ALA recaps 2015

I didn't go to the American Library Association's Annual Conference in San Francisco this year, much as I might have liked to. I lived in San Francisco for a brief while (and worked in the TransAmerica Pyramid!) and have always enjoyed going back for visits. But, I've done the next best thing, and read up on other conference-goers experiences there.

Travis Jonker at 100 Scope Notes gives a three-part wrap-up. One, two and three.

The ALSC blog is a treasure trove of conference related posts.

Abby Johnson at Abby the Librarian shares her experiences, especially the Newbery Caldecott banquet.

Paul Signorelli at Building Creative Bridges talks about the warmly supportive and hug-worthy excitement being in San Francisco during Pride Week, as the historic Supreme Court decision on gay marriages was released and has more resources for those who are #alaleftbehind.

Youth Media Awards 2015

The ALA Youth Media Awards have been announced!

Here are some of the winners, and I've highlighted everything that I had a prediction about or was on my radar as a potential winner in red. Too bad I wasn't in a betting pool this year! I could have cleaned up.

Newbery

The Crossover - Kwame Alexander

Newbery Honor:

El Deafo - Cece Bell

Brown Girl Dreaming - Jacqueline Woodson

Caldecott:

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend - Dan Santat

Caldecott Honor:

Nana in the City - Lauren Castillo

The Noisy Paint Box: The  Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract Art - Barb Rosenstock,  illustrated by Mary GrandPré

Sam & Dave Dig a Hole - Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen

Viva Frida - Yuyi Morales

The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus - illustrated by Melissa Sweet, written by Jen Bryant

This One Summer - illustrated by Jillian Tamaki, written by Mariko Tamaki

Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award:

Brown Girl Dreaming - Jacqueline Woodson

King Author Honor:

The Crossover - Kwame Alexander

How I Discovered Poetry - Marilyn Nelson, illustrated by Hadley Hooper

How It Went Down - Kekla Magoon

Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award:

Firebird - Misty Copeland, illustrated by Christopher Myers

King Illustrator Honor:

Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker - Patricia Hruby Powell, illustrated by Christian Robinson

Little Melba and Her Big Trombone - Katheryn Russell-Brown, illustrated by Frank Morrison

Printz:

I’ll Give You the Sun - Jandy Nelson

Printz Honor:

And We Stay - Jenny Hubbard

The Carnival at Bray - Jessie Ann Foley

Grasshopper Jungle - Andrew Smith

This One Summer - Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki

Pura Belpré (Illustrator) Award:

Viva Frida - Yuyi Morales

Belpré Illustrator Honor:

Little Roja Riding Hood - Susan Middleton Elya, illustrated by Susan Guevara

Green Is a Chile Pepper - Roseanne Greenfield Thong, illustrated by John Parra

Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation - Duncan Tonatiuh

Sibert:

The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus - Jen Bryant

Sibert Honor:

Brown Girl Dreaming - Jacqueline Woodson

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, & the Fall of Imperial Russia - Candace Fleming

Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker - Patricia Hruby Powell, illustrated by Christian Robinson

Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting with the Great Whites of California’s Farallon Islands -  Katherine Roy

Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation - Duncan Tonatiuh

Stonewall Award:

This Day in June - Gayle E. Pitman, Ph.D., illustrated by Kristyna Litten

Stonewall Honor:

Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out - Susan Kuklin.

I’ll Give You the Sun - Jandy Nelson

Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress - Christine Baldacchio, illustrated by Isabelle Malenfant

Youth Media Awards 2013

Well, all the dust has settled, and the award winners announced. What do we think of the award winners this year?

The Newbery award went to The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. I wasn't surprised by this pick! I'd heard a lot of positive buzz about it. There's a lot of excitement in Atlanta for this book, since the gorilla in the story spends part of his life at the Atlanta Zoo.

The Caldecott went to This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen. The only thing that surprised me about this one is that such a popular book was chosen! I think it's a lot of fun, and kind of off the beaten track.

I love all of the Caldecott honor books as well:
Creepy Carrots! illustrated by Peter Brown, written by Aaron Reynolds
Extra Yarn illustrated by Jon Klassen, written by Mac Barnett
Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
One Cool Friend illustrated by David Small, written by Toni Buzzeo
Sleep Like a Tiger illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, written by Mary Logue was the only one that I hadn't heard of.

