Best audio books
HONOR AUDIOBOOKS
Ghost by Jason Reynolds (Hurray!)
Dream on Amber by Emma Shevah
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson (YES!)
WINNER
Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit
Awards
2017 Margaret A. Edwards Award
Significant and lasting contribution to YA Literature:
Sarah Dessen
2017 Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement
Presented in even years only:
Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, author of more than 35 books
2017 Stonewall Book Awards
Honor Books
When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
Unbecoming by Jenny Downham
Pride by Robin Stevenson
WINNERS
Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard by Rick Riordan – didn’t see that coming!!
If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
ALA Youth Media Awards – Next Monday!
Remember to tune in to the 2017 ALA Youth Media Awards on Monday, January 23rd. The event will be live webcast at 8 am ET.
I plan to live blog the webcast with a box of tissues at hand, since the awards always make me cry happily.
2017 Sydney Taylor Book Award Winners
The winners of the 2017 Sydney Taylor Book Award Winners have been announced by the Association of Jewish Libraries. Here they are:
GOLD MEDALISTS
I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark by Debbie Levy, illustrated by Elizabeth Baddeley
The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog by Adam Gidwitz, illustrated by Hatem Aly
Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit
SILVER MEDALISTS
Fascinating: The Life of Leonard Nimoy by Richard Michelson, illustrated by Edel Rodriguez
A Hat for Mrs. Goldman by Michelle Edwards, illustrated by G. Brian Karas
Dreidels on the Brain by Joel Ben Izzy
A Poem for Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keats and the Creation of the Snowy Day by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher
2017 Scott O’Dell Award
The winner of the 2017 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction is Jennifer L. Holm for Full of Beans. The award includes a prize of $5000. You can read more about the award and this year’s winner at The Horn Book.
Costa Book Award Winner Announced
The winner of the 2016 Costa Children’s Book Award is Brian Conaghan for The Bombs That Brought Us Together.
The Guardian offers this about Conaghan:
Children’s book winner Brian Conaghan, who won with The Bombs That Brought Us Together, offers hope to unpublished writers with piles of rejection slips from literary agents and publishers, having received more than 200 refusals for his debut When Mr Dog Bites, which was published in 2014. The book went on to be shortlisted for the Carnegie medal.
Years as a frustrated unpublished writer had strengthened him, Conaghan told the Scottish Book Trust last year. “I spent years getting rejection after rejection – basically being told my work was rank rotten – so I’m pretty immune to reviews good or bad,” he said. His latest book was described by Costa judges as “a necessary take on modern life in extraordinary circumstances”.
Cybils Finalists Announced
The finalists for the 2016 Cybils Awards have been announced. The Cybils are awards for children’s and teen books that judge the merits of books based both on quality and appeal to the target age. You can see the finalist list here.
I am so pleased to once again be part of the Cybils, serving this year as a 2nd round judge for Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction. Now I’ve got to get reading!
Waking Brain Cells 