Awards

CLA 2007 YA Shortlist

| Tasha

The Canadian Library Association has announced the shortlist for their 2007 Young Adult Book Award.  The award is limited to English-language Canadian works published in 2006 for the ages of 13-18.

Mud Girl by Alison Acheson.

The Blue Helmet by William Bell.

Johnny Kellock Died Today by Hadley Dyer.

Hello, Groin by Beth Goobie.

The View from a Kite by Maureen Hull.

Droughtlanders by Carrie Mac.

Featherless Bipeds by Richard Scarsbrook.

Megiddo’s Shadow by Arthur Slade.

101 Ways to Dance by Kathy Stinson.

Me and the Blondes by Teresa Toten.

Pageturner Awards

| Tasha

2006 James Patterson PageTurner Awards have been announced. The awards honor programs that “go to extraordinary lengths to spread the joy of books and reading across the country.” The 39 winners receive cash prizes that total $500,000.
The awards go to programs that serve a variety of ages. The ones for children are remarkable. Here are some that get me all tingly:
826 National, based out of San Francisco, but with offices in large cities across the country, offers free programs that turn children’s books into published works, offers one-on-one tutoring in English, and encourage writing, reading and creativity.
First Book, which is a well-known program, continues to do amazing work in getting books into the hands of children who have never owned their own book before.
Books for Boys at the Children’s Village has librarians, teachers and volunteers share books with at-risk 6-21 year olds. Lovely.
2nd Chance Books at the Austin Public Library works to get books to incarcerated teens. Hurrah! This is certainly one program that should be duplicated across the country.
The lists continue. I am sure that you will find inspiration, new ideas, and value in many programs on the list.

Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award

| Tasha

Hey, it’s Friday and I have a poetry-related post!  Amazing! 

The Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award winner has been announced:

Jazz by Walter Dean Myers.

This makes Myers the first poet to win the award twice.

Three Honor Books were also selected:

Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant by Jack Prelutsky.

The Braid by Helen Frost.

Tour America by Diane Siebert.

And finally, the Promising New Poet Award goes to:

Joyce Lee Wong for Seeing Emily. 

Thanks to CCBC-Net for the news.

Andre Norton Award Nominees

| Tasha

Nominees for the 2006 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy have been announced! And what a great list it is!

  Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier.

Midnighters: Touching Darkness by Scott Westerfeld.

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld.

Devilish by Maureen Johnson.

The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner.

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer.

2007 Notable Computer Software

| Tasha

ALSC (The Association for Library Services to Children) has selected the 2007 Notable Computer Software and Online Subscription Services for Children.  The focus is on high-quality programs for children 14 and younger.  It is a great place to find software for children, especially if you are building a circulating collection of software.  There are many on the list that I haven’t heard of before, which is just wonderful.

Cybils Awards!

| Tasha

The 2006 Cybils are as follows:
Fantasy & Science Fiction:
Ptolemy’s Gate by Jonathan Stroud (HURRAH!!!)
Fiction Picture Books:
Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watts. (Which has a sequel that is coming out soon or just released)
Graphic Novels:
Ages 12 and Under:
Amelia Rules! Volume 3: Superheroes by Jim Gownley.
Ages 13 and Up:
American Born Chinese by Gene Yang
Middle Grade Fiction:
A Drowned Maiden’s Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz
Non-Fiction Middle Grade and Young Adults:
Freedom Walkers by Russell Freedman
Non-Fiction Picture Books:
An Egg Is Quiet by Dianna Aston (HURRAH! I adored this picture book and am SOOO looking forward to their next effort, A Seed Is Sleepy out next week!)
Poetry:
Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow by Joyce Sidman.
Young Adult:
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. (HURRAH! Oh wait, I was a judge…) 🙂

Cybil Winners Announced Today

| Tasha

Make sure you check out the winners of the Cybils today, 2:00 pm central time.  I am very thrilled to have been a judge on the YA committee.  We picked a great book as the winner and did it with a real shared spirit of love of books and appreciation for teen readers.  It was so much fun to participate! 

If you didn’t sign up to be on a nominating committee or judging committee this year, make sure you join us next year.  And if you don’t blog, this is a great reason to get started.  🙂

Edgar Nominees

| Tasha

The Edgar Nominees have been announced by the Mystery Writers of America.  They do awards for everything from adult novels to TV episodes to films.  And of course they have both a juvenile book category and teen category.  The nominees for those two categories are as follows:

JUVENILE

Gilda Joyce: the Ladies of the Lake by
 Jennifer Allison.

The Stolen Sapphire: a Samantha Mystery by Sarah Masters Buckley.

Room One: a mystery or two by Andrew Clements. 

Snatched by Pete Hautman.

The Case of the Missing Marquess: an Enola Holmes Mystery by Nancy Springer.

YOUNG ADULT:

The Road of the Dead by Kevin Brooks. 

The Christopher Killer by Alane Ferguson.

Crunch Time by Mariah Fredericks.

Buried by Robin Merrow MacCready.

The Night My Sister Went Missing by Carol Plum-Ucci. 

The Higher Power of Lucky

| Tasha

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron.

This winner of the Newbery Medal is a quiet book with a deep soul.  It is reminiscent of Because of Winn Dixie in many ways. 

Lucky is worried that her guardian is going to return to France.  Every time Brigitte’s mother calls on the phone, Brigitte cries.  Lucky is convinced that she is going to be left behind, so she plans to be the first to leave.  Of course, that means that she won’t be able to continue her friendship with the knot-tying Lincoln or the cookie-loving Miles.  But unlike being put into an orphanage, she will be able to keep her dog with her.

The glory of this book is in its staying power.  I am so happy that I didn’t have time to review this last week, when I read it, because this story stays with you and percolates in your brain.  It is such a quiet story but the setting is vivid and unique, the joys of a small town on the desert are wonderfully displayed, and the deep feelings of Lucky linger.  I enjoyed smiling at all of the great analogies in the story, reading a book that takes the show don’t tell philosophy and runs with it, and finding a heroine this complex in a children’s book. 

I agree with the Newbery Committee.  This one is a winner.  Even better, it has a lot of kid-appeal and I predict it will become one of the favorites in the Newbery units at school.