Youth Media Award Winners for 2020!

Congratulations to all the  ALA Youth Media Award winners!

And especially to A.S. King for DIG! My favorite YA read in 2019!

Congratulations to all the ALA Youth Media Award Winners!

I'm thrilled that this year's Printz Award (as well as the Pura Belpre Author Award AND the National Book Award) went to a novel in verse!

From HarperCollins website

Congratulations to Elizabeth Acevedo and HarperCollins!





On a personal note, I'm also thrilled that my writing friend Traci Sorell won a Sibert Honor award for her nonfiction picture book WE ARE GRATEFUL: OTSALIHELIGA. It's well deserved.

Congrats, Traci and illustrator Frané Lessac!

From Charlesbridge publishing website

Hardcover Giveaway!

First, welcome to the new followers since my last post.  Glad you're here.

Yes, I'm having a Giveaway!  In fact, since I love promoting local (and sometimes not-quite-local) authors, I'm calling it the

Award-Winning-Authors-From-Pennsylvania 
Giveaway! 

 

One prize will be awarded, consisting of two hardcover books (I will use randomizer.org if I can figure it out). 

The prize:

1) A SIGNED hardcover copy of Please Ignore Vera Dietz
by A.S. King, 

which received a Printz Honor Award on Monday.
Did I mention it's SIGNED by the author?

AND

2)  A hardcover copy of After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick, 

which was the Schneider Family Book Award Middle School winner.

I'm thrilled for both Amy King and Jordan Sonnenblick (click on their names to visit their websites).  I reviewed Amy's book here.  And I did a quick pick review of Jordan's book here.  Rest assured that both of these prizes are hardcover books I purchased.  Not ARCs or review copies.

How do you enter?  It's simple:

1) Be a follower
2) Post a comment

Extra points:

+2 if you were a follower before today

+2 if you tweet about this giveaway (Twitter and I have a love/hate relationship, but please include @booksnbrains so I can track it, or else come back here and post the link)

+2 if you blog about it (again, post the link here)

You have until 11:59 pm EST on Sunday January 23, 2011 to enter this giveaway. I may kick myself later, but this giveaway is open internationally (hey, I've gotta do my part to promote my local authors).  Any questions, you know where to find me.

I'll post the winner's name no later than Wed Jan 26, 2011.  I will email the winner to ask for your mailing address, but if I don't get a response within three days I may be forced to award the prize to someone else.

UPDATE: This giveaway is now officially closed.

And the Winners Are...

A complete list of the ALA Youth Media Awards can be found here.

So how did we do in my second annual Predict the Future contest?  Well, no one guessed any of the gold medal winners. 

But we came close.

Some of the books we thought would win gold actually won silver.

Yay for Please Ignore Vera Dietz coming in with a Printz honor award!  Woot!  I'm so happy for you, Amy King!  (I was hoping it would win the Printz award itself, but it's still wonderful). 

And One Crazy Summer not only received a Newbery Honor (silver) but also the Coretta Scott King Author Award  (it was a National Book Award finalist this past year as well).

And I'm actually thrilled that Moon Over Manifest won the Newbery Medal.  I've loved the book since I read the ARC (and I urged you to read it back in September 2010), but I listened to the conventional wisdom that a debut novel never wins gold.  Now I know miracles CAN happen.

Along with Janice (bookballoon), I still love The Dreamer, and I'm happy that it won the Pura Belpre award.

As for Newbery Honors, I must admit I'm surprised at Dark Emperor, which I adore and thought would win a Caldecott Honor.

And I haven't read Turtle in Paradise or Heart of a Samurai, so there are two more to add to my ever-growing TBR list, along with Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, this year's Printz Award winner.

As for the Caldecott, we were all off.  I predicted that A Sick Day for Amos McGee would win a Caldecott honor, but never dreamed it would receive the gold medal itself.  It's well deserved, though.  It's a charming little book. 

So technically, there were no winners in my own little Gold Medal contest here, but since two people mentioned books that actually received SOME kind of award, I'm feeling generous today.  (And I'll let you in on a bookseller secret -- when it comes to Newbery and Caldecott awards, customers don't really care whether a book has the gold or silver medal on it. We shelve all the award winners and honors together).  So without further ado...

  
I'm awarding a copy of ONE CRAZY SUMMER (winner of a Newbery honor and CSK Author Award) to...

Stephanie

Check your email, Stephanie -- I'll be asking for your mailing address.

And I'll award a copy of either Ballet for Martha (which got a Sibert honor instead of the Caldecott) or The Dreamer (which got the Belpre instead of the Newbery) to...

bookballoon

Janice, you'll need to contact me with your mailing address (or come into the bookstore to receive your prize!).

A hearty thanks to all who entered (and those of you lurking without commenting -- chime in next time!).  Hope you had fun.

What about all of you?  Are you surprised at some of the awards?  Pleased?  Disappointed?

Second Annual "Predict the Future" Contest!

Welcome to my new followers.  I'm glad you're here.

Yes, it's that time of year again.  Sorry, I meant to post this a few days ago but Blogger failed me in an epic way (it wouldn't let me post a new post!).  Anyway, the ALA Awards for children's literature will be announced on Monday morning, Jan 10, 2011.

These prestigious awards include (among numerous others) the Newbery, the Caldecott and the Printz. Think you know a lot about kidlit?  Did you read a lot of wonderful MG and YA books in 2010?  Are you good at predicting the future?  heh heh

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen and try your hand at guessing which picture book from 2010 will win the Caldecott medal, and/or which 2010 middle grade book will win the Newbery, and/or which 2010 YA book will win the Printz award.  We're talking only about the gold medal winners here, NOT the silver honors.

Will the Newbery be awarded to One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia?

The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan?  The Crossing by Jim Murphy?  Alchemy and Meggy Swann by Karen Cushman?  Or something else?

Will the Printz go to Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King?   Or to Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly? 

Or some book no one has thought of?  Maybe you'll be the one.


ONE ENTRY PER PERSON PER CATEGORY.  You don't HAVE to try to guess all three, but you may. In other words, you may guess:

1) one title for Caldecott
2) one title for Newbery
3) one title for Printz


or any combination thereof.


Simply fill in the comment form to tell me your guesses. You don't have to be a follower.  If you don't know anything about picture books, you can still try to predict which book will win a Newbery and/or which book will win a Printz.  Remember that these must be books published in 2010 (and usually by American authors). For the official criteria for each category, visit the ALA's website.  For Newbery, go here.  For Caldecott, go here.  For Printz, go here (you have to scroll down a bit).

This contest is open to residents of the US only (sorry, but after all, these are American awards).  And the prize?  Anyone who correctly guesses any or all of these winners will receive a hardcover copy of the book they guessed correctly, subject to availability (I may have to wait until the bookstore gets in more stock).  And yes, this means there could be more than one winner!  Or there may be none, which means next week I'll have to think of some other giveaway (hmm, I do have too many books to fit on my shelves...)

Hurry, because this contest closes at 11:59 EST pm on Sunday, January 9, 2011.  I'll announce the awards no later than Wed Jan 12, 2011.