2011 Newbery Hopefuls

My Newbery Hopefuls tend to have more hope than my Caldecotts, but this year, who knows?  I'm very deliberately leaving off a few books which may be strong contenders but were most definitely Not For Me.  These, I loved.

  • A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner (I might love this one best).
  • Alchemy and Meggy Swann (Ye toads and vipers! I'm still in London, after all).
  • The Dreamer by Pam Munoz  Ryan (Maybe it will win the Belpre, too).
  • One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (See my story here).
  • Only One Year by Andrea Cheng (For younger readers).
  • Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes (Reviewed here).
  • The Shadows (Probably not a Newbery, but it's my list! Reviewed here).
  • Something I'm forgetting, I'm sure (See: London).

I'm wishing everyone involved, from authors to committee members to readers (and bloggers!) a good night's sleep and a happy ALA awards day.  See you on the other side--of the ocean and the announcements!

Maybe a Newbery story

Here's my story: I met Rita Williams-Garcia at ALA last summer.  She was signing One Crazy Summer (Amistad).  I hadn't come prepared to buy any books (I know; silly me!) and was counting out my loose change in hopes of having enough for one copy when someone at the booth took pity on me and let me have it for the cash I had on hand.  I was debating whether to ask Ms. Williams-Garcia to sign it to Leo or Milly and decided to ask her to sign it to both, remarking that they could fight over who got to keep it after it won the Newbery.  At that point,  the same someone (thank you!) handed over another copy and Rita came out from behind the signing table, gave me a hug and whispered, "From your lips to God's ear."  I hope so!

2011 Caldecott Hopefuls

I'm posting my list of Caldecott Hopefuls (I don't even try to pick the winners; these are just some of last year's personal favorites) from a borrowed computer on our last night in London.  Sadly, I scheduled our plane trip home such that we will be IN THE AIR when the ALA awards are announced tomorrow morning.  It's going to be a long flight!

Nonfiction edition (links are to my reviews of these titles):

International edition (I know, not eligible, but these are MY Caldecott Hopefuls after all):

  • The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood and Renata Liwska (Houghton Mifflin).

And that's it, except for the ones on my desk at home that I'm forgetting.  Maybe the Caldecott Committee will remind me, or maybe they'll choose Art and Max by David Weisner (Clarion):  a worthy choice!  What are your personal favorites and/or Caldecott picks?  Remind me.

 

Cybils picks

In 2008 and 2009, I had an ambitious Cybils Reading Plan.  The goal was to read one new-to-me book from the list of finalists in each category, and I came pretty close both years.  This year I was a panelist for the Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy category, which involved an even more ambitious reading plan.  By the time the finalists were announced on January 1, I was ready for a break from Cybils reading.  I do have some favorites from among the shortlists, though.  Here they are:

  • Easy Readers/Short Chapter Books.  In Easy Readers, I have a soft spot for Mr. Putter and Tabby (and Zeke).  In Short Chapter Books, How Oliver Olson Changed the World.
  • Middle Grade Fiction.  I loved, loved Heart of a Shepherd by Rosanne Parry (it was on my personal Newbery shortlist).
  • Fiction Picture Books.  My two favorites on this list are probably the Caldecott winner (Lion and the Mouse) and the Caldecott honoree (All the World), even though I don't tend to like wordless and (what would you call All the World?) picture books.  I did manage to read all seven shortlisted books, but the others just weren't for me.
  • Nonfiction Picture Books.  Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11.  My son was so disappointed that this didn't get a Caldecott honor (although it did get a Sibert honor).  I love Brian Floca's work, too.
  • Poetry.  The Tree That Time Built: A Celebration of Nature, Science, and Imagination.
  • YA and Graphic Novels.  You'll have to look elsewhere for those, although I have been reading and loving some YA lately.

This year's winners will be announced on Sunday, February 14.  I'm so curious about what will win in our category!  Here's our shortlist:

11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass
Dreamdark: Silksinger by Laini Taylor
The Farwalker’s Quest by Joni Sensel
Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
The Prince of Fenway Park by Julianna Baggott
The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories by Joan Aiken
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (also on my personal Newbery list)

Have you ready any of them (or do you plan to)?  Which is your favorite?  I would love to know.  And if you think When You Reach Me should have been on the list, you can let me know that, too.

