Michael L. Printz Award

Winner:
Where Things Come Back written by John Corey Whaley

Honors:
Why We Broke Up written by Daniel Handler and art by Maira Kalman
The Returning written by Christine Hinwood
Jasper Jones written by Craig Silvey
The Scorpio Races written by Maggie Stiefvater

YALSA Excellence in Non-Fiction for Young Adults

Winner:
The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery written by Steve Sheinkin

Honors:
Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom and Science written by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos
Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition written by Karen Blumenthal
Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way) written by Sue Macy
Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein written by Susan Goldman Rubin

William C. Morris Award

Winner:
Where Things Come Back written by John Corey Whaley

Honors:
Girl of Fire and Thorns written by Rae Carson
Paper Covers Rock written by Jenny Hubbard
Under the Mesquite written by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Between Shades of Gray written by Ruta Sepetys

Margaret A. Edwards Award

The winner of the Edwards award is...

Susan Cooper

Coretta Scott King Author Award

Winner:
Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson

Honors:
The Great Migration: Journey to the North written by Eloise Greenfield and illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist
Never Forgotten written by Patricia C. McKissack and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon

Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards

Winner:
Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom illustrated and written by Shane W. Evans

Honor:
Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans illustrated and written by Kadir Nelson

Coretta Scott King Virginia Hamilton Practicioner Award for Lifetime Achievement

The winner is...

Ashley Bryant (yay!)

Stonewall Children's and Young Adult Literature Award

Winner:

Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy by Bil Wright

 

Honor Books

a + e 4ever drawn and written by Ilike Merey

Money Boy written by Paul Yee

Pink written by ...Lili Wilkinson

with or without you written by Brian Farrey

Schnieder Family Book Awards

Best Children's Book:

No award given in the category for children ages 0 – 8. No submissions were deemed worthy for the award.



Best Middle School Book:
close to famous written by Joan Bauer (yay!)
AND
Wonderstruck: A Novel in Words and Pictures written by Brian Selznick

Best Teen Book:
The Running Dream written by Wendelin Van Draanen

Alex Awards

Big Girl Small by Rachel DeWoskin
In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard
The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan
The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens by Brooke Hauser
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures by Caroline Preston
The Talk-Funny Girl by Roland Merullo

2012 ALA Youth Media Awards

Tomorrow is the most exciting day in the children's lit year -- announcement of the ALA Children's Book Awards. Basically, the Academy Awards as far as kids' books go.


Awards to be announced tomorrow 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"
• Coretta Scott King - Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement  recognizes an African American author, illustrator, or author/illustrator for a body of his or her published books for children and/or young adults who has made a significant and lasting literary contribution
• 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
• Stonewall Children's and Young Adult Literature given to books honored for exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered 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.
• YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults honors the best nonfiction book published for young adults (ages 12-18) during a November 1 – October 31 publishing year.
  
  

I think that's all of 'em. I'm going to try to get in on the webcast and post the winners as announced. I'm not sure if I will be able to do it in real-time this year since I foolishly scheduled my Doctor's appointment around Baby's nap schedule and not around the Awards' press conference. What was I thinking?!? ;)

I will post everything as soon as I possibly can and then will go back and clean up my undoubtedly sloppy posts and add links and pictures.

UPDATE: So, I thought this through over and over tonight. If I put Baby in his Exersaucer, I can blog the awards before his nap and before my appointment. BUT... really? As much as I love live-blogging them, am I really gonna be super-stressed and ignore the child to do it? Sigh. Nope. So, for the first time since I started blogging, I won't have the awards up untila couple of hours after they are announced. (It's very likely no one cares about this excpet me, but I have always been proud of posting results immediately.)

R.I.P. - Russell Hoban

The sad news has come that Russell Hoban, beloved author of many classic children's books, died yesterday. He was 86 years old. Many of us grew up with Frances the Badger, the star of books like Bread and Jam for Frances and Bedtime for Frances.

I remember receiving The Mouse and His Child for one very early Christmas and falling in love with that story; In fact, I hope to read it to Max in a few more years.

I have always believed that the authors we love will live forever, as long as we remember and share their stories. If that is true, Russell Hoban will certainly live forever, as I have no doubt that generations to come will love the Mouse who seeks to become self-winding and will rejoice with Frances eating her favorite meal until she realizes, "What I am, is sick of jam."

The New York Times and The Guardian both have nice obituaries.

Wordless Wednesday

(I swear, I really will get some real posts up soon; I have a stack of Christmas books to review, so look for those in the next few days. In the meantime, enjoy this gratuitous cute Baby picture...)

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

(I've been meaning to remember to do Wordless Wednesday posts for a while now.)

What Am I? books

Tonight I have three of the "My Look and See" books by Anne Margaret Lewis in front of me: What Am I?: Halloween, What Am I?: Christmas and What Am I?: Illinois.

