STACKED

books

Cybils 2020

|

I almost didn’t apply to be a part of the Cybils Awards this year. Despite the lockdown, I feel like I have more going on and less energy to tackle it with. However, I’m glad I did apply – I’m serving as a Round 2 judge for graphic novels this year, which includes comics for both kids and teens. Nominations are currently open, so this is my annual post asking you to nominate. You can nominate one title per category. Read about the process and nominate here. Nominations close October 15.

If you need a few suggestions for the graphic novel category, here are some I’d like to read or possibly consider for the win in Round 2. As of the time I’m writing this (Tuesday afternoon), none of these titles have been nominated, but check before you submit yours to ensure it’s not a duplicate.

 

Elementary & Middle Grade

Shirley & Jamila Save Their Summer by Gillian Goerz

Donut the Destroyer by Sarah Graley and Stef Purenins

Jo: An Adaptation of Little Women (Sort Of) by Kathleen Gros

Dungeon Critters by Natalie Riess and Sara Goetter

Diana: Princess of the Amazons by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, and Victoria Ying

Lily the Thief by Janne Kukkonen

Dewdrop by Katie O’Neill

The Tea Dragon Tapestry by Katie O’Neill

Aster and the Accidental Magic by Thom Pico

History Comics: The Roanoke Colony: America’s First Mystery by Chris Schweizer

Doodleville by Chad Sell

Pea, Bee, and Jay Stuck Together by Brian “Smitty” Smith

Crabapple Trouble by Kate Vandorn

Kerri and the Night of the Forest by Andi Watson

Seance Tea Party by Reimena Yee

 

Young Adult

The Phantom Twin by Lisa Brown

Black Canary Ignite by Meg Cabot

The Blue Road: A Fable of Migration by Wayde Compton

Flamer by Mike Curato

Fights by Joel Christian Gill

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

The Oracle Code by Marieke Nijkamp

Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

Bloom by Kevin Panetta

You Brought Me the Ocean by Alex Sanchez

A Girl Called Echo vol. 3: Northwest Resistance by Katherena Vermette

The Mars Challenge by Alison Wilgus

Witchlight by Jessi Zabarsky

(Mock) Printz 2019

|

Every year, I participate in my workplace’s Mock Printz program for staff. We nominate and read a bunch of books throughout the year, choose a shortlist of up to ten books, and then invite all library staff to a big discussion near the end of January to decide upon a winner and honors.

This year, we met the Friday before the actual Youth Media Awards were announced. We picked The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo as our winner, which is also the title the real Printz Committee chose! It’s always exciting when that happens. The two previous years I’ve participated, an honor book we selected was chosen as the winner or the winner we selected ended up being an honor.

We picked three honor books this year, none of which made an appearance on the real Printz honor list: The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X. R. Pan, Hey Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka, and Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi.

As for the real honors, well…our Mock Printz committee didn’t even consider them as a group. We can only get to so many books in a year (we don’t read nearly as much as the real committee does!), and we never got around to nominating or reading the three chosen. I had already read Damsel by Elana K. Arnold, and I’m pretty torn about it. I thought it was pretty solid for most of it, and then I reached a bit near the end that just threw me completely out of the story. It’s not a major plot point, but for me, it made the book feel a bit silly and deflated some of its impact.

I’m already excited to start digging into this year’s potential Printz books!

Nebula Award Nominees

|

andre norton 2015

The nominees for the 2015 Nebula Awards were announced this past weekend, and I’m always excited to see which books were chosen to be honored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). This is an award given to writers by their peers, since members of SFWA (who can vote for the awards) must be paid writers. They have a YA category, named in honor of Andre Norton. This year, I’ve read a few of the books, in part thanks to Cybils, and have heard of most of them. Here are the nominees:

Seriously Wicked by Tina Connolly

I’ve heard of this one, but not read it. It’s a contemporary fantasy about a girl whose adoptive mother is a witch – a “seriously wicked” one. The synopsis on Goodreads makes it out to be fun and funny, which is nice in a genre that is often dark and depressing.

Court of Fives by Kate Elliott

Elliott, a mainstay in adult fantasy, turns her skills to YA in this book, which I have read and enjoyed a great deal. It’s set in a pseudo-Roman fantasy world where the main character, Jessamy, has been practicing to run “the fives,” an athletic competition that brings honor to the winner – usually. Jessamy shouldn’t be running it, though, because her unique social and political position – she’s the daughter of a noble man and a woman from a race considered “lesser,” – would actually bring shame to her father. She has three sisters and this is very much a story about family; a large portion of the plot involves Jessamy needing to rescue her sisters and mother from a truly horrible fate. The story is a take on Little Women, at least in the sisters’ names, and it’s fun picking out some of the parallels between the personalities of the March sisters and the ones here. I was impressed by the world-building, which seemed realistic and vibrant, in part thanks to the way Elliott portrays the two races/ethnicities and the way Jessamy is caught between them.

Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge

This is another I’ve heard of but haven’t read. From the Goodreads synopsis, it sounds like it would be a good pick for horror fans. Hardinge’s novels are usually critically well-received.

Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace

The only reason I had heard of this book was because of the Cybils (it was a nominee this past year in YA SFF). It’s from a small press, Big Mouth House an imprint of Small Beer Press, and has a rather unfortunate cover. It’s about a ghost hunter named Wasp, and it’s variously described as odd, strange, unexpected, beautiful, and weird by its reviewers.

Zeroboxer by Fonda Lee

Another Cybils nominee, this one has been on my to-read list since it was published last April. It centers around a sport called zeroboxing, which is basically regular boxing, but weightless – as in, boxing in zero gravity. The concept is cool and the story widens to involve intergalactic derring-do, which I always enjoy.

Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older

This one made our Cybils shortlist, and it certainly deserves its place on the Andre Norton nominee list as well. Read more of my thoughts on it here.

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

I’m not surprised at all this made the list, considering it also won the Printz and was a finalist for the National Book Award. I didn’t love it, but I certainly see why so many people do.

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

How have I not read this yet? I don’t know. It’s the only graphic novel to make the list this year and I really, really just need to read it already.

Updraft by Fran Wilde

This might be the most interesting pick for me, and I hadn’t even heard of it until it was announced as a nominee. It’s also a nominee for the Nebula for Best Novel (for adults), and it’s published by Tor, not its teen imprint. I suspect it has strong crossover appeal, though, since many of the Goodreads reviewers have it shelved on a YA shelf. If it were a Cybil nominee in YA SFF, it would have been rejected, but the SFWA’s rules are more flexible.

Which books have you read? Are you surprised by any of the picks?

A Crowd of Caldecotts

|

Normally we focus on books for older kids and teens here at Stacked, but books for younger kids have been on my mind lately thanks to my new position (where I’ll be involved with materials for kids of all ages). A few years ago, I did a post on Newbery honors and winners that I loved as a kid, and I thought it would be a fun exercise to do the same for the Caldecotts, though I’ve also included a few I came to as an adult (I have to go back further in my memory for picture books and it’s tougher). Which Caldecotts are your favorite, both to read and to teach/recommend?

The ones I remember and enjoyed as a kid:

Strega Nona by Tomie DePaola
Honor, 1976
I loved all of Tomie DePaola’s books as a kid (particularly his two about Texas wildflowers, which are more problematic for me now as an adult). His books are some that I remember as vividly for the pictures as the words. A lot of award-winning picture books our school librarians and teachers read us had illustrations that were either very realistic or very ornate. DePaola’s are neither, which I really liked.

The Amazing Bone by William Steig
Honor, 1977
I liked this story about a pig named Pearl who came upon a bone that could talk, which eventually gets her out of a scrape. It was such an odd idea to me (in a good way), and I still remember a lot of Steig’s narration.

Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe
Honor, 1988
This is one that I remember our school librarian reading to us. I loved that it was a fairy tale, and a different fairy tale from the ones I was already well-acquainted with. I remember the vivid illustrations quite clearly, particularly the bold colors and the striking cover image.

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales illustrated by Lane Smith
Honor, 1993
Long after I had given up picture books for my own personal reading (as opposed to the reading forced upon me by teachers), I still returned to this one over and over. It’s still funny, with hilarious illustrations that compound Jon Scieszka’s side-splitting humor. Never was there a more perfect marriage between writer and illustrator. I loved The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, published in 1989, just as much.

And a few faves I’ve read as an adult:

Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems
Honor, 2004
It’s the pigeon. Willems’ illustrations are simple and expressive, and no one really does this kind of story better. He just gets kids of this age.

Flotsam by David Wiesner
Winner, 2007
I like illustrations that are unique or a little wacky or super detailed, but then sometimes I just want something beautiful, and Wiesner is my guy for that.

A Sick Day for Amos McGee illustrated by Erin E. Stead
Winner, 2011
I love this sweet story and its sweet illustrations. The idea of animals visiting a zookeeper when he’s sick is just too good, and Stead’s drawings are unique and a perfect fit. Betsy Bird describes the elephant in this way: “Look at this cover and then stare deep into that elephant’s eyes. There are layers to that elephant.” It’s hard to make me care about books about animals, but Stead does it handily.

