Initial Newbery, Printz, and Caldecott Thoughts
I am such a nerd for book awards day. (See all the winners here.)
1. I don't know anything about picture books, so I'll stay out of that, but I do know one thing: I love William Carlos Williams.
2. This is the best Newbery list I can remember (and I can remember some great ones). I love Savvy. I love The Underneath. I love After Tupac and D Foster. And I love The Graveyard Book. (Haven't read the other, but I'm sure it's lovely.)
3. I thought the Printz choices were extremely strong, although it's no secret that I would have liked to see Octavian Nothing win. Usually there's a choice I'd disagree with (like what was up with the honor nod for that schticky math novel in 2007?), but this year I'm really pleased. I am particularly happy about The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks, which--not to brag or anything--I liked before it was cool to like.
The committees who decide these awards work so hard, and the work they do is a gift to all of us.
posted by John Green @ Monday, January 26, 2009
19 Comments
19 Comments:
Your tweets about this made me laugh out loud :-). I am also sad Octavian didn't win anything, it definitely deserved it!
Captcha Dictionary:
"tesalses"- The medical condition that makes charlieissocoollike obsessed with tea.
John: A River of Words is gorgeous. It's a picture book biography, and the book design totally rocks - poems inside the end flaps, gorgeous collage work throughout with snippets of his work. I'm pretty sure you'll like it.
The link on that page acted flukey for some reason (maybe heavy traffic), but this page listed everything out.
http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=158310
Glad to see Laurie Halse Anderson get the Margaret A. Edwards Award. And as for Octavian, you clued me into that book, so thanks for that.
Yuh-huh, this is definitely one year when I am happy about everything.
This is one of my favorite days of the year!
I am SO happy about The Graveyard Book!
The others are cool too =P
I'm happy for the Graveyard Book as well! I love Nobody Owens!!!
William Carlos Williams FTW
Yeah, best awards in recent memory. Neil Gaiman intimidates the hell out of me!
I too am a nerd.
I emailed the list to everyone I thought might care.
Even if that care was limited to liking lists.
In high school I wrote a 5 page paper stating my case against the poetry skills of William Carlos Williams and since then he has been the bane of my literary existence.
Your nerdiness is greatly honored.
1-Referring to: Newbery List.
I love Savvy also. Couldn't really get through the Graveyard Book,and I usually can get through books, so that was astonishing. The more astonishing thing was I liked the book, I liked all the concepts, it just wasn't working all together for me. I'll try it again.
Haven't gotten to After Tupac and D Foster yet, but almost all Newbery/Caudills are on hold for me at my library. =]
Ahem-Disreputable History-etc. is one of my favorite YA book, and I am(John, if you take offense I shall have to maim you in some bloggerific way, because you know your books are my favies too.)extremely glad it made it as I bought the book ages ago, along with the Boyfriend Book and such.
I love William Carlos Williams too!
I am disappointed in myself because the novel that won the Printz I have not heard of until today.I do not know if this means I know nothing about YA literature or if the committee just wanted to pull a "Yeah suckers you thought wrong" stunt. I am very gruntled with the choice of Gaiman. I read his other novel, "Interworld, which took me some time to read two summers ago. I just finished reading "The Disreputable History..." and I must say I have never been more in awe of a novel. It made me feel normal that I wanted to carry the amps during prep band with the guys rather than stand idly waiting for them to do something I was more than capable of doing. Just because I am a girl does not mean I can not lift dismantled a drum set and lift it into a mini white van.
I love Jellicoe Road and was happy to see it win. If it can't be Paper Towns....
Hahah, I saw you Twittering about this live as it was happening yesterday morning.
Which reminds me, I have a question for you, John: Do you think the increasing popularity of Twitter is contributing to the shorter and shorter attention spans of our society? I mean, why bother reading a newspaper, or someone's blog, or anything else of meaningful length when it can be conveniently summarized in 150 words or less on someone's status update? Do you think all the abbreviated words, numbers 4 words, and Internet acronyms are deteriorating the English language? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Speaking of Twitter, I think it would be great if you would follow me. (Shameless self-promotion, I know). You might be flattered to see many of my first Tweets were directed towards you. And by "flattered," I mean, "creeped out." I'm not weird; I promise! Please like me. :)
Me too! I LOVE book award day, I've been looking forward to it for weeks.
Thanks for tweeting...ALA's feed malfunctioned and my live webcast was like 20 minutes delayed for some reason. You broke the news of the Newbery/Caldecott awards for me!
(And I agree with Amie, your tweets made me laugh. I could just "see" you doing your happy dance!)
I was really pleased with the list as well, at least those that I have read. And in retrospect, my first YA list class was funny - my professor went on for a while about how Laurie H. Anderson deserved the Edwards award. Whoohoo!
AHHHH.
I SO didn't know that The Disreputable History won anything. That amazes me and makes me so happy I want to jump up and do my happy dance. Seriously. That book moved me and I liked it before it was cool. Just like I like The Hunger Games before liking it was cool.
CALLED IT!
I'm with you on the strength of this list, but also on finding it kind of baffling that anything other than Octavian could win anything for this year. I mean, seriously? Although, I guess it's not like M.T. Anderson really needs the added acclaim at this point.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home