The Association of Jewish Libraries has awarded the 2008 Sydney Taylor Book Award to the following books.

Younger Readers

The Bedtime Sh’ma: A Good Night Book by Sarah Gershman.

Older Readers

The Entertainer and the Dybbuk by Sid Fleischman

Teen Readers

Strange Relations by Sonia Levitin

 

Click here for the list of honor books.

Teenreads.com in association with the Children’s Book Council are giving you the opportunity to vote for your five favorite books of 2008!  The five books that receive the largest number of votes will then become finalists that will again be voted on.  The ultimate winner will be announced in May. 

You can vote on this form for books on the list or vote for books not on the list.  Sounds like grand fun!  I’m off to cast my vote!

I missed this list of notable books for children from The Smithsonian.  A wonderful list filled with some of the gems of the year.

I can see some of my favorites, including:

The Story Blanket by Ferida Wolff

Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley by Aaron Blabey

That Book Woman by Heather Henson

And there are many more here that I missed and am looking forward to trying.  Oh, always so many books!

The Morris Award honors a book written by a first-time author for young adults.  Two of my favorite YA novels of the year made the list, so I’m sure that the other three are equally fabulous!

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

The Costa Book Awards shortlist has been announced.  This award was formerly the Whitbread Book Award and has continued the prestigious history.

Here are the books on the Costa Children’s Book Award Shortlist:

Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray (not out in US)

The Carbon Diaries by Saci Lloyd (coming out in February 2009 in US)

Just Henry by Michelle Magorian (not out in US)

Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine (coming out in March 2009 in US)

Patrick Ness has won the British Booktrust Teenage Prize for his amazing novel, The Knife of Never Letting Go.  Well done!

You can read their press release here.

Judy Blundell has won the 2008 National Book Award for children’s literature for her novel, What I Saw and How I Lied!  That brings it to the top of my to-be-read pile.  Anyone else already read it?

The National Book Foundation just announced the finalists for the 2008 award.  Here is the list for Young People’s Literature:

Laurie Halse Anderson for Chains

Kathi Appelt for The Underneath (Yippee!)

Judy Blundell for What I Saw and How I Lied

E. Lockhart for The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (Hurrah!)

Tim Tharp for The Spectacular Now

School Library Journal has an intriguing article on the recent Newbery winners and their lack of popularity.  I have to agree.  I feel a certain numbness about all of them.  My biggest pleasure this last year was the win of Brian Selznick for Hugo Cabret. 

My greatest disappointment was that it didn’t win the Newbery.  Two of my other favorites of 2007 were Elijah of Buxton and Wednesday Wars. 

They both got Newbery Honors, but not the Medal.  Somehow there is a disconnect where the Honor Books in recent years seem to be more popular, accessible and of the same writing standard as the winners.

Of course, this is exactly the sort of thing that created the Cybils.  The Cybils take audience reaction into account alongside writing quality. 

Our conversations center on how children and teens will react to the books, but they also focus on writing style, theme, characters, scope, genre, and other pieces that make exceptional books. 

The Cybils are open right now for your input.  Nominate your favorite books of the year.  Participate by reading the blog.  Be a part of a new award process that hopefully addresses some of the issues with the Newbery and forges a new path.