YALSO has selected the ten books for the 2004 Alex Awards The Alex Award is given to adult fiction and nonfiction that will “intrigue and challenge the diverse audience of teen readers.”
The award winners are:
Davis, Amanda. Wonder When You’ll Miss Me. William Morrow/HarperCollins, $24.95 (0-688-16781-0).
Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Doubleday, $22.95 (0-385-50945-6).
Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. Riverhead, $24.95 (1-57322-245-3).
Niffenegger, Audrey. The Time Traveler’s Wife. MacAdam Cage, $25.00 (1-931561-46-X)
Packer, Z.Z. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. Riverhead, $24.95 (1-57322-234-8).
Roach, Mary. Stiff. Norton, $23.95 (0-393-05093-9).
Salzman, Mark. True Notebooks. Knopf, $24.00 (0-375-41308-1).
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. Pantheon, $17.95 (0-375-42230-7)
Winspear, Jacqueline. Maisie Dobbs. Soho, $24.00 (1-56947-330-7).
Yates, Bart. Leave Myself Behind. Kensington, $23.00 (0-7582-1348-9).

Schneider Family Book Award recipients named
The Schneider Award is a new award from ALA that honors an author or illustrator for a book that “embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.”
The 2005 winner for picture book is My Pal, Victor/Mi Amigo, Victor by Diane Gonzales Bertrand, illustrated by Robert L. Sweetland.
The winnter for middle-school level is Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan.
And the teen award goes to My Thirteenth Winter: A Memoir by Samantha Abeel.

The 2005 Best Books for Young Adults is now available online! Yippee! Even more books to add to my library reserve list.

Woo hoo! The Current Notable Children’s Books List is now available online. I love this list because there are always incredible books on it that I have missed through the year. Enjoy!
The YALSA website doesn’t have the YA list up yet, but I hope to have the link posted later today or definitely tomorrow.

e-Grants is a portal from the U.S. Department of Education for web-based grants.

Laurence Yep has been awarded the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for his “substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.” Yep has written picture books and juvenile fiction that represent Chinese Americans in history and today. He is a perfect choice for the award.

JS Online: Kevin Henkes ‘Takes Five’
This interview with Kevin Henkes includes his reaction to winning the Caldecott Medal this week. Plus a wonderful testimonial to the power of books and reading.

The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books 2004 Blue Ribbons list is now available on their website. This annual list of favorite books includes picture books, nonfiction and fiction.

Batchelder Award is given to the most outstanding children’s books originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country and then translated into English and published in the United States. This year’s winner is The Shadows of Ghadames by Joelle Stolz. The two Honor Books are Daniel Half Human and the Good Nazi by David Chotjewitz and The Crow-Girl by Bodil Bredsdorff.
I have raved about Crow-Girl before on this blog. It is a remarkable book with a strong setting and even stronger young heroine. I am thrilled that it received this kind of recognition.