"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Monday, February 2, 2015

ALA announces youth media award titles today!



ALA announces youth media award winners, Feb. 2, 2015
(PRNEWSWIRE Report about the announcements)
(Only YA or books of interest for young adult readers are listed. Bolded books are available at GKHS.)
I.                   Printz Award (Best YA books of the year)
Award:
·         I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
Honor:
·         This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki
·         Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
·         Carnival at Bray by Jessie Ann Foley
·         And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard
II.                 Morris Award (Best YA by a debut author)
Award:
·         Gabi, a Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero
Finalists:
·         Carnival at Bray by Jessie Ann Foley
·         The Story of Owen by E.K. Johnston
·         The Scar Boys by
·         The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
III.              YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults
Award:
·         Popular: Vintage Wisdom by Maya Van Wagenen
Finalists:
·         Laughing at My Nightmare by Shane Burcaw
·         The Family Romanov by Candace Fleming
·         Ida M. Tarbell: the Woman Who Challenged Big Business and Won! by Emily Arnold McCully
·         The Port Chicago 50 by Steven Shienkin
IV.              Newbery Medal (Excellence in literature for children)
Award:
·         The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
Honor:
·         Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
·         El Deafo by Cece Bell (Middle grades book)
V.                Coretta Scott King Award (African American Author/Illustrator)
Award:
·         Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Honor:
·         The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
·         How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon
·         How I Discovered Poetry by Marilyn Nelson
VI.              Schneider Family Book Award (Artistic expression of living with a disability.)
Teen level Award:
·         Girls Like Us by Gail Giles
VII.           Sibert Informational Book Award (Distinguished information book for children)
Award:
·         The Right Word by Jen Bryant (a children’s book)
Honor:
·         Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
·         The Family Romanov by Candace Fleming
VIII.         Stonewall Award (Distinguished writing about the LGBT experience)
Award:
·         This Day in Time by Gayle Pitman (a children’s book)
Honor:
·         Beyond Magenta by Susan Conklin
·         I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
IX.              Edwards Award (Distinguished author of YA or children’s literature)
Award given to Sharon Draper
X.                 Of the other award categories, no books were awarded this year that would be categorized as YA: Pura Belpre (Latino authors), Odyssey Awards (Audiobooks), and The Batchelder Award (Translated into English this year.)
XI.              Alex Awards (Ten best adult books that have crossover appeal for teens)
·         All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
·         Bellwether Rhapsody by Kate Racculia
·         Bingo's Run by James A. Levine
·         Confessions  by Kanae Minato
·         Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
·         Lock In by John Scalzi
·         The Martian by Andy Weir
·         The Terrorist's Son: A Story of Choice by Zak Ebrahim
·         Those Who Wish Me Dead by Michael Koryta
·         Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle

My thoughts: 
As you can imagine I am over-the moon about I'll Give You the Sun winning the Printz Award. I honestly think it was the best book of the year and I called it!  

I am also happy to see The Crossover winning the Newbery. It's target audience is lower than high school but it is still a marvelous book, so well paced.

I'm shocked that The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender didn't win the Morris Award but glad to see that Gabi, A Girl in Pieces got the love instead. Speaking of Gabi, why didn't it get the Pura Belpre award or honor for books by Latino authors?

And finally...
The Printz committee took a bold step and did award Grasshopper Jungle a Printz Honor. If you have been reading my blog you know how conflicted I've been about this book but finally decided, just last night, it is one of my favorite YA books of the year, so I am very happy and surprised by this declaration.






2 comments:

  1. All The Light We Cannot See? That choice shocks me. It had little appeal for me and I can't imagine teens liking it much, although they might enjoy that the protagonists are teenagers for most of the story.

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  2. I haven't read All the Light We Cannot See but I know that it generally takes a mature teen that wants to read an Alex award book, but these kids do come along every once in a while. READY PLAYER ONE and THE HELP were both Alex books and kids love them.

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