The Coretta Scott King Award went to Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America by Andrea Davis and Brian Pinkney. I really expected that Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by E. B. Lewis would win, but at least it got an honor.

The Printz Award for young adult fiction went to In Darkness by Nick Lake. All right, I'll just come out and say it. I feel like the Printz award is running away with itself. In Darkness seems like a dark horse. I certainly hadn't heard any buzz about it. It doesn't sound like the kind of book I'd normally pick up, but most reviewers had rated it highly, as a beautifully written, challenging work. I've heard a lot more positive things about Code Name Verity, one of the honor picks in this category.

I hadn't given much thought to the Schneider Award for books that address characters with disabilities until last year's debacle when the committee opted not to give any awards, stating they didn't feel there was anything worth recognizing that year. This year was totally different. Back to Front and Upside Down by Claire Alexander was the winner for the category for books for children under 10. It's a sweet little encouraging book about a student who may be dyslexic.

The Batchelder winner was My Family for the War by Anne C. Voorhoeve, translated by Tammi Reichel. I hadn't heard of this one, but it was translated from German, and I do think German books generally translate very successfully into English.

The Pura Belpré (Illustrator) Award went to Martín de Porres: The Rose in the Desert illustrated by David Diaz and written by Gary D. Schmidt. No surprise there. David Diaz is a real favorite of mine.

The Geisel Award is for the most distinguished beginning reader book. I'm sad to say, I hadn't heard of the winner, Up, Tall and High! by Ethan Long, but it sounds charming. Sometimes I think the award could be renamed, "The Mo Willems Award" since the man seems to sweep it nearly every year with his wonderful Elephant and Piggie series. Let’s Go for a Drive! did get an honor. I was very surprised that Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin, illustrated by James Dean won an honor. I look at that book and think, "picture book" or even, "great storytime pick" but I don't think "beginning reader" even though it technically qualifies with it's simple and repeating vocabulary and fun to sing-along-to rhymes.

I was thrilled that Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, won the William Morris Award for a first-time author writing for teens. It's no secret that I have a special soft spot for dragons and this book was one of the best reinventions of dragonlore I've seen in a while.

This isn't a complete or comprehensive list, by any means. For a complete listing of award winners, check out the American Library Association website's official press release.

ALA Youth Media Awards 2012

ALA Midwinter in Dallas was a wonderful long weekend celebrating the core of what being a librarian is all about - books, books, books and more books!

Here are my thoughts and reflections on this year's big award winners.

The Newbery Award went to Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos, with Newbery Honors going to Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai and Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin.

Once again, I failed to call it - I'd heard so much buzz about Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt, I assumed that it would win. And I must shamefacedly admit, that I haven't read Dead End in Norvelt, either! I did read Inside Out & Back Again, and felt in my heart that it was a Newbery contender. Hurrah! I'm so happy to see it honored. I've never even heard of Breaking Stalin's Nose.

Even though I haven't read Dead End in Norvelt, I can tell it's the "right sort" of book. Heartrending stories about kids in tough situations are to the Newbery Committee what heroic, drawn-out movie death scenes are to the Oscar Committee, right? I feel like there's a balance between winning books with a girl protagonist vs. a boy protagonist and we were "about due" for a "boy book" so I wasn't surprised to hear it had won.

This quote concerns me: "Who knew obituaries and old lady death could be this funny and this tender?” said Newbery Medal Committee Chair Viki Ash." Wow - that sentence does not have me rushing out to read this book. That sounds like a downer, quite frankly. But, I have read Hole in My Life, Gantos' autobiography for kids, which I found riveting. It's a cautionary tale about how he got caught up in drug trafficking, got caught and how serving time in prison gave him a big wake-up call and a second-chance just when he needed it. He wisely left out a lot of details about the political scene in the '60's, making it a much more accessible book for teens today. Knowing that Dead End in Norvelt is also a highly autobiographical work leaves me more interested. Shockingly, my library's reserve lists have not filled up on this title. Are people just slow to hear about the Newbery this year? Or is this book failing to draw them in?

