YMA 2013: The Recap

It was pretty much the most awesome thing in quite some time to be able to actually be there for the YMAs. I tweeted as much of it as I could, but I thought I'd try to collate my thoughts in a bit more permanent of a place.

• Can't argue with The One and Only Ivan as the Newbery winner. It's a beautiful, powerful book that I think will look as good in a decade or five as it does now. Much as I was cheering for Twelve Kinds of Ice, and much as I adored Breathing Room and Wooden Bones, this was an excellent choice.
• Loved Bomb as an honor book! Glad to see one of the best of this year's excellent nonfiction titles honored.
• Even though it's not really my cup of tea, Splendors and Glooms was really well-done. With another Honor on her shelf, it also cements Laura Amy Schlitz's position as one of the leading children's authors working today.
• Sheila Turnage isn't exactly a first-time author (in addition to the picture book, Trout the Magnificent, she's also the author of Compass American Guide: North Carolina, Fifth Edition, and Haunted Inns of the Southeast), but this is her first foray into middle-grade fiction. I know she was already working on a sequel to Three Times Lucky, but now that she's got a Newbery Honor, I'm betting we'll continue to see more middle-grade work from her.
• Wonder was this year's Okay For Now, wasn't it? Tons of buzz, a huge fan-base, and then a complete shutout. (Actually, an even more complete shutout, given that the audiobook of Okay For Now did take an Odyssey Honor.) I thought it was a lock for the Schneider, but that's one reason I don't gamble.
• The Geisel awards are another reason. So surprised to see Kevin Henkes not take anything.
• The Sibert awards made me so happy. I'll have to find a copy of Electric Ben, but the well-deserved win for Bomb and the honors for Moonbird and Titanic brought joy to my heart.
• Need to read Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. I figured it was a YA title and didn't pick it up, but since the Stonewall, Belpré, and Printz committees thought so highly of it, I'd like to have a look.
• Speaking of the Printz, the surprise in the room when In Darkness won was palpable. I don't think I talked to a single person who wasn't predicting one of the trio of Seraphina, Code Name: Verity, or The Fault in Our Stars. But, given the award's history, trying to predict it may be the single biggest exercise in futility in any of the ALA medals.
• Jon Klassen! Winner and an Honor in the Caldecott! First time that's happened since 1947, when Leonard Weisgard pulled it off for The Little Island and Rain Drop Splash.
• Glad to see that Each Kindness did get some recognition. A well-earned Coretta Scott King Honor!
• And, as a side note, so nice to meet the awesome Travis Jonker of 100 Scope Notes, and the legendary Mr. Schu!

Youth Media Awards 2013!

Newbery Medal

THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN

Newbery Honors

SPLENDORS AND GLOOMS
BOMB
THREE TIMES LUCKY

Reactions?

• First confluence between the Maryland Mock Newbery and the REAL Newbery since When You Reach Me! 
• I think a lot of people are / will be pleased about The One and Only Ivan - I know I am. Beautifully written and moving, but very accessible as well.
• If you know me at all, you know I'm a huge Laura Amy Schlitz fangirl, and I think Splendors and Glooms was top-notch. It was an honor title for our Mock Newbery as well, which may reflect the fact that it's just a smidgen more difficult to build consensus around than The One and Only Ivan. 
• I wish we'd put Bomb on our reading list, but neither of us had read it yet at that point. I still haven't read it!  *blush* But I checked it out on Friday and I'll correct that omission soon.
• I'm not, personally, a fan of Three Times Lucky, but I respect the choice, and I think it will appeal to a wide range of readers. Always nice to see some humor in the list too.

 

And a tangential Caldecott anecdote:

So, Green, by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, won a Caldecott Honor. Flashback to spring 2010: Laura was our visiting author, and I had the honor of driving her around Our Fair Peninsula for a week. Not only is she a terribly gracious and funny guest, she was also in the conceptual stages of creating Green. I remember driving her up hill and down dale as she ran ideas past me for some of the illustrations and rhymes. So it was both weird and wonderful to see it up on the big Youth Media Awards screen this morning. 

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2013 Notables Discussion List Announced!

Fresh off the ALSC blog comes the news that the official 2013 Notables list of nominated titles is out!

It certainly looks like a list that would engender great discussion! It also, especially in the nonfiction, seems like a brilliant encapsulation of this year's best books.

There were a few omissions that surprised me a bit. Several established authors had books out this year that I figured were a pretty good bet for the final Notables list, so it's interesting to note that Applewhites at Wit's End, by Stephanie S. Tolan; Will Sparrow's Road, by Karen Cushman; The Great Unexpected, by Sharon Creech; and The Wild Book, by Margarita Engle, all missed the preliminary cut. It's also worth mentioning that this year's National Book Award winner, William Alexander's Goblin Secrets, also didn't make the longlist.

I always enjoy the Notables list, which by nature is able to include a more varied overview of the best children's books of the year than the Newbery and its associated Honors are. I can't wait to see what makes the final list!