2006 Best Books for Young Adults is a wonderful list to look at. This year the list contains 91 recommended titles. The committee also selected a Top Ten:
Akbar, Said Hyder and Burton, Susan. Come Back to Afghanistan: A California Teenager’s Story. Bloomsbury, 2005. $24.95. (1-58234-520-1).
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow. Scholastic, 2005. illus. $19.95. (0-439-35379-3).
Buckhanon, Kalisha. Upstate. St. Martin’s, 2005. $19.95. (0-312-33268-8).
Green, John. Looking for Alaska. Dutton, 2005. $15.99. (0-525-47506-0).
Lynch, Chris. Inexcusable. Simon & Schuster/Atheneum, 2005. $16.95. (0-689-84789-0).
Meyer, Stephanie. Twilight: A Novel. Little, Brown/Megan Tingley, 2005. $17.99. (0-316-16017-2).
Vaughan, Brian K. Runaways: Volume 1 HC. Illus. by Adrian Alphona. Marvel, 2005. $34.99. (0-7851-1876-4).
Westerfeld, Scott. Peeps. Penguin/Razorbill, 2005. $16.99. (1-59514-031-X).
Wooding, Chris. Poison. Scholastic/Orchard, 2005. $16.99. (0-439-75570-0).
Zusak, Markus. I Am the Messenger. Knopf, 2005. $16.95. (0-375-83099-5).

Kate Thompson has won the Whitbread Children’s Book Award for The New Policeman.  According to her biography on the site, she has won other awards for previous books, but I haven’t read any of them.  The titles sound like she writes fantasy, one of my favorite genres, so I may have to dig them up. 

The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books has published its list of the best books of the year.  The picture book choices seem to lean to the silly side, something I really appreciate.  And I see that Kipling’s Choice by Geert Spillebeen is on their list.  That’s one that I haven’t read yet, but have seen mentioned again and again recently.  One for my To Be Read list.

Guardian Unlimited Books — Dyslexic writer savours Nestle victory
Sally Gardner, author of I, Coriander has won the Nestle children’s boo prize. Hurrah! One of my favorites of the year!

Guardian Unlimited Books — Book deal for spare-time writer
A Belfast mom has won The Wow Factor, a writing competition lookin gto find the next JK Rowling. Her book, The Forbidden Room, will be released in fall of 2006 in the UK.

Another list of the top children’s books of 2005 is Horn Book Fanfare. It doesn’t have a lot of surprises for me, but it includes almost all of my favorites of the year! This is a great list of titles.

The Parents’ Choice Awards are a great place to find recommended toys for children. But they also give out awards to the best audio, software, DVDs, and books for children.

Publishing’s ‘Oscars’ go to Vollmann, Didion and to Jeanne Birdsall for The Penderwicks, winning the National Book Award for young people’s literature.

Farm tale wins GG award has the news that Pamela Porter has won the Governor General’s award for children’s literature for her book, The Crazy Man, written in poetry.