I’m up at 7:45 to watch the ALA Youth Media Awards. This is much earlier than last year!
Schneider Awards: Django by Bonnie Christensen (young reader), Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin (middle), Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork (teen, and been on my To Read list for ages).
The very first Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award winner: Walter Dean Myers! (I knew it!)
Coretta Scott King New Talent: The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon.
Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honors: The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes, illustrated by EB Lewis (Fabulous book!)
Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award: My People by Langston Hughes (Absolutely adore this book!)
Coretta Scott King Author Honors: Mare’s War by Tanita S. Davis
Coretta Scott King Author Award: Bad News for Outlaws by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Margaret A. Edwards Award: Jim Murphy
William C. Morris Award (new author for YA): Flash Burnout by LK Madigan
YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction: Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman
Michael L. Printz Honors: Charles and Emma by Deborah Heiligman, The Monstrumologist by Richard Yancey, Punkzilla by Adam Rapp, and Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes.
Michael L. Printz Award: Going Bovine by Libba Bray (Yay! I haven’t actually read any of her books yet, but from watching her online I think she’s fantastic.)
Odyssey Award (Audiobook): Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken by Kate DiCamillo
Pura Belpre Illustrator Award: Book Fiesta by Pat Mora, illustrated by Rafael Lopez
Pura Belpre Author Award: Return to Sender by Julia Alvarez (an author I adore, a book I haven’t read)
Robert F. Siber Honors (Informational for children): Day-Glo Brothers by Chris Barton and Tony Persiani, Moonshot by Brian Floca (beautiful book that we have at school, but I haven’t read it cover-to-cover yet), and Claudette Colvin by Phillip M. Hoose
Robert F. Siber Medal: Almost Astronauts by Tanya Lee Stone and Margaret A. Weitekamp
Theodore Seuss Geisel Award (beginning reader): Benny and Penny in the Big No-No! by Geoffrey Hayes
Caldecott Honors: All the World illustrated by Marla Frazee and written by Liz Garton Scanlon, Red Sings from Treetops illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski and written by Joyce Sidman
Caldecott Medal: The Lion and the Mouse written and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney (I can’t believe I haven’t read this one! Keep passing it up at bookstores!!)
Newbery Honors: Claudette Colvin, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin, The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick
Newbery Medal: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (I’m reading that right now! Good timing)
AND, I’ve found 2 more books I read last year that didn’t get added to my final 2009 tally. It’s up to 300! I need to go back through my fall book order to see if I read any others that I missed.
Things I’ve learned:
- I had way less time to read and keep up with the award buzz during my 1st year teaching than at the public library. Hopefully that will change this year, and I really need to find a way in the budget to get SLJ or Booklist. We haven’t subscribed to any professional periodicals for years due to budget cuts, but I need to work on that. Big time. Now that I’m feeling pretty solid with the library I need to focus on collection development.
- I need to get over my personal aversion to historical fiction and get reading. Almost all of the Newbery Honor books are in my school library, and they’ve all been on my list for a while, but I haven’t read any of them. This aversion kept me from reading all the Newbery books in 2008 because I couldn’t get through Elijah of Buxton. Only one I didn’t read.
- I need to get over my aversion to Jerry Pinkney and start reading. I know his stuff is gorgeous, but it’s just not my personal taste and style.
- I have a lot of great stuff to add to my 2010-2011 book order.