The Printz award went to Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley. I hadn't even heard of this one. I hadn't heard of two of the Honor books in this category either: The Returning by Christine Hinwood and the somewhat critically reviewed Australian import, Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey. I had heard good things about the other two Printz Honor books: Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman and Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater.

A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka is the Caldecott winner this year. I vaguely remember seeing it around, but I hadn't expected it to win big. Honors were given to Blackout by John Rocco, Grandpa Green by Lane Smith and Me... Jane by Patrick McDonnell. I've been a fan of John Rocco for years. I met him at a book talk he gave right after he wrote his first book, Wolf, Wolf! and have been rooting for him to win since then. Hoorah! I'm so happy he got the honor for this one. I think any book that celebrates less computer time and more face-to-face interactions is sure to hit a sentimental note for a lot of older readers who don't see their digital and their "real" lives as seamlessly interwoven as the younger generation does. Grandpa Green and Me... Jane are two picture books that I've been dying to get at my library, but as our budgets have dwindled, sadly, picture books are some of the "easiest" to cut, since not having them doesn't provoke as much outcry as not having ample copies of adult New York Times bestsellers titles, for example. Now that they've both won Honors, hopefully, I'll find it easier to lobby for their purchase!

ALA 2011 Wrap-up

I had a grand time at the American Library Association Annual Conference, held this year in New Orleans. I took the train down from Atlanta which was a truly wonderful way to travel. So relaxing and so much less stressful than taking a plane. I got a lot of reading done on the train! How can I possibly explain the whole conference in one post? It's not possible! This is more of a light recap, rather than a true report of everything. I know it probably sounds like a lot, but there's so much that I know I'm leaving out!

Saturday morning, I went to see Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. He was a mild-mannered yet funny speaker and talked about how he always wanted to be a newspaper cartoonist. He admitted that librarians scared him and joked that "reluctant reader" must be an educational term for "boys." Kinney said he liked keeping busy with his "day job" at poptropica, helping to create children's online video games. When asked how many Diary of a Wimpy Kid books he had planned he said that book six is coming out in the fall (obviously) and he's currently working on book seven. He said that he might want to do as many as ten books and he half-joked about running out of ideas. Kinney did say that he wanted to avoid the syndrome of adding more and more younger and cuter characters to keep things going (he cited Cousin Oliver from The Brady Bunch and new kids in later seasons of The Cosby Show as examples) which is why he decided to take things back to basics and have the Heffley family snowed-in for book six.

Saturday night I went to a YA Book Bloggers meet-up and was finally able to put faces to names for Parajunkee, Green Bean Teen Queen, Gone with the Words, Kate from YA Highway, Abby (the) Librarian, and The Elliot Review, among others. The highlight of the evening (for me at least) was seeing some 60 and 70 year-old couples tear up the dance floor with some smooth salsa moves. I hope I'm half as cool and in love when I get to be that age.

Sunday morning I went to the YA Coffee Klatch. It was so much bigger than I expected! It was held in a huge ballroom. How many people were there? I'm not sure, but it felt like hundreds. Just as everyone had warned me, the whole event went sooo fast. Even though we had nearly an hour, and five minutes with each author, it honestly felt like a blink of an eye and it was all over.

Just a few highlights... I loved meeting Franny Billingsly. She talked about her new book, Chime, and how and why she had such a gap from her last book, the beautiful and lyrical Folk Keeper. What I loved about Billingsly is the way that she jumped between talking about her real life, and talking about stories she'd written... she'd be mentioning some family vignette and a moment later, she'd offhandedly refer to an elf lord. It sort of made your head spin, trying to keep up with her conversation, and what was "real" and what wasn't... she definitely seemed like someone who had one foot firmly in another world.

I have to say, I felt terrible for author Joseph Lunievicz. His debut novel sounds like it's supposed to be a sober, gritty, coming-of-age story about an Errol Flynn obsessed boy in New York in the 1930's. I guess the cover kind of fits, but it just screams, "urban fantasy" to me, and I picture many readers throwing the book down in disgust once they learn there's no wizards, time-travel or enchanted swords to be had.