Journey by Aaron Becker
Honor, 2014
This is a favorite of mine to give to parents of newborns (not because it’ll be great for newborns, but I do think it’s a good book to grow into, for a kid to find on a shelf one day and get lost in). It’s been likened to Harold and the Purple Crayon for a new generation, but the art is very different (in a way that I appreciate). I love the watercolor-type style of the illustrations and I love the color palette, not to mention the story that ignites kids’ imaginations.

2015 Youth Media Awards: Reactions & Thoughts

|

 

Like so many other librarians across the country, I sat down in my pajamas to watch the live webcast of the Youth Media Awards yesterday morning. It was bright and sunny here in Texas, though a little cold (35 degrees is cold, don’t give me that look). Nothing like the snow that walloped Chicago, where the announcements were made. I have to admit I preferred being at home this year…mostly.

I’m so grateful that ALA does its webcast. The quality is pretty good, with clear sound and an up-close view of the podium and the slides, I just wish that we could have gotten some audience shots. It was so exciting to hear the shouts and cheers as crowd favorites were announced as winners; it would have been even nicer to see their reactions too! (Thankfully, there have been some awesome photos.)

This year was a fantastic year for diversity and thinking outside the box of a “traditional” award winner. The Newbery category encapsulates perfectly this idea. The winner (The Crossover by Kwame Alexander) is a novel in verse by a black writer featuring two black leads. Jacqueline Woodson garnered an Honor for her memoir in verse about growing up as a black girl in America (Brown Girl Dreaming), and Cece Bell won an Honor for her graphic novel memoir featuring a hearing-impaired heroine (El Deafo). That’s two books in verse, two nonfiction (-ish), one novel, one graphic novel, two books by and about people of color, one book by and about a disabled person – and all of them have an eager audience.

For a great breakdown of the diversity in the young adult awards this year, check out the Diversity in YA tumblr.

Speaking of El Deafo, this was a great year for graphic novels. It’s the first time a graphic novel was recognized with a Caldecott (This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki with an Honor), which seems so strange that it’s taken this long, now that I think about it. It’s long overdue and I’m excited to finally read this book which has gotten so much critical praise. The Tamaki duo also garnered a Printz Honor for their book, the second time a graphic novel has gotten Printz love since American Born Chinese. Hidden, a great graphic novel about the Holocaust for very young children, also won a Batchelder Honor. Raina Telgemeier’s Twitter feed was a great one to read during the announcements. I see only more recognition for graphic novels in these “mainstream” awards in the future.

I’m not surprised at all by the Morris pick, and I know Kelly must be extremely happy about it. Gabi, a Girl in Pieces is a book I’ve heard so much about and it sounds like Isabel Quintero is a really exciting new talent. It will be interesting to see what she does next.

I loved that there were six Caldecott Honors! The more Honors the better, in my opinion. (I think the audience was a bit let down going from six Honors with the Caldecott to only 2 with the Newbery.) This is another moment I really miss no longer being the youth materials selector at my job; I hadn’t read any of the books that won Caldecott recognition.

I actually hadn’t read many of the winners at all. I had read Hidden, and I read most of Beyond Magenta, which got a Stonewall Honor. Other than that, there’s just a lot on my to be read list that I hadn’t tackled yet. I’ve already placed This One Summer and El Deafo on hold and am excited to read them. Separate is Never Equal by Duncan Tonatiuh (Sibert Honor and Belpre Honor) is on the Bluebonnet list this year, and I’ve read that one; it’s fascinating and tells a little-known story in the fight for integration.

I was thrilled with the selection of Sharon Draper for the Edwards, as well as Donald Crews for the Wilder. Both of those authors’ works continue to influence young people daily.

The only thing I’m a little disappointed by is the lack of SFF represented. I’m not surprised by it, and it’s more of a personal wish than a professional one, but I can’t help but remember what it was like for me as a kid knowing that if I had to read an award winner, it would be slim pickings in the genres I actually wanted to read. We’re definitely doing better with diverse voices and characters, which I freely admit is more important than SFF being better represented. But I do wish there were more SFF for those kinds of kids, and it’s not an either/or situation. This is one reason I’m so glad the Cybils exist! (Last year was much better for SFF, which was pretty awesome.)

What are your thoughts on this year’s winners? What do you wish had been honored and wasn’t? More importantly, what about next year??