Each book follows the same format. A two page spread with a flap covering the majority of the right page presents a "riddle." For example, from What Am I?: Halloween - "I am covered in fur. / I have big ears and very good hearing. / I love to dangle upside down." This is the text that appears on the left page, along with part of the illustration, a spooky house and what may be ... a wing? A black flap on the opposite page asks, "What am I? What could I be?" When the flap is lifted, the rest of the illustration reveals, "I am a funny bat. That's me!" The final two-page spread shows all the Halloween symbols together - an owl, trick-or-treaters, the aforementioned bat, etc.

What Am I?: Christmas includes primarily secular images, including Santa Claus. Interestingly, it also includes a "Christmas Angel," which might lead to a question from a wee one at storytime, so if you're using it in a public program or maybe the classroom and you're squeamish about that kind of thing, be aware.

What Am I?: Illinois includes such favorites as Sue (the Field Museum T. Rex), the state insect, tree, amphibian and more. (Wondering what the state amphibian is? You're gonna have to go get the book!)

All three books are boldly illustrated by Tom Mills. The pictures are straightforward with just enough of the "answer" peeking out from under the flap that a preschooler has a good chance of guessing the correct answer to each "What Am I? What Could I Be?"

Overall, I really liked these books. I can see them as a great addition to a preschool storytime at the library or in a classroom. They would also be fun to share at home with your favorite little person. After reading one of these books together, you could even team up to create your own "My Look and See" book, maybe about your family or neighborhood!

disclaimer: The books reviewed in this post were sent to me by Albert Whitman & Company to review for this blog. I read all the books and all opinions expressed here are my own.

A Trio of Board Books

Despite my lack of blogging, I have been reading. Not a lot, but some. I had a long list of books I had read that I meant to review, but I have given up hope of catching up. It's been so long (and my brain is currently a bit addled by Baby) that I'd really have to re-read a bunch. So, a fresh start.

Lucky for me (and you!), Albert Whitman has again sent e a box of books for review. I have divided them into loose groupings and hope to post reviews regularly until I have finished with this box.

Tonight, I'll look at the three board books we got. I read all three of them to my 4-month-old, multiple times. He seemed to like them but, then again, he seems to like every book I show him. He's 4 months old. Every book is a revelation.

First up is The Baby Goes Beep, written by Rebecca O'Connell and charmingly illustrated by Ken Wilson-Max. Can I just go on record saying that I always like Ken Wilson-Max's work? His bright colors and bold lines are absolutely perfect for the pre-reading audience this book is meant for. The text is simple ("The baby goes beep  the baby goes beep beep beep beep"), with each action occurring over a two-page spread. the first page shos the baby alone - beeping a toy car horn, for example. The second page shows the baby repeating the action with an adult; in the first case, beeping his Daddy's nose. Max giggled when I "beeped" his nose as I read (and especially when we got to "The baby goes smooch"). This book invites interaction between a caregiver and child. It could also be a great read-aloud for an infant lapsit program or toddler storytime.

Also by Rebecca O'Connell (this time illustrated by Amanda Guilliver), is Done with Diapers: A Potty ABC (also published as Danny is...). This larger board book is clearly for a slightly older set than The Baby Goes Beep. Each page features a picture of a child in one phase of potty training or another. The illustrations are cheerful - bright, warm colors and lots of white space. I also appreciate that the children possess a wide range of skin and hair tones. Under the illustration is a red sentence, beginning with the relevant letter: "C is for Clean." Each page's theme is expounded on briefly: "Clap for Caleb! He pooped in the potty and kept his clothes clean." Notice all the C's in that sentence: clap, Caleb, clothes, clean. Besides being a cheerful book to encourage little one embarking on potty-training, this title is also a very fuunctional alphabet book. Can't wait for Max for be really ready to share this one!

Finally for this evening, we have This Tree, 1, 2, 3 written by Alison Formento and illustrated by Sarah Snow. Of the three board books, this is the one I am most conflicted about. I like it, but something keeps me from loving it. Having read it aloud a number of times now, I think it is the framing around the "counting" portion of the book. It begins: "A tall tree stood behind Oak Lane School. It had a story to tell." Two pages later, we begin counting: "1 owl waits for the moon,' etc. It ends with, "Jake said, 'This tree counts!'" I see that this is an abridged board book edition of a (presumably) longer picture book; in my opinion, it would have worked better as a straight counting book. The animals on each page are fun to find and couont and the art has a kind of retro feel to it, rather like picture books I found in the school library as a child. I will definitely keep this book to share with my boy, but I would like the book much better if it had been abridged just a smidge more.

Thanks again, Albert Whitman, for some great books!

disclaimer: The books reviewed in this post were sent to me by Albert Whitman & Company to review for this blog. I read all the books and all opinions expressed here are my own.

I've been busy...

...with this little knucklehead:

He's pretty cool and we've decided to keep him, but he also eats up an enormous amount of time. Now that he's getting a little older, I hope to be able to steal away a few moments here and there to blog more.

(Besides, I owe Albert Whitman a host of book reviews! Eek!)

All the time "lost" has been worth it though...