The inevitable post: our reactions to the Youth Media Awards announced this morning. We won’t recap all awards, but will discuss a smattering of those that interested us in a particular way. If you need a refresher, see a list of all honorees here.
Well…looks like my predictions were way off. However, I am absolutely THRILLED that A Sick Day for Amos McGee won the Caldecott Medal. I read this gorgeous, simple book after our predictions post, and couldn’t be happier at its recognition. And After Ever After winning the Schneider Family Middle School Book Award basically made my day. I am in love with both Steven and Jeffy.Newbery: Very surprised here, as I have never even heard of Moon over Manifest. Glad to see that One Crazy Summer at least got an honor nod, though. I’m also quite surprised not to see Sharon Draper’s Out of My Mind or Kathi Appelt’s Keeper get an honor.
Caldecott: Completely thrilled at the choice of A Sick Day for Amos McGee. (And as I’ve seen a few other bloggers comment, amused that you apparently need the last name Stead to win a major honor!)
Printz: A predictable choice. I was kind of hoping something completely out of left field would win. I was quite excited to see honors go to both Stolen and Please Ignore Vera Dietz, which have garnered rave reviews from many (both of these are in my to-read pile).
Margaret A. Edwards Award: Man, I really need to read some Pratchett. My brother-in-law gave me the entire set of Tiffany Aching books for Christmas, and I’m eager to jump into them. For the love that so many have for Sir Terry Pratchett, I am so pleased with this.
Coretta Scott King: Although One Crazy Summer got a Newbery honor, I was also glad to see it win a top prize here. It was also nice to see Yummy get an honor, both for its story (very well done) and its format (graphic novel).
Alex: I’ve only read Room in this list, but Room was also my favorite book read in 2010. I was definitely not surprised to see The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake on this list. I’m looking forward to reading both Girl in Translation and The Radleys.
Odyssey: Very nice to see the audio of The Knife of Never Letting Go get an honor. Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking series is one of my favorites, and I can really see this book working amazingly in audio format.
Schneider Family: As I mentioned, After Ever After’s win made my day. It, along with Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie hold a special place in my heart, and I am thrilled for Jordan Sonnenblick. While I haven’t read Five Flavors of Dumb, the Teen winner, yet, I know that Kelly was a huge fan.
Pura Belpre: I was very impressed with Pam Munoz Ryan’s The Dreamer, although in some ways it seems more of an awards darling than a book that children will flock to. Regardless, it was beautiful (that’s really the only way to describe the writing) and well-deserved.
Sibert: Pleased that Ballet for Martha got an honor. This book was a fantastic collaboration in so many senses of the word: text, illustration, and storyline. Beautiful.
Theodor Seuss Geisel: Bink and Gollie was so playful and charming—definitely deserving of this honor. But I was even more excited for Grace Lin’s Ling and Ting: Not Exactly the Same!, which is almost the perfect easy-reader book, in my opinion.
I need to start off by saying how incredibly PSYCHED I am that both The Knife of Never Letting Go and The True Meaning of Smekday got some love. The Odyssey Award was one of the first announced, and it just made me feel all happy and glowy for the rest of the morning. I’ve read both of these books in print and gave both five out of five stars – they’re both so wonderful in very different ways. I think it’s interesting that they were recognized for their audio productions, since both have elements that make them stand out in print form (Knife for its depiction of noise and Smekday for the illustrations). Knife should be fantastic in audio, too, but I’m really curious to see how Smekday stands up sans the pictures.
I was disappointed but not surprised by the nonfiction award winner. It seems to me that it was the nominee with the least appeal (certainly the least appeal to me). I’d be really interested in hearing from teen librarians who can comment on Janis Joplin’s appeal to teenagers of today – maybe I am alone in my opinion that a singer from the 1960s doesn’t appeal to teens in the 2010s (but I doubt it).
The Printz winner was so predictable compared to last year’s winner. I’ve had Ship Breaker since before it was published, in galley form, and still haven’t gotten around to reading it, even though the premise is really right up my alley. Then it was shortlisted for the freaking National Book Award and I didn’t read it then, either. I KNOW. I’ll read it now, I promise.
As far as the Newbery goes, it’s no surprise that I knew pretty much nothing about it going in, but I still expected to have heard of all the honorees. Boy was I wrong. I had purchased the winner, Moon Over Manifest, but didn’t really remember what it was about. I hadn’t even heard of Sidman’s, which is no shocker since I’m not really a fan of poetry (I feel the need to hide from Kelly now). The others weren’t too surprising since I had heard buzz about them for awhile. But how incredibly weird is it that, aside from Sidman’s book, all of the Newbery honorees are historical fiction? All of them. Wow.
Janne Teller’s Nothing didn’t win the Batchelder, but it did garner an honor, so I’m still patting myself on the back for calling that way back in June 2010.
I love Tomie de Paola so much and I’m so glad he won the Laura Ingalls Wilder medal. I’m not a huge picture book lover, but I still love his stories of the Indian Paintbrush and the Bluebonnet from my childhood, and he’s still writing and illustrating such wonderful books today.
