2009 Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz winners and honor books

Here are the American Library Association's 2009 youth media awards winners. The official press release is available on ALA's website.

I'm having trouble getting onto the website at the moment because of the heavy traffic, but I was at the press conference in Denver this morning and was handed a press release after the announcement. I have to catch a plane, so forgive me for not including authors and publishers. All of that information is on ALA's website.

Caldecott Medal: House in the Night
Caldecott Honors: A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, How I Learned Geography, and River of Words: the Story of William Carlos Williams.

Newbery Medal: The Graveyard Book
Newbery Honors: The Underneath, The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba, Savvy, and After Tupac & D Foster

Printz Award: Jellicoe Road
Printz Honors: Octavian Nothing Volume 2, Nation, Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, and Tender Morsels.

Geisel Award: Are You Ready to Play Outside?
Geisel Honors: Chicken said Cluck, One Boy, Stinky, Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator.

Coretta Scott King Author Award: We are the Ship
Coretta Scott King Author Honors: The Blacker the Berry, Keeping the Night Watch, and Becoming Billie Holiday

Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award: The Blacker the Berry
Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honors: We Are the Ship, Before John was a Jazz Giant and the Moon over Star

Coretta Scott King /John Steptoe New Talent Award: Bird by Zetta Elliott

Schneider Family Book Award for young children: Piano Starts Here: the Young Art Tatum
Schneider Family Book Award for middle grades: Waiting for Normal
Schneider Family Book Award for teens: Jerk, California

Sibert Medal: We Are the Ship
Sibert Honors: Bodies from Ice and What to Do About Alice?

Carnegie Medal: March On! The Day by Brother Martin Changed the World

Batchelder Award: Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
Batchelder Honors: Garmann's Summer and Tiger Moon

Margeret A. Edwards Recipient (lifetime achievement for Young Adults): Laurie Halse Anderson

Pura Belpre Illustrator Award: Just in Case by Yuyi Morales
Pura Belpre Illustrator honors: Papa and Me, The Storyteller' s Candle and What Can You Do With a Rebozo?
Pura Belpre Author Award: The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom
Pura Belpre Author Honors: Just in Case, Reaching Out, and the Storyteller' s Candle

Odyssey Award: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Odyssey Honors: Curse of the Blue Tattoo, Elijah of Buxton, I'm Dirty!, Martina the Beautiful Cockroach and Nation.

Arbuthnot Honor Lecture: Kathleen T. Horning

Wilder Award: Ashley Bryan

William C. Morris debut award: A Curse Dark as Gold

What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear them. Leave a comment below or vote in the poll on the sidebar.

Susan's last minute Caldecott, Newbery and Geisel predictions

In October, I posted my early ALA awards predictions. Today is the actual day of the annoucements. In fact, I'm in Denver at the American Library Associations' Midwinter Meeting and am getting ready to head to the press conference in a few minutes. We'll all know the winners within a few hours, but I wanted to post my last minute thoughts. These are the books I want to win, whether that happens, we shall see.

Caldecott: A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee
Honor: Bear's Picture by Daniel Pinkwater and Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger. (I wouldn't be surprised to see House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson on this list somewhere).

Newbery: I really wish it was going to be Trouble by Gary Schmidt, but I'm thinking that's not going to happen. I think it's going to be The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.
Honor: The Underneath by Kathi Appelt, and a few surprises.

Geisel: Red Sled by Patricia Thomas.
Honor: Are You Ready to Play Outside? by Mo Willems and Mr. Putter and Tabby Run the Race by Cynthia Rylant. Plus, a surprise picture book or two.

Siebert: I'll Pass For Your Comrade by Anita Silvey (or at least an honor).

I hope you tune in to the live award announcement webcast (be sure to log-on to the webcast early so you don't get shut out). Click here to find out other ways you can find out about the announcements, both during and after the press conference.

Congratulations to every author who just had their life changed with a phone call.

Poll results

My poll results don't have the shock value of the New Hampshire primaries, but they always surprise me, nonetheless. Here are the results of my Printz award poll (the original post is here).

Question: What are your favorite Printz winners and honor books?

Answers:

1^st place (10 votes)

• 2007 honor: An Abundance of Katherines

2^nd place (7 votes each)

• 2007 winner: American Born Chinese
• 2007 honor: The Book Thief
• 2006 winner: Looking for Alaska
• 2004 honor: A Northern Light
• 2000 honor: Speak

3^rd place (6 votes each)

• 2007 honor: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing
• 2005 winner: how i live now
• 2004 honor: The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things

4^th place (5 votes)

• 2003 honor: The House of the Scorpion

5^th place (4 votes each)

• 2005 honor: Airborn
• 2000 winner: Monster

6^th place (3 votes each)

• 2005 honor: Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
• 2002 honor: True Believer
• 2001 honor: Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging
• 2000 honor: Hard Love

7^th place (2 votes each)

• 2004 winner: The First Part Last
• 2004 honor: Fat Kid Rules the World
• 2003 winner: Postcards from No Man’s Land
• 2003 honor: My Heartbeat
• 2003 honor: Hole in My Life
• 2001 winner: Kit’s Wilderness
• 2000 honor: Skellig

8^th place (1 vote each)

• 2006 honor: I Am the Messenger
• 2006 honor: John Lennon
• 2002 honor: The Ropemaker
• 2001 honor: Many Stones
• 2001 honor: The Body of Christopher Creed

9^th place (0 votes each)

• 2007 honor: Surrender
• 2006 honor: Black Juice
• 2006 honor: A Wreath for Emmett Till
• 2005 honor: Chanda’s Secrets
• 2004 honor: Keesha’s House
• 2002 winner: A Step From Heaven
• 2002 honor: Heart to Heart
• 2002 honor: Freewill
• 2001 honor: Stuck in Neutral

I'm impressed that An Abundance of