are wonderful, but this nomination kind of irks me. It seems like this book robbed a true YA or children’s book of a spot on the list. Would a YA novel make it to the adult category? No. It would be ghettoized to its own category. So why can “adult” books invade our category? Publishers Weekly has an interesting story on this controversial nomination. What do you think? Either way, the nominees are below. I’m going to try to read them all by the end of the year.
YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE
Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith
(Henry Holt)
Phillip Hoose, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
David Small, Stitches (W. W. Norton & Co.)
Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic)
Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped (HarperTeen/HarperCollins)