STBA Blog Tour: Margarita Engle, Tropical Secrets

 

Welcome to the 2010 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour!  I'm honored to be hosting Margarita Engle, author of Tropical Secrets:  Holocaust Refugees in Cuba (Henry Holt, 2009), at bookstogether today.  Tropical Secrets is this year's STBA winner in the Teen Readers category.

Anamaria Anderson (AA):  Congratulations and welcome to bookstogether, Margarita!

Margarita Engle (ME):  Thank you.  I am so deeply honored by the Sydney Taylor Award, and I am so grateful for this opportunity to speak about Tropical Secrets. 

AA:  Tropical Secrets is such an evocative title.  Would you share some of the secrets to which it refers (without, of course, giving any of them away)?

ME:  I feel very close to this title.  It springs from my own sense of wonder about the story.  There is a feeling of discovery.  I am fascinated by the safe harbor Jewish refugees found in Cuba, and in other Latin American countries as well.  I am particularly intrigued by the Cuban teenagers who volunteered to teach Spanish to the refugees.

AA:  How did you go about the research for this story?

ME:  I found the factual details in an amazing scholarly study called Tropical Diaspora, by Robert M. Levine.  Without the nonfiction accounts in that reference, I could not have written Tropical Secrets.  I am astonished that the history of Holocaust refugees in Cuba, and in Latin America as a whole, is not more familiar. 

AA:  I agree, Margarita.  The fictional characters of Tropical Secrets—Daniel, Paloma, David, and el Gordo—bring these unfamiliar historical events to life for your readers.  When did your characters, and their personal stories, begin to reveal themselves to you?

ME:  The characters and plot of Tropical Secrets came to me in a huge wave.  It was overwhelming.  I could barely scribble fast enough to keep up with the flow of words.  It was as if this story had been waiting to be told, and was searching for a home.

My mother is Cuban, and was raised Catholic.  My father is the American son of Ukrainian-Jewish refugees.  Tropical Secrets unites the diverse branches of my ancestry.

AA:  I think it found the perfect home.  What would you like your readers to take home from Tropical Secrets?

ME:  I wrote Tropical Secrets because I admire the resilience of refugees, and the generosity of those who help them.  This is a facet of Tropical Secrets that transcends all borders and eras.  It is true of natural disasters as well as manmade ones.  I simply wanted to pay homage to the idea of safe harbors and the kindness of strangers.

AA:  That facet of Tropical Secrets resonates especially clearly right now, in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti; and it is always worth remembering.

Thank you so much, Margarita, for these insights into your work, and congratulations again.  I look forward to your forthcoming books (The Firefly Letters and Summer Birds:  The Butterflies of Maria Merian, both 2010) and wish you all the best.

And thank all of you for stopping by the STBA Blog Tour!  Please be sure to visit the other stops on the tour today and later this week; and of course I hope you'll visit me at bookstogether anytime.

Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour

Announcing:  The Sydney Taylor Book Award will be celebrating its 2010 gold and silver medalists and special Notable Book for All Ages with a Blog Tour, February 1-5, 2010.  I'm especially happy to be hosting Margarita Engle, author of Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba (Henry Holt, 2009), on Monday, February 1.  Tropical Secrets was the SBTA winner in the Teen Readers category; my regular readers already know that I think it's an outstanding book, haunting and ultimately hopeful.

The full schedule for the STBA Blog Tour appears on People of the Books, the official blog of the Association of Jewish Libraries.  I hope you'll join me on Monday for a short interview with Margarita, and then follow the tour throughout the week.  Thank you!

Pinkney's Lion and the Mouse lie down with the lamb

Or rather, the antelope.  One of my favorite details of Jerry Pinkney's Caldecott Medal-winning The Lion and the Mouse (Little, Brown, 2009) is the homage to Edward Hicks's Peaceable Kingdom paintings (with Serengeti animals) on the back cover, under the dust jacket.  Pinkney discussed the influence of Hicks and other artists on his work in The Lion and the Mouse in an interview with Reading Rockets ("A playful, peaceable kingdom"). 

