The finalists for YA Fiction, Nonfiction Picture Books, Graphic Novels and MG/YA Nonfiction are now up on the Cybil blog.  I am thrilled to see some of my favorites of the year on the lists.  Good luck to the judges who will have to select from these lists of worthy titles.  I can’t wait to see who wins!

The Association of Jewish Libraries has announced the 2008 Sydney Taylor Book Awards.  The awards are given to “new books for children and teens that exemplify the highest literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience.”  The award is given in memory of one of my favorite authors from my childhood, Sydney Taylor.

Here are the winners:

Young Readers

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

Older Readers

The Entertainer and the Dybbuk by Sid Fleischman.

Teen Readers

Strange Relations by Sonia Levitin.

Honor books were also given in each category:

Younger Readers

The Castle on Hester Street by Linda Heller
Letter on the Wind by Sarah Lamstein
Light by Jane Breskin Zalben

Older Readers

Holocaust: The Events and Their Impact on Real People by Angela Gluck Wood
The Secret of the Priest’s Grotto by Peter Lane Taylor

Teen Readers

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie by Mirjam Pressler

The Sunday Times has their list of the Best Books for Children 2007 up.  The books are selections from Nicolette Jones, their reviewer.  Because the Times is British, you will find books not available in the U.S.  But some of her favorites will be very familiar.  Her list spans books for babies through those for teens.

The Horn Book has once again created an amazing compilation of best books.  Their Best Books of 2007 include so many of my favorites of the year!  In picture books, they are all marvelous.  Fiction includes three of my all-time favorites of the year: Hugo Cabret, Red Spikes and Absolutely True Diary.  All marvelous!  What a great list and what a great year for books! 

One more list, just in case your to-be-read list has bloated enough with the previous lists!  Publisher’s Weekly has released their list of the Best Children’s Books of 2007.  Again, I see a lot of my favorites and others that are already patiently waiting to be read on my list. 

One book that will even bump the Cybil’s books off of the top of my pile is the conclusion of Libba Bray’s trilogy.  I can’t wait to see how she ends it and just go along for the ride in her Victorian fantasy. 

Tis the season for Best of the Year lists!

School Library Journal has posted their favorite titles of the year.  Their list includes 63 books.  Lots of lovely picture books, great teen reads and wonderful middle grade books.  Many of my favorites of the year made their list.

Amazon also has their Best 0f 2007.  You’ll have to scroll down to find their lists for picture books, middle readers and teens.  Each list has a full top ten.  And again some of my favorites are there.

How about you?

Hurrah!!  Sherman Alexie has won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature!  His brilliant, amazing The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is my favorite teen novel of the year.  I don’t think I have ever had my favorite win the NBA.  So hurrah!  Hurrah! 

I heard it on NPR on my way to work and restrained myself to loud cheers and a happy dance, refraining from honking the horn and flashing my lights in glee.

The finalists for the 2007 National Book Awards in Young People’s Literature have been announced.  And what a great slate of candidates it is!  Two of my all-time favorites of the year, so I look forward to reading the others. 

Right now my vote goes to The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.  A spectacular read.

Sherman
Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time
Indian

Kathleen
Duey, Skin Hunger: A Resurrection of Magic,
Book One

M.
Sindy Felin, Touching Snow

Brian
Selznick, The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Sara
Zarr, Story of a Girl

Finding Violet Park by first-time author Jenny Valentine has won the Guardian children’s fiction prize in Britain.  The book is not yet out in the U.S. and let’s hope it doesn’t take as long as The New Policeman did.