Jamie Kennedy came by and gave us an spirited recap of his book The Order of Odd-Fish and his latest project The 90-second Newbery Festival.

So many authors seem like natural-born storytellers, ready to spin a yarn, but others seem very shy... they write because they value their alone time. Brian Katcher, author of Almost Perfect seemed to be in the latter category. He told us that he wanted to write about a transgendered girl because he hadn't seen anything like it. He talked about how helpful being able to research this on the Internet was.

Just like I've been told, the whole event ends so quickly, and of course, there's always an author or two that you wished you could have seen, but just missed. Just as the final bell rang, Cassandra Clare was one table over, and Cheryl Rainfield was another table over... we would have had the chance to hear either of them if there'd only been one more session. Aargh!

I also went to the Newbery/Caldecott dinner, which was wonderful. School Library Journal was kind enough to offer me a spot at their table, and I had a great view of Erin Stead, the Caldecott winner, who gave a tearful and very humble speech, as well as Clare Vanderpool, author of the dark horse Newbery winner, Moon Over Manifest. Stead talked about e-books, and how a paper book will appear worn and loved after being read many times. She quoted The Velveteen Rabbit, about how being worn out will make something "real" ...maybe you had to be there, but it was a real tearjerker moment. Tomie dePaola won the Wilder Lifetime Achievement award and he gave a great speech, telling us at length how he got his first book published, and joked that he wouldn't describe the path to publication for each of his 200+ books in such detail. It was a really delightful evening, made all the better by hobnobbing with my former colleagues in California and Texas.

This was a great conference: I'm inspired by all the new ideas that I picked up. I feel energized, invigorated and recharged!

ALA'ing 2011

I'm going to be at the American Library Association's Annual Conference this whole weekend. I'm looking forward to hearing Dan Savage speak about the "It Gets Better" project and going to the YA Coffee Klatch where I'll get the chance to have coffee with over 25 YA authors including Cassandra Clare, Sarah Dessen, Claudia Gray, John Green, Maureen Johnson, Cheryl Rainfield and Maggie Stiefvater (I promise myself I will not oversleep and miss it like I did last year!) I'm also attending the Caldecott and Newbery banquet, and of course, I'm looking forward to hitting the Expo room, meeting publishers and seeing all the great things that are about to be published.

Just like last year, I'll be livetweeting @madiganreads which is an awesome way to meet up with folks, keep up with events and panels that I can't make it to (since I can't be everywhere at once) and record my own thoughts and impressions throughout the weekend.

The Secret River review

The Secret River

by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon

Atheneum Books for Young Readers

January 2011

I am a huge, huge fan of Leo and Diane Dillon's artwork, so I was excited to see that they were releasing a new book this year. The text actually originates from Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 1956 Newbery Honor winning book. I wasn't sure how I felt about the fact that the text is abridged... but then much like when Rachel Field's 1930 Newbery winner, Hitty: Her First Hundred Years was abridged by Rosemary Wells and Susan Jeffers amidst much controversy a few years ago, I figured, well, why not? If it brings a forgotten classic to a new generation of readers, that can't be a bad thing, right? While The Secret River is in a picture book format, it's roots as a chapter book are evident in wordy pages with expressive language appropriate for second to fifth grade readers.

"There is a dark forest far away in Florida," the story begins. Young Calpurnia lives there with her parents and pet dog named Buggy-horse.

"At breakfast Calpurnia's father said, 'Hard times have come to the forest.' She said, 'What are hard times?' 'It means that everything is hard, and especially for poor people. She felt the table, she laid her hand on Buggy-horse's hard back and it was true: Everything seemed harder than usual. She asked, 'Are we poor people? I don't feel poor."

Worried that her father won't be able to sell fish at the market, Calpurnia makes pretty pink paper roses to bring to Mother Albirtha, who advises her to go to a secret river. Sure enough, Calpurnia finds it, and catches an absurd bounty of fish. Traveling home, she is accosted by an owl, a bear and a panther who each demand their share of the fish. Even though her supply of fish is now greatly reduced, Calpurnia doesn't forget her promise to Mother Albirtha, and brings her a fish as well, prompting Albirtha to exclaim, "Oh my goodness to the may-haw bush. Oh my goodness to the swamp maple."