We have a Peaceable Kingdom at the National Gallery, and I look forward to sharing Pinkney's interpretation of the theme with visiting students alongside Hicks's.  Thank you, Mr. Pinkney, and congratulations!

[Sadly, I don't have a digital image of Pinkney's Peaceable Kingdom to post; but you'll want to peek under the dust jacket of your own copy to find it anyway.]

Night before Newbery

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon even though you're not supposed to consider anything but the text.

When You Reach Me for its 1970s New York setting.

Tropical Secrets because Cuba has always been a complicated and beautiful island.

Love, Aubrey and I did.

Heart of a Shepherd for its bravery and, yes, its heart.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate because it's not too long if you love every last word of it.


Finally, Crossing Stones because the Printz alone wouldn't be enough.

 See you in the morning.

What about the Belpre?

 

Oh--what is the Belpre, you ask?  The Pura Belpre Award goes "to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth." Like the Newbery and Caldecott, the Belpre is awarded by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of ALA; and by REFORMA, an ALA affiliate.  When?  Tomorrow!

Tropical Secrets by Margarita Engle (Henry Holt) and Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez (Little, Brown), are (as you might guess by their covers) representative of the range of Latino cultural experience recognized by the Belpre.  Tropical Secrets is a haunting verse novel about Holocaust refugees in Cuba; Confetti Girl is a more typical middle grade novel, with familiar middle grade concerns, set in the predominantly Latino community of Corpus Christi, TX.  I hope they are both recognized tomorrow.

I think about the Newbery all year (watch for my annual Newbery predictions post to go up sometime before midnight tonight), but I had to scramble to read more than a handful of candidates for the Belpre in time for the ceremony.  This year I resolve (it's not too late!) to read more books by Latino/Latina authors.  And I also hope you'll join me.

And now for the Newberys

I'm not sure if the books I've read since completing my Cybils commitment last week are benefiting from not being middle grade science fiction and fantasy novels, but they are excellent regardless.  One of them might even win the Newbery (Medal or Honor).  So might one of our shortlisted books, for that matter.  And then there's When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb Books, 2009).

Which is to say I haven't forgotten you, Newbery.

Cybils' Eve

I'm sorry I missed Christmas at bookstogether this year.  I seem to have missed December almost entirely--oops!  But I did read many middle grade science fiction and (mostly) fantasy books, over half of the 98 nominees for a Cybil in that category.  (I may have cheated a little and read some other books, too.  It couldn't be helped!  More about those later.)

The shortlists will be posted on the Cybils blog on New Year's Day, at 6 am US Mountain Time.  Til then, happy new year!

Cybils alert!

Nominations for this year's Cybils close at midnight tomorrow, October 15. If, like me, you've been holding your nominations in reserve, now is the time to check out what's been nominated (or overlooked) so far and make your choices. I'll post mine here as soon as I've made them.

Exciting news: This year I'm a first round panelist in Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy, which means I'll be reading a lot of SFF between now and December 31. Where should I begin? Leave me a comment with the title and author of your favorite book in this category, and I'll move it to the top of my to-read pile. Provided it's been nominated for a Cybil this year, of course. And if it hasn't, what are you waiting for?

E.B White Read Aloud Awards

The winners of the 2009 E.B. White Read Aloud Awards for Picture Books and Older Readers were none other than my two favorite books in those categories last year.  I love it when that happens!

Picture Book:  A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton (Candlewick, 2008).  I bought this book the moment I saw it (which is saying a lot given my limited book budget), and we've read it aloud many times since.  Perfect pacing, charming and expressive illustrations, a lovely last line.

For Older Readers:  Masterpiece by Elise Broach, illustrated by Kelly Murphy (Henry Holt, 2008).  I'm thrilled that this middle grade novel about frienship, values, and art will have a shiny gold sticker of on it (even if it's not the Newbery).  Our next family read aloud.  And maybe yours, too!

