Now in its 13th year, the winners of the An Post Irish Book Awards have been announced. Over 100,000 votes were cast to select the winners! Here are the teen and youth award winners:
TEEN / YOUNG ADULT BOOK OF THE YEAR
The Weight of a Thousand Feathers by Brian Conaghan
CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR (SENIOR)
Blazing a Trail: Irish Women Who Changed the World by Sarah Webb and Lauren O’Neill
CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR (JUNIOR)
The President’s Cat by Peter Donnelly
Another 2018 best books list has been released, this time from SLJ! Here are the titles:
PICTURE BOOKS
Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal
A Big Mooncake for Little Star by Grace Lin
Black Bird, Yellow Sun by Steve Light
Blue by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson, illus. by Rafael López
Drawn Together by Minh Lê, illus. by Dan Santat
The Field by Baptiste Paul, illus. by Jacqueline Alcántara
Fox + Chick: The Party and Other Stories by Sergio Ruzzier
Julian Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love
Me and My Fear by Francesca Sanna
Mommy’s Khimar by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, illus. by Ebony Glenn
A Parade of Elephants by Kevin Henkes
The Patchwork Bike by Maxine Beneba Clarke, illus. by Van Thanh Rudd
Saffron Ice Cream by Rashin Kheiriyeh
Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora
They Say Blue by Jillian Tamaki
Zola’s Elephant by Randall de Sève, illus. by Pamela Zagarenski
CHAPTER BOOKS
Meet Yasmin! by Saadia Faruqi, illus. by Hatem Aly
Tiger vs. Nightmare by Emily Tetri
MIDDLE GRADE
Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed
Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi
Blended by Sharon M. Draper
The Cardboard Kingdom by Chad Sell
Dactyl Hill Squad by Daniel José Older
A Dash of Trouble by Anna Meriano
Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome
Front Desk by Kelly Yang
Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
Hurricane Child by Kheryn Callender
Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake
The Journey of Little Charlie by Christopher Paul Curtis
Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish by Pablo Cartaya
Merci Suarez Changes Gears by Meg Medina
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
The Season of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon
The Serpent’s Secret by Sayantani Dasgupta
Swallow’s Dance by Wendy Orr
They Call Me Guero by David Bowles
You Go First by Erin Entrada Kelly
NONFICTION
Americanized by Sara Saedi
Dreamers by Yuyi Morales
Eat This!: How Fast Food Marketing Gets You to Buy Junk (and How You Can Fight Back) by Andrea Curtis, illus. by Peggy Collins
Facing Frederick: The Life of Frederick Douglass, a Monumental American Man by Tonya Bolden
The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler by John Hendrix
I Have the Right To: A High School Survivor’s Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope by Chessy Prout with Jenn Abelson
Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968 by Alice Faye Duncan, illus. by R. Gregory Christie
Not My Idea: A Book about Whiteness by Anastasia Higginbotham
Otis and Will Discover the Deep: The Record-Setting Dive of the Bathysphere by Barb Rosenstock, illus. by Katherine Roy
Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide by Isabel Quintero, illus. by Zeke Peña
Prickly Hedgehogs by Jane McGuinness
Spooked!: How a Radio Broadcast and the War of the Worlds Sparked the 1938 Invasion of America by Gail Jarrow
The Triumphant Tale of the House Sparrow by Jan Thornhill
We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorrell, illus. by Frané Lessac
YA
After the Shot Drops by Randy Ribay
All That I Can Fix by Crystal Chan
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
Blanca & Roja by Anna-Marie McLeMore
Blood Water Paint by Joy McCollough
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
Give Me Some Truth by Eric Gansworth
Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Love, Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
Mirage by Somaiya Daud
Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
Picture Us in the Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Pride by Ibi Zoboi
The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang
The Promised Neverland, Vol. 1: Grace Field House by Kaiu Shirai
A Room Away from the Wolves by Nova Ren Suma
Sadie by Courtney Summers
Speak: The Graphic Novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, illus. by Emily Carroll
When Light Left Us by Leah Thomas
POETRY
Jabberwalking by Juan Felipe Herrera
Martin Rising: Requiem for a King by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illus. by Brian Pinkney
Seeing into Tomorrow by Richard Wright & Nina Crews
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Boy by Tony Medina
Kitten and the Night Watchman by John Sullivan, illustrated by Taeeun Yoo (9781481461917)
The night watchman heads out to his night of work. He works on a construction site, making sure that the doors are locked and the rooms are empty. He shines his flashlight near the broken trucks and startles a killdeer. He drinks his coffee under the shining stars and moon, thinking of his children at home asleep. Then a small kitten appears and joins the watchman for the rest of his rounds. They spot a jet in the sky, share dinner, and look at bugs. But then the kitten disappears and the watchman is left with only the sounds of the night around him. When the kitten returns, the watchman makes a decision to bring it home with him.
Beautifully told in a gentle and simple way, this picture book takes a poetic look at a job and a setting that is not usually given that treatment. The counterpoint of a construction site and the beauty that night lends it is very effective. As the quiet of the night progresses, it reveals so much that is hidden during the day. Birds, insects, and the kitten itself emerge from the darkness to be noticed and are made remarkable.
The artwork is filled with darkness and blues. Yet it is also lit by stars and the moon, and it is filled with beams from flashlights and lamps. These yellow streams of light lend brightness and illuminate the budding relationship of the watchman and the kitten with warmth.
Uniquely mixing construction, night and beauty, this picture book is something special. Appropriate for ages 2-4.
Reviewed from library copy.
Waking Brain Cells 