She gives the rest of the fish to her father to sell to hungry people, "And so hard times in the forest turned to soft times." The Secret River has the cadence and feel of a long-forgotten fairy tale - the brave young girl with a soul of a poet, a magical solution for hard times, the repeating refrains, and incidents grouped in threes. The paintings are luminous. Endpapers feature two-tone catfish line drawings. This book is a must have, especially for audiences hungry for stories featuring African-American characters who are not dealing with antebellum or civil rights issues. During these tight financial times, Calpurnia's adventures may especially resonate with readers. The Dillons have successfully breathed new life into what is a timely and welcome return of an old classic. I highly recommend this book.


I borrowed this book from the library.

ALA Youth Media Awards 2011

Color me surprised! What an interesting selection of winners.

The winner of the 2011 Printz award was Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi.  I was glad to see a science-fiction title win.  It sounds quite steampunkish. I haven't read it yet, but am glad to see that I am number one in line for it at the library. Even though it's a grim, dystopian tale, I'm hoping that it isn't as cheerless as Philip Reeve's Hungry City Chronicles.

I was so happy that the Theodore Seuss Geisel award went to Bink and Gollie by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee. What a rare gem this book is. So well deserved.

For the Caldecott award, I was surprised to see Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein pick up an Honor.  I'd heard lots of buzz about A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip Christian Stead and Erin Stead. If I'm totally honest, I hadn't been rooting for it, especially.  I was disappointed that Flora's Very Windy Day by Jeanne Birdsall and Matt Phelan didn't at least pick up an Honor.

For the Newbery award, talk about a dark horse! I'm amazed. I haven't even heard of this book, Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool.  I was so ready for One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams Garcia to sweep the awards and pick up everything.  Still, One Crazy Summer did get the Scott O'Dell historical fiction award, the Coretta Scott King award, plus a Newbery Honor.  That's not too shabby!


Waiting to hear the awards felt so very odd to me this year.  When I'm not at the ALA conference in person, I'm used to being on the West Coast, and getting up at ridiculous hours of the early morning in order to hear who's won.  This year, I'm on the East Coast, and the awards were announced on the West Coast... meaning I had to wait all morning and into the afternoon to find out who the winners were.


My kudos to the award committee members, who give so much of their year to make these awards happen. I'm already looking forward to another year of reading, speculating and betting on next year's winners.

Sunday night at ALA

For the first time, I decided to splurge and spend the money to attend the Newbery Caldecott banquet. Before I headed off to the awards ceremony and speeches however, I had one other important stop to make. The Sixth Annual Bookcart Drillteam Championships!  The MCs Mo Willems and Jon Scieszka were in fine form, with plenty of hilarious side-commentary.  I thought the 80's team from Gettysburg College displayed more athletic skill, but the Pittsburgh SLIS students were far and away, leaders in artistic merit, with their "Night of the Living Librarians" which nabbed them first place.

After dashing out of the Bookcart Drillteam hall, everyone at the Newbery Caldecott banquet was dressed to the nines. It felt great to be amongst so many children's librarians. Once everyone at my table started talking about some of the craziest antics we'd tried during summer reading programs or during storytime, I knew that I was among My People. 

Jerry Pinkney designed this amazing die-cut program, and all the attendees were given a CD of the winners speeches. Pinkney (a five-time Caldecott Honor winner) talked about how when he received the call, he waited… waited… for that word… "honor" uncomprehending at first that the gold medal was finally his. 

Rebecca Stead told us how she'd been told to keep her speech short, and so she subdivided her speech into four parts. I love the way her speech circled back on itself, repeating many of the same themes. She talked about how, as a shy, author-to-be, she'd always simultaneously craved, yet hated being the center of attention on her birthday, as everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her and how receiving this award was like the biggest round of "Happy Birthday" ever. As she ended her speech, a lone librarian called out, "Happy Birthday to you!" much to the amusement of the crowd.

