Michael L. Printz Award:

The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a Topeka, Kansas school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association.  The award is sponsored by Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association.

Where Things Come Back written by John Corey Whaley, published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.

Honorees:

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler; The Returning by Christine Hinwood; Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey; and The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater.

Morris Award:

The William C. Morris YA Debut Award, first awarded in 2009, honors a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens and celebrating impressive new voices in young adult literature.

Where Things Come Back written by John Corey Whaley, published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.

YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction:

The YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction honors the best nonfiction book published for young adults (ages 12-18) during a November 1 – October 31 publishing year. 

The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery written by Steve Sheinkin and published by Flash Point/Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.

Margaret A. Edwards Award:

The Margaret A. Edwards Award, established in 1988, honors an author, as well as a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature. The annual award is administered by YALSA and sponsored by School Library Journal magazine. It recognizes an author’s work in helping adolescents become aware of themselves and addressing questions about their role and importance in relationships, society, and in the world.

Susan Cooper for The Dark Is Rising Sequence.

Schneider Family Book Award: 

For books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience.

Two books were selected for the middle school award (ages 9 – 13): “close to famous,” written byJoan Bauer and published by Viking, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group; and “Wonderstruck: A Novel in Words and Pictures,” written by Brian Selznick and published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic.

The teen (ages 14-18) award winner is “The Running Dream,” written by Wendelin Van Draanen and published by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

Stonewall Book Award -Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award:

Given annually to English-language children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience.

Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy written by Bil Wright and published by Simon & Schuster BFYR, an imprint of Simon& Schuster Children’s Publishing Division.

Honorees:

a + e 4ever drawn and written by Ilike Merey and published by Lethe Press, Inc.; Money Boy written by Paul Yee and published by Groundwood Books, an imprint of House of Anansi Press; Pink written by Lili Wilkinson and published by HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollins; and with or without you written by Brian Farrey and published by Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division.

Odyssey Awards:

This annual award will be given to the producer of the best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States.

Rotters written by Daniel Kraus, narrated by Kirby Heyborne and produced by Listening Library, an imprint of Random House Audio Publishing Group, Random House, Inc.

Honorees:

Ghetto Cowboy, written by G. Neri, narrated by JD Jackson and produced by Brilliance Audio.

Okay for Now, written by Gary D. Schmidt, narrated by Lincoln Hoppe and produced by Listening Library, an imprint of Random House Audio Publishing Group, Random House, Inc.

The Scorpio Races, written by Maggie Stiefvater, narrated by Steve West and Fiona Hardingham and produced by Scholastic Inc., Scholastic Audiobooks.

Young Fredle, written by Cynthia Voigt, narrated by Wendy Carter and produced by Listening Library, an imprint of Random House Audio Publishing Group, Random House, Inc.

Alex Awards:

The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.

• • Big Girl Small by Rachel DeWoskin, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
  • In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard, published by Little, Brown & Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
  • The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
  • The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens by Brooke Hauser, published by Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
  • The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, published by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.
  • Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, published by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
  •  Robopocalypse: A Novel by Daniel H. Wilson, published by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.
  • Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, published by Bloomsbury USA
  • The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures by Caroline Preston, published by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
  • The Talk-Funny Girl by Roland Merullo, published by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.

More information about YALSA and all of the awards can be found here: http://www.ala.org/yalsa/booklistsawards/bookawards.

Congratulations to all winners and honorees!

In this anthology, 70 authors share their stories of bullying, whether from the perspective of the perpetrator, victim, or silent bystander.  Authors range from R. L. Stine, Jon Scieszka and Mo Willems to Michelle Zink, Lauren Oliver, Ellen Hopkins and Cynthia Leitich Smith.  All tales are brief (about two pages) and heartfelt; some lay painfully naked on the page.  In the end, all angles of the subject have been explored.

So many of the tales made me want to cry.  Even the remorse expressed by authors who did the bullying was moving.  Sometimes an author offers concrete advice (like R. L. Stine’s use of humor) and sometimes the author just lets victims know that it does get better.  Sometimes an author who thought they were never bullied reflected on a pattern of verbal abuse (read about the ramifications of sexting) and now realize they’d been victimized.  Some authors were bullies and regret is desperately, as do many who were silent witnesses to bullying.

The main lesson I took from reading the book is that bullying affects everyone and it’s often overlooked or excused.  With so many schools addressing bullying head on, with zero tolerance policies, this is a must-have book for libraries (public and school).  Guidance counselors would be well advised to keep a copy in their offices.  Teens will surely flip to the accounts of their favorite authors and will hopefully read on.

