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What Did You Read? And ALA Winners Announced!

We enjoyed 2 weeks off over the festive season. On our first day back for 2010 the “What Did Santa get you for Christmas?” question was quickly followed with “What did you read in the holidays?” One particular Little Bookroom lass was super excited to have read an advance copy of Rebecca Stead’s WHEN YOU REACH ME. We are positive about this one and have promptly circulated said precious reading copy amongst the staff. How great it is to have this positivity reinforced with Stead being awarded the 2010 John Newberry Medal earlier this week.

Set in New York in the 1970s WHEN YOU REACH ME follows the story Miranda as she receives mysterious notes warning her of things that haven’t happened yet. Praised by judges as being an intricate novel with “every scene and word being vital to the plot” we eagerly await the Australian Release on February 1st. Great jacket too!

The Caldecott and Printz awards were also announced in this round of American Library Association (ALA) awards. The Caldecott Medal for illustrated picture book was awarded to Jerry Pinkney’s wordless, stunning version of Aesop’s THE LION & THE MOUSE. There’s a great little video in Little Brown’s website with Jerry talking about his take on the well known fable.

The Printz award winner for excellence in Young Adult Fiction was Libba Bray’s GOING BOVINE (set for local release this February). The PR piece says- “When Cameron finds out he's sick and going to die, he embarks on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America to find out how to live and what matters most.” That got our attention! Then on further investigation we found comparisons to Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). Sold!

Here’s a list of the other honor books for each award (note, American spelling of honour used for authenticity).

JOHN NEWBERRY HORORED TITLES
Hoose, Phillip Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice
Kelly, Jacqueline The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
Lin, Grace Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
Phillbrick, Rodman Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg

CALDECOTT HONORED TITLES
Frazee, Marla. & Garton Scanlan, Liz All The World IN STOCK- WE LOVE IT.
Zagarenski, Pamela & Sidman, Joyce Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors

PRINTZ AWARD HONORED TITLES
Heiligman, Deborah Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith
Yancey, Rick The Monstrumologist IN STOCK
Rapp, Adam Punkzilla
Barnes, John Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance, 1973

The CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Awards nominations have been released with winners announced in June. Have a peruse of the lists:

CARNEGIE NOMINATIONS 2010

KATE GREENAWAY NOMINATIONS 2010

Cheers,
Anna Lonsdale-Cooper
January 23 2010