 

 

Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards

I tend to like the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winners and honor books.  These are the 2009 winners (for books published between June 1, 2008 and May 31, 2009):

Fiction and Poetry:  Nation by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins).

Nonfiction:  A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary by Candace Fleming (Schwartz and Wade/Random House).

Picture Book:  Bubble Trouble by Margaret Mahy (illustrated by Polly Dunbar; Clarion).  You can preview this one at Google books.  Do the cadences of Mahy's rhymes remind you of Charlotte Pomerantz's The Piggy in the Puddle (illustrated by James Marshall), too?  They're both great fun to read aloud.

You can also read more about this year's Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards and see the list of honor books here.

Beginning and Endpapers: The Caldecott Edition

Question: How many of this year's Caldecotts (there are four, the medal winner and three honor books) feature decorated endpapers?"

Answer: Two. [The others have plain endpapers:  A House in the Night's are marigold to match the illustrations; How I Learned Geography's are...brown, like a manila envelope.]

A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee (Harcourt, 2008). Susan has convinced me that A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever could have (and possibly should have) won the Caldecott Medal outright. Its endpapers feature photographs (the old-fashioned kind, with deckled edges on opposite sides) of the boys' activities at Nature Camp. We never actually see them at Nature Camp in the book--just in the car on the way there and back--so the endpapers are a bonus. They're different in the front and back (these are the front endpapers; the jacket is pasted down, sorry).

A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jen Bryant; illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Eerdmans, 2008). These endpapers are a leafy green with some colored pencil and collage elements.  Five of Williams's poems appear on the front endpapers (shown here) and four more on the back endpapers, nicely arranged so as not to be obscured by the jacket flaps (ahem).

But wait! Those aren't the only endpapers here. Many of Melissa Sweet's illustrations for A River of Words were painted or collaged onto the endpapers of old library books. She writes in an illustrator's note:

"[Then] I looked to a big box of discarded books I had from a library sale. One of the books had beautiful endpapers and I did a small painting on it. Then I took a book cover, ripped it off, and painted more. The book covers became my canvas, and any ephemera I had been saving for one day became fodder for the collages."

My favorite of these is the image of Williams stretched out beside the Passaic River (Gurgle, gurgle--swish, swish, swoosh!). Sweet incorporates the vining floral pattern of the endpapers into her painting; it's the meadow grass Willie is lying on.

I think that more than makes up for the other two.

Twittering the Newbery

I watched the live webcast of the ALA Youth Media Awards yesterday morning, but I also got the Twitter feed, which was somehow a couple of seconds ahead of real time. Maybe someone noticed this, because ALAyma stopped twittering just before the big announcements.

But if you were following neilhimself on Twitter, you would have already gotten this series of tweets, earlier in the morning:

  • woken up by assistant at 5.30 in the morning. Not quite sure why. All rather bleary, to do with someone trying to call. argh. 8:47 AM Jan 26th from web
  • oh. forget about it. 8:50 AM Jan 26th from web

And you might have guessed.  And been mightily pleased about it!

[Read Neil Gaiman's account of the phone call itself in this journal entry, (Insert amazed and delighted swearing here).  If you need help with the swearing bit, try here.]

And the winners are

Caldecott: Beth Krommes for The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson (Houghton Mifflin).  I'm delighted that this book won the Caldecott.  Here's what I said about it in a post from last November:  "It's a beautiful bedtime book, based on a cumulative poem found in The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book. I love the way the marigold highlights objects that are familiar yet fascinating to a preschooler--a key, a book, a bird, the moon."  My favorite honor book this year is Uri Shulevitz's How I Learned Geography (FSG); post forthcoming.

Newbery: Neil Gaiman for The Graveyard Book, illustrated by Dave McKean (HarperCollins).  I'm also delighted that this book won the Newbery!  I read it last week and put it on my list of favorites; it was the only one on my list to be recognized by the committee.  Of the honor books, I'm reading Margarita Engle's The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom first.  Although it won the Pura Belpre Medal for writing today, too, I think I can safely say that it appeared on no one's Newbery shortlist.