ALA Media Award Winners

The awards have been announced, and now it's time to tally what I've read, how close my guesses were and what I've got to read to catch up! I did get up verrry early to see the awards, but sadly between my Mac and Windows Media (the only source for the livefeed available) not getting along, and the site being overloaded, I didn't see them as I hoped. Luckily, I was able to follow along on Twitter. Getting up early had another advantage. I was able to put my name on the request list at my library, so I won't have long to wait to get my hands on books I haven't read yet.

I'm not surprised that Libba Bray won the Printz for Going Bovine. I haven't read it yet, but I've just finished reading her Gemma Doyle trilogy, and Going Bovine has been very high on my "next to read" list. I guess I've got no excuses now!

I see Rick Yancey scored an honor for his Monstrumologist, which I also had very good feelings about. I'd heard plenty of buzz about Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heilegman, and it's another on my "meaning to read" list. It won a Printz honor, as well as a non-fiction award. Punkzilla by Adam Rapp as well as Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance, 1973 by John Barnes, I'd not even heard of.

The Caldecott also, was not a surprise. What else could it be besides The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney? As I matter of fact, I have it checked out right now, and have been meaning to review it. What a marvelous book. There is a dearth of Aesops' Fables available and this one is so beautifully illustrated, I knew it was a shoe-in.

I haven't laid my eyes on All the World by Marla Frazee and Liz Garton Scanlon or Red Sings From Treetops: A Year in Colors by Pamela Zagarenski and Joyce Sidman. In part, I am a little agitated over this. I've read a lot less picture books this past year than ever before. Mostly because of shrinking budgets and a reduction in professional development opportunities. My library system's monthly book inspection (a luxury for most libraries, I know) has been slashed to bi-monthly, and slashed again to quarterly. This simply won't do! I've got to make more of a personal effort to read new picture books in the upcoming year.

The Newbery was a surprise winner (at least to me.) When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. I hate to say it, but I'd heard some buzz that it was a contender, and decided not to read it because I disliked the cover design. Terrible of me, I know, but with a "to be read list" as long as mine is, one has to start cutting somewhere. All right, back on to the "to be read list" it goes.

There's an honor for The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick, and that's a book I've been dying to get my hands on. I even almost went out and purchased it, but decided to wait it out and get from the library. I was immediately intrigued by the book because both of my parents are Civil War re-enactors and it sounded as funny and interesting as Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis, which I loved.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly was not doomed by my early predictions of success, and also received a Newbery honor. Hurrah! I predict this book, paired with Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith will be a favorite with teachers for many years to come.

Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice by Philip Hoose and Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin are two more Newbery Honor books that hadn't really crossed my radar. I'll need to read those. For good measure, I'll probably also want to read the Coretta Scott King winner, Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson. Phew! I'll have my work cut out for me in the next few days ahead.

Newbery/Caldecott, right around the corner

Just 3 more days until the 2010 Newbery and Caldecott winners are announced! Yeah, I'll be getting up at the wee hours of 4:45 am, PST to watch their live video webcast.

I can't wait to see who the winners are. Generally, whoever I think will win, or at least get an honor, comes up nothing. I've been very surprised the last few years by some dark horse candidates. Here's my list of Newbery predictions, made back in August. I'm crossing my fingers, that this will be the year my jinx will be broken.

Newbery Guesses 2009

I don't know if I've really had too much jump out at me so far, and it is getting rather late in the day, isn't it? The first Newbery betting pool I ever joined, I predicted that Dear Mister Henshaw by Beverly Cleary would win and it did!!! And I've never picked a winner since.

If I had to pick some likely candidates for this year though, there's a few I might look at.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

A girl growing up in 1899 with a large family in Texas and is fascinated with science.

The language makes me think of Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt.

The Year the Swallows Came Early by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

Budding 11-year old cook Eleanor, aka "Groovy" must cope when her father is arrested for stealing the money in her trustfund.

The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

Kyra struggles to escape her family's rural polygamist cult before she is forced to marry her own uncle.

We Can't All Be Rattlesnakes by Patrick Jennings

A wild snake is captured by a bully of a human boy, "pretending" to be domesticated while planning escape, she begins to find her will weakening.

A short book, but what an unusual protagonist!

Well, drat. Now that I've pointed out some books I liked, I feel certain that I may have jinxed them.