Speaking of picture books, I was rather proud of myself for recognizing all of the Caldecott honorees, and for having actually read two of them (Sick Day for Amos McGee and Interrupting Chicken). Both of these not only have wonderful art but excellent stories too. While I know the Caldecott award doesn’t honor the storytelling, I still appreciate seeing how the story and art work together. Some of the Caldecott honorees are a bit lacking in the story arena (such as last year’s honor All the World – great illustrations, mediocre and oh so boring text).
I’m not even sure where to begin on this. I’m delighted at some of the books getting recognized this year and blown away one of my reach titles for the Printz actually got an honor. Let’s start where Kim and Jen didn’t go.
Stonewall Book Award: First, I am incredibly thrilled that ALA has finally designated an award for a book featuring an LGBTQ character and not only that, but one of my 2010 favorite books (and one that I have talked to INCREDIBLE success), Love Drugged, was an honoree. This is a book I talked sort of on a whim and I’ve been told by one of the 9th grade teachers she bought 2 classroom copies that are -never- on shelf. Not only that, but 2 of her most reluctant readers are in love with it. I haven’t read the winner, Almost Perfect, though I’ve ordered it for work (and may I say it is the only one on any of the awards lists I didn’t have).
Morris Award: So I knew the book had been chosen on Saturday since one of the committee members was with us that day but she wouldn’t share what it was (of course). I was rooting for Crossing the Tracks or The Freak Observer, so I was pretty excited on this one. It’s a book that needed a little more love.
Printz Award: Honestly, the winner wasn’t a huge surprise to me. It’s a book that’s been on a lot of Mock Printz lists and one that I tried but completely failed at reading. However, I can say that the fact Stolen got an honor kind of made my world? That was one of my “dream” picks. It was also the first book that Scholastic has ever had earn a Printz honor or award.
Batchelder Award: Kim called Nothing back in June. It didn’t win but the fact it was an honoree wasn’t a surprise to me in the least. What a horrific little book it is, too. And I think I mean that nicely. I’m not quite sure. What I do know is there is nothing like it.
Newbery Award: I haven’t read any of the titles but had been rooting for One Crazy Summer since it seemed like a clear front runner. I hadn’t heard of the winner but when I looked it up, apparently, I had since I did buy it for work.
Caldecott Award: I’m not completely familiar with picture books and how to judge them, but I do know I love and adore Interrupting Chicken. The fact it got any recognition sort of rocked my socks.
Schneider Family Book Award: I am thrilled Antony John’s Five Flavors of Dumb got love here. This is another one of those books I’ve talked to my kids and they’ve found interest in. I had an interest in another title ending up here, too, but it was a dark horse from the start.
I didn’t think there were any real surprises this year nor any titles out of left field. I was mostly excited about a few titles getting the light they so rightly deserved. I was bummed I had to head home before the announcements, but it was nice listening to the streaming audio of the presentation (which was actually quicker than the Twitter stream).
No one here has made a good argument for me to want to read Ship Breaker. Still no desire to read it. But good commentary!
I've not bought the Janis Joplin book for my high school library for just the reason that you stated – I just don't think it would circulate to today's teens – not that it might not be a great book, but I'm all about buying things they will read.
I really loved Moon over Manifest, but I'm a historical fiction nut. I find that often the Newbery winner doesn't circulate much either. Seems these awards aren't always about what teens/kids will read, but they are more about the books.
Interesting list – Interesting comments.
Also, I say that just because often all of your reviews sway me one way or another so I guess it's good, just in the opposite way.
@Sarah I dont know but Shipbreaker just has no appeal to me whatsoever.
@Annette: Your comment is dead on what I think, too. Joplin seems like a person who may be a little beyond today's teens, especially since their parents were likely not influenced by her. It's like we're a few too many generations removed. I'd be interested in seeing a teen review of it.
@Kim: Poetry can be done so well, though!
@Jen: Really, I was surprised about Lemon Cake. It's so rich in language and density (I know, layer on the food imagery) but I don't think it has a lot of teen appeal. For some readers, but . . . Like Water for Chocolate has more, I think. Similar themes/ideas.
I'm actually a bit surprised by "Ship Breaker" making the top five – it is good, but I didn't think it was special. Fairly conventional, actually. And Patrick Ness has written a much, much more sophisticated story that really deserves critical support.
I'm excited about Smekday since I received it as a Christmas gift.
I'm glad I'm not the only person who had never heard of Moon Over Manifest. I almost imagined a few seconds of crickets chirping at the anouncement. have it on order now, though.
THRILLED with After Ever After, which was one of my favorite books this year! It's amazing how spot on Sonnenblick manages to be with situations he has not actually lived through.
The Stonewall Award has been around for a while – the first one went to _Patience and Sarah_ in 1971. What was very exciting this year was the addition of a Children's/YA award to the established Fiction and Non-Fiction categories. When I was on the committee in 2006-2008, books for young readers were having to compete with books for adults in those categories. (Burch's _The Manny Files_ was a Fiction Honor Book in 2007.)
The fact that ALA added the youth literature category of the Stonewall to the Youth Media Awards announcements was just fantastic.
For the really curious, a full list of Stonewall winners and honor books is up at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/rts/glbtrt/stonewall/honored/index.cfm .
And now I have to correct myself on the youth category: this was the *second* year it was awarded, but the first year it was announced as part of the YMA.