5P     4Q     Grade Level: 8+

Cover Art: We all know teens are attracted to covers with faces.  This one is compelling because of the face with the overlay of contributors names: intimating that we all have to take responsibility for this pandemic.

From Reading List: Too Good to Be True Nonfiction

Jacob’s life seems ordinary enough.  His mother has a career that keeps her away from home and his father can’t seem to finish a project.  He has only one friend, and that seems to be based on mutual need.  The only person that means anything to the 16 year old is his grandfather, Abraham Portman.  Their bond grew threw the years as Grandpa Portman shared his collection of bizarre pictures, supposedly images of other children he grew up with at Miss Peregrine’s Home for children in Wales, a sort of safe harbor for children during the horrors of World War II.  With his grandfather’s grisly death in the woods behind his Florida home, Jacob sets off for Wales to inspect the home and try to come to terms with the truth about Abraham’s past.  What Jacob discovers bends reality and obliterates time.  His life has become extraordinary.

I once spent weekends combing through boxes of old, old photos at flea markets with a long-gone boyfriend.  We liked to find the most absurd, scary, silly and strange images and make up stories.  If I knew then….  Ransom Riggs has combined some of those creepy images with a mind-bending tale of good vs. evil.  Without the images, the book would be just another atmospheric tale set somewhere in the Twilight Zone.  With the images, the creep factor is cranked up a notch.  Riggs’ writing is formal, like the memoirs of an old man; and for telling Abraham’s and Jacob’s stories, the style fits perfectly.  Add end pages that mimic old books and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is the complete, creepy package.

Not convinced about the weird creepiness of this book?  Tim Burton is rumored to be interested in directing a movie version and a screenwriter has signed on.  IMDB.com lists the project as “in development” and its release is expected in 2013.

4P     4Q     Grade Level: 10+

Cover Art: An image from the body of the book is on the cover, with more displayed on the back.  Creepy.  And the font used in the title is at once old-timey and Stephen King-creepy.  Perfection.

From Reading List: The Way It Could Be (Science Fiction or Fantasy)

Grades 6-8:

Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper

Grades 9-12:

The Exiled Queen (Seven Realms, Book 2) by Cinda Williams Chima

Congratulations to all winners!  For more information about the Teen Buckeye Book Award, visit their website: http://www.bcbookaward.info/teens/index.html.  Winners for grades 6-8 are included in the voting for the Buckeye Children’s Book Award (here: http://www.bcbookaward.info/).

NOTE: This review is based on an ARC provided for free by the publisher.  The publication information is subject to change.   Expected publication date is February 16, 2012.  Part of this review originally posted on LibraryThing.com and follows.  

How do you transition from high school to life-after?  For these four friends, they hit the road with the all-girl band, The Disenchantments, on their way to drop one off at college.  Colby, the only guy on the road trip and our narrator, has borrowed his uncle’s vintage VW Van (named Melinda) and will be the girls’ roadie.  His best friend since, like, forever, is Bev, lead singer of the band.  Sisters Meg and Alexa round out the power trio and it is Meg who will be staying in Portland to attend college.  Alexa will return to San Francisco to finish her senior year of high school.  Colby and Bev will be heading to Europe to backpack for a year, realizing their four-year-old dream of seeing amazing island chains, art, and Colby’s mom.  But, life has a way of mixing things up and the four teenagers discover this in the cramped interior of Melinda and in cheap motel rooms.  Disappointments, secrets and the unexpected threaten all of their plans.  Can their friendship, and even romance, survive?  I was smitten by all of the characters and grew to care about each of them, even the quirky tattoo artist, Jasper.  As realistic fiction goes, this is an easy read full of heart, heartbreak and the chance to follow where the heart leads.  As coming of age fiction, it hits all the points of self-discovery, growth (and outgrowing), and saying goodbye.

I’d like to add that I was very happy to read about Alexa and Meg’s “two dads” in a very matter-of-fact way.  Also, the marriage troubles that plagued other adults were handled in a way that reflected real life.  It was refreshing to read about problems that were subtext to the main plot.  Every teen or young adult will relate to at least one of the characters.  Everyone struggles with family, friends, and future issues just like the protagonists in The Disenchantments.  One line in the book summed up the whole “coming of age” struggle faced by high school (and even college) seniors: “In just a little while we will forget all the things we used to want and adjust to the lives that we’re given.” (page 146 in the ARC edition)

4P     3.5 Q     Grade Level: 10-12+

Cover art: I guess this is supposed to be Bev, wearing Colby’s sunglasses.  I assume it’s meant to attract its target audience with the real person look.  However, after reading so much about Colby’s logo for The Disenchantments, I believe a black cover with the silver logo would be far more interesting than this one.

From Reading List: Keepin’ It Real (Realistic Fiction)