Saturday, January 08, 2011

Awards! Awards! Awards!

The American Library Association will be announcing the major youth book and media awards Monday morning. I've been thinking about my favorite books read this past year. I've met some wonderful characters and been to places I never imagined, all in the pages of books.

The awards are fun; it's a guessing game to see if I can predict what will win or if I'm disappointed by a committee's choice. In truth, I am in awe of the work that these committees undertake. They must read almost a book a day, if not more. They must evaluate, appraise, thoughtfully consider, and try to think of young people who will read the book with a golden or silver sticker on the cover. What a large responsibility.

There have been years where it was an easy prediction. There have been years where the buzz in "library world" has been all over the place.

If you are wondering, here are my predictions:

Caldecott (for illustrations): City Dog, Country Frog. Story by Mo Willems; Illustrations by Jon Muth
Newbery (for the writing): Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine or One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
Printz (for Young Adults): Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan or Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel
Sibert (nonfiction): Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan; Illustrated by Brian Floca

Check back this week to see how I did!

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