Award Mania
Last week, the ALA and YALSA announced their annual book awards. You know, the Newbery, the Caldecott, and the Printz, among others. Rebecca Stead–who’s a sometimes member of my YA book club–won the Newbery for When You Reach Me. This really didn’t surprise many people, but it did seem to delight everyone. By all accounts, the book is a knockout. It’s been on my “to read” list for ages.
As a YA reader, I’m most intrigued by the Printz Award winner and honor books. The Printz honors excellence in books written for teenagers. And here are those winners (pasted, I admit, from the YALSA web site):
Going Bovine
by Libba Bray
published by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House
2010 Printz Honor Books
The committee also named four Printz Honor Books:
Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman, published by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.
Once Charles Darwin sets his rational mind to marry the religious Emma Wedgeworth, they both must take a leap of faith in order to build a life together.
The Monstrumologist, by Rick Yancey, published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.
Will Henry, orphan and assistant to a monstrumologist, races against time to save his town (and himself) from the anthropophagi, a pod of monstrous creatures who prey on humans.
Punkzilla, by Adam Rapp, published by Candlewick Press.
Fourteen-year-old runaway Jamie, homeless and strung out, embarks on a harrowing journey to reach his dying brother.
Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance, 1973, by John Barnes, published by Viking Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Young Reader’s Group.
Karl Shoemaker wants to begin his senior year with a new identity separate from his counseling group, his alcoholic mother and the legacy of his dead father.
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I’ve read none of these, but have heard great things about all of them. And of course they’ve all been added to my “to read” list. In fact, my book club just chose Punkzilla as its next selection.
I’m also intrigued by the William C. Morris Award winner and honor books. The Morris Award is given to a book written for young adults by a first-time, previously unpublished author. And here are those titles:
2010 Winner
Flash Burnout
By L.K. Madigan, published by Houghton Mifflin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. (9780547194899).
Blake’s life is way too complicated. He’s a sophomore in high school with a girlfriend and a friend who is a girl. One of them loves him. One of them needs him. Can he please them both?
2010 Finalists
Ash
By Malinda Lo, published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. (9780316040099).
Consumed with grief after the death of her father, Ash’s only escape from her harsh life and cruel stepmother comes from re-reading the fairy tales that her mother once told her and hoping against hope that the fairies will appear to her. When the fairy Sidhean appears, Ash hopes that he will steal her away to his enchanted world; but when she meets the King’s Huntress, Kaisa, she realizes that staying in her own realm can also lead to beauty, romance, and perhaps even love.
Beautiful Creatures
By Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. (9780316042673).
Sixteen-year-old Ethan has lived all his life in Gaitlin, South Carolina, a town that hasn’t changed much since the Civil War. While coping with the loss of his mother, a father who spends all of his time in his study, and high school, his world turns upside down with the arrival of Lena, a new girl with whom he seems to share a psychic connection. As they grow closer, Ethan discovers that Lena and her family share a dark secret and that she is headed for doom on her sixteenth birthday.
The Everafter
By Amy Huntley, published by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers (9780061776793).
Maddy is a ghost, surrounded by things she lost when she was alive. By touching these objects, she relives the episodes in her life where she lost them. Even though Maddy’s dead, she explores the lessons these objects hold — and why are they still important.
hold still
By Nina LaCour, published by Dutton Children’s Books, a Division of Penguin Young Readers Group. (9780525421559).
After Caitlin’s best friend Ingrid commits suicide, Caitlin has a hard time making sense of the loss. She finds Ingrid’s journal and slowly allows herself to read it and learn about why Ingrid felt the need to end her life. Caitlin also grapples with allowing herself to find another friend, to let in a boyfriend, and to understand why her favorite teacher is ignoring her. It is the haunting story of dealing with loss, moving on, and finding peace and hope.
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I also want to single out the Best Books for Young Adults, a longer list of the supposedly best books written for teens in 2009. The full list can be found here. From this list, committee members name the Top 10 books. Interestingly, these lists don’t usually match the Printz list. Perhaps the commitee members like to spread the wealth. A good thing, in my opinion. Here is their list, notable because it includes the excellent Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork, a book that had been bandied about for the Printz. (Stay tuned, because I’m going to do an interview with Francisco in the near future and I will post it here on the blog.)
- Brennan, Sarah Rees. Demon’s Lexicon. Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing/Margaret K. McElderry. 2009.
- Griffin, Paul. The Orange Houses. Penguin/Dial Books. 2009.
- Herlong, M.H. The Great Wide Sea. Penguin/Viking. 2008.
- Jinks, Catherine. The Reformed Vampire Support Group. Harcourt/ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2009.
- Napoli, Donna Jo. Alligator Bayou. Random House / Knopf. 2009.
- Small, David. Stitches: A Memoir. W.W. Norton & Co. 2009.
- Stead, Rebecca. When You Reach Me. Random House / Wendy Lamb Books. 2009.
- Stork, Francisco X. Marcelo in the Real World. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books. 2009.
- Taylor, Laini. Lips Touch: Three Times. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine. 2009.
- Walker, Sally M. Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland. Lerner/Carolrhoda Books. 2009.
