Where Ya Been?!?

I know, I know. Once again, I disappeared from Book-Kitten and, once again, I have gotten a few kind e-mails from my tiny circle of readers inquirng after my general well-being.

Thank you. I am fine, just unbearably busy. I think about the site, I mean to post, and then time slips away and I still haven't done it.

I haven't completely given up on this yet. I have hope that I will somehow manage my time a tiny bit better in the near future and will, once again, post here. Whether I have any readers left at that point is not clear, but...

If you're on facebook, look me up. I do manage to post there (mainly because it takes an average of 3 seconds per post).

Thanks again to those of you who wrote.

Remembering Janet McDonald

Janet McDonald would have been 55 years old today. Sadly, she passed away two years ago, far too young. In my corner of the world - and I suspect most others, her books are still speaking directly to many of the young people who need her most, letting them know that they are NOT alone. What a wonderful gift she gave the world!

So Sad.

John Updike has died at the age of 76.

He wrote one of what I consider the most perfect sentences ever: "All of a sudden I slid right down her voice into her living room."

When I wrote to him some years back and said I loved this sentence but couldn't quote it directly at the moment, he wrote back and included a photocopy of the appropriate page from his story "A&P," the sentence marked in red. What a gracious man, as well as a talented writer.

I had a professor who was convinced that Updike deserved - and would receive - the Nobel Prize in Literature. He made me believe it, too, and every Nobel season, I would wait to see if this was the year. I am convinced that Pink Floyd were fans (how else to explain their lyric, "Rabbit, run?").

The literary world shines a little less brightly today.

ALA Awards

I think everything has been corrected and updated now and that all links are working.

John Newbery Medal

WINNER
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

HONORS
The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle
Savvy by Ingrid Law
After Tupac and D. Foster by Jacqueline Woodson (I love, love, LOVE this book, so I am *thrilled* it got an honor!)

Ralph Caldecott Award

WINNER
Beth Krommes for The House in the Night written by Susan Marie Swanson

HONORS
Marla Frazee for A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever
Uri Shulevitz for How I Learned Geography
Melissa Sweet for A River of Words: the Story of William Carlos Williams written by Jen Bryant

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award

WINNER
Are You Ready to Play Outside? by Mo Willems

HONOR
Chicken Said, "Cluck!" by Judyann Ackerman Grant
One Boy by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Stinky by Eleanor Davis
Wolfsnail: a Backyard Predator by Sarah C. Campbell

Andrew Carnegie Medal

Paul R. Gagne and Melissa Reilly, Weston Woods Studios, producers of March On!: the Day My Brother Martin Changed the World

Lauara Ingalls Wilder Award

Ashley Bryan

Robert F. Sibert Medal

WINNER
We Are the Ship by Kadir Nelson

HONOR
Bodies from the Ice: Melting Glaciers and the Recovery of the Past by James M. Deem
What To Do About Alice?: How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy! by Barbara Kerley

May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award

will be delivered by Kathleen T. Horning

Mildred Batchelder Award

WINNER
Moribito : Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashi

HONORS
Garmann's Summer
Tiger Moon

Pura Belpre Author Award

WINNER
Margarita Engle for The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom

HONORS
Francisco Jimenez for Reaching Out
Yuyi Morales for Just in Case
Lucia Gonzalez for The Storyteller's Candle/La velita de los cuentos

Pura Belpre Award for Illustration

WINNER
Yuyi Morales for Just in Case

HONORS
Rudy Gutierrez for Papa and Me written by Arthur Dorros
Lulu Delacre for The Storyteller's Candle/La velita de los cuentos written by Lucia Gonzalez
Amy Cordova for What Can You Do With a Rebozo? written by Carmen Tafolla

Michael L. Printz Award

WINNER
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

HONORS
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson
Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
Nation by Terry Pratchett
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

William C Morris YA Debut Award

WINNER
A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

FINALISTS
A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Absolute Brightness by James Lecesne
Madapple by Christina Meldrum
Me, the Missing and the Dead by Jenny Valentine

Margaret A Edwards Award

to Laurie Halse Anderson

Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production

WINNER
Recorded Books for The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian written and narrated by Sherman Alexie

HONORS
Listen and Live Audio for Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady written by L.A. Meyer and narrated by Katherine Kellgren
Listening Library for Elijah of Buxton written by Christopher Paul Curtis and narrated by Mirron Willis
Weston Woods Studios for I'm Dirty by Kate and Jim McMullan and narrated by Steve Buscemi
Peachtree Publishers for Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: a Cuban Folktale written and narrated by Carmen Agra Deedy
Harper Children's Audio/HarperCollins Publishers for Nation written by Terry Pratchett and narrated by Stephen Briggs

Coretta Scott King Author Awards

WINNER
Kadir Nelson for We are the Ship

HONOR
Hope Anita Smith for Keeping the Night Watch
Joyce Carol Thomas for The Blacker the Berry
Carole Boston Weatherford for Becoming Billie Holiday

Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award

WINNER
Floyd Cooper for The Blacker the Berry, written by Joyce Carol Thomas

HONOR
Kadir Nelson for We are the Ship
Sean Qualls for Before John Was a Jazz Giant, written by Carole Boston Weatherford
Jerry Pinkney for The Moon Over Star, written by Dianna Hutts Aston

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award

to Shadra Stickland, illustrator of Bird (written by Zetta Elliott)

Schneider Family Book Award

Best Children's Book
Piano Starts Here: Young Art Tatum written and illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker

Best Middle School Book
Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor (yay!)

Best Teen Book
Jerk, California by Jonathan Friesen

Alex Awards

City of Thieves by David Benioff
Dragons of Babel by Michael Swanwick
Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris
The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
Just After Sunset: Stories by Stephen King
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
Over and Under by Todd Tucker
The Oxford Project written by Stephen G. Bloom, photographs by Peter Feldstein
Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow
Three Girls and their Brother by Theresa Rebeck

ALA Book Awards

Time again for the most exciting day in the children's lit year -- announcement of the ALA Children's Book Awards.

Awards to be announced today are: Alex Awards for the best adult books that appeal to teen audience

Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in children's video

Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children

Coretta Scott King Award recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults that demonstrate sensitivity to "the true worth and value of all beings"

Laura Ingalls Wilder Award honors an author or illustrator whose books are published in the U.S. and have, over a period of years, made a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children

Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults

May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award recognizing an author, critic, librarian, historian, or teacher of children's literature, who then presents a lecture at a winning host site

Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults

Mildred L. Batchelder Award for an outstanding children's book translated from a foreign language and subsequently published in the United States

Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature

Odyssey Award for audiobook excellence

Pura Belpre Award for a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work "best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth"

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award for most distinguished informational book for children

Schneider Family Book Award for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for the outstanding book for beginning reader

William C. Morris Award honors a book written for young adults by a first-time, previously unpublished author. The first award will be given in 2009

I'm going to try to get in on the webcast and post the winners as announced. Later, I will add links and pictures to those entries.

As y'all know, I suck at predicting winners. I would love to see The GUardian by Julius Lester recognized. I am pretty confident that We Are the Ship by Kadir Nelson will at LEAST get an Honor, but more likely, the Caldecott (and Coretta Scott King). WOuldn't be a bit surprised to see The Hunger Games honored in some way. And really hoping that The Underneath is *not* on any lists (though I really think it will be).

Only a few more hours!