Congratulations! And reactions?

Newbery-ing

    

When it comes to literary awards, the Newbery is my first love.  These are the books I've loved this year.  I don't know if they'll win any awards tomorrow, although I would be happy if they did.  cf. The Newbery Award winners (and one Honor book) they reminded me of.

Masterpiece by Elise Broach; illustrated by Kelly Murphy (Henry Holt).  cf. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. 

The Cabinet of Wonders by Marie Rutkoski (FSG).  cf. The Hero and the Crown.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman; illustrated by Dave McKean (HarperCollins).  There is no comparison.

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall (Knopf).  cf. Thimble Summer.

The Porcupine Year by Louise Erdrich (HarperCollins).  cf. The Long Winter.

Now I'm off to read Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (Simon and Schuster).  I've been wanting to read it since it was named a finalist for the National Book Award, and I have a good feeling about its chances for a Newbery tomorrow.

See you in the morning!

All the rest

I've been so busy reading that I neglected to post the last installment of my Cybils reading list, which includes middle grade and young adult fiction and nonfiction.  That's precisely what I've been reading, too; in advance of the Newbery and other ALA award winners which will be announced on Monday.  There is some overlap, although the criteria for the Cybils (literary merit and kid appeal) and the Newbery (most distinguished contribution to American literature for children) are significantly different.

Here's what I've read or am reading as part of my Cybils reading plan:

Middle grade fiction.  I nominated Masterpiece by Elise Broach in this category.  It's my favorite middle grade book of last year (and not only because I won an autographed copy from Amanda at A Patchwork of Books).  Of the actual finalists, I had already read The London Eye Mystery (on the strength of Jen's review) and Shooting the Moon.  Since January 1, I've also read Alvin Ho.  Of the three, I like The London Eye Mystery best, the setting and the narrator, Ted, whose "brain runs on a different operating system than most people's."

Young adult fiction.  Young adult is too old for me.  I haven't read any of the finalists in this category yet, although I've recently read some other YA books like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and the National Book Award winner What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell, and I've got John Green's Paper Towns on my nightstand (does that count?).  Taking recommendations for this category; I'm growing into it.

Nonfiction.  Since January 1, I read The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir by Cylin and John Busby (also on the strength of Jen's review!).  And I looked at Ben Boos's Swords: An Artist's Devotion in the National Gallery gift shop (does that count?).  I'd like to read both King George: What Was His Problem? by Steve Sheinkin and Lincoln Through the Lens by Martin Sandler, although that may not happen before February 14.

That's it!  Now back to possible Newberys.  I'll post that list tomorrow.

My Cybils Reading List, Part 2

Part 2 of my Cybils reading list includes books from the Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Graphic Novel categories.

  • Fantasy and Science Fiction. As it was last year, this list is divided into elementary/middle grade and young adult sff. Of the elementary/middle grade finalists, I've already read The Cabinet of Wonders by Marie Rutkoski (Macmillan); in fact, I nominated it for the Cybil and am thrilled that it's made it this far. I'm hoping to get my hands on a copy of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins), too; if only because he's such a rock star.
    Of the young adult finalists, I'd most like to read A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Scholastic), which combines a fairy tale retelling (Rumpelstiltskin) with an alternate history (the Industrial Revolution). I'm also tempted by Kristin Cashore's Graceling (Harcourt), but that one may have to wait.

                      

  • Graphic Novels.  This category is also split into elementary/middle grade and young adult.  I should admit that I don't often like graphic novels.  I have read one of the finalists in the elementary/middle grade category, Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale; illustrated by Nathan Hale (Bloomsbury USA; didn't like it).  My pick is There's a Wolf at the Door by Zoe Alley; illustrated by R.W. Alley (Roaring Brook).  And I'm not even reading a young adult graphic novel (sorry!).

I'll be back with the rest of my reading list (Middle Grade, MG/YA Nonfiction, and Young Adult) on Monday.  Thanks for playing!