January 18, 2010

• Interlude – Book Awards

  You know you’re a junkie/youth services librarian when….

  • You start crying when you see a video of Virginia Hamilton talking about the importance of sharing books with children.
  • You get up ridiculously early on your day off to watch/listen to/read tweets about award announcements
  • Time slows down like it does for a child at Christmas and she is absolutely certain Santa will never arrive
  • Watching last year’s announcements is almost as much fun as it was when you watched them the last time
  • One of your favorite times is sitting with grandchildren and making a book list of what they should read next
  • When you are convinced that it just isn’t long enough and go back and watch past years because you need more

   And this year’s winners are (to name just a few)….

  Michael L. Printz award for excellence in Young Adult literature goes to Going Bovine by Libba Bray.  This one is funny and poignant and a wonderful read.  I was equally excited by the honor books, especially Tales from the Madman Underground.  The language in that one is not for the faint of heart but it is a hero’s story in every sense of the word. Don’t miss Adam Rapp’s Punkzilla – not an easy read, his work never is, but once again Rapp finds hope in the bleakest of situations. I was rather surprised that Laurie Halse Anderson’s newest Wintergirls got nothing and disappointed that Nick Burd’s Vast Fields of the Ordinary was overlooked.  Still, for what it’s worth, I think the Printz committee got it right.

  In my humble opinion (well, maybe not humble) Newbery Medal should have gone to one of the books chosen for an honor,

  The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, which has some of the most beautiful writing I have read in a very long time.  Still, I am not disappointed that the medal will be worn proudly on the cover of When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.  This is a wonderful piece full of wonderful characters and a mystery that needs science to solve it.  At its heart, though, is the growing and changing relationship between two best friends.  For those of us that work with middle school kids, this is something we see daily and it is stunningly drawn here.

  And last, but certainly not least, is The Caldecott Medal.  I am so excited I could spit because, yes indeed, the winner is……

  THE LION AND THE MOUSE by Jerry Pinkney.  It isn’t a surprise but it’s the same sort of excitement as unwrapping the box that holds the thing you want the most for Christmas.  There’s always that suspense that maybe this time it just won’t be there, that it won’t live up to your hopes, that maybe it isn’t flawless after all.  But there it is, nestled in the tissue, perfect in every way.

  And so it goes.

  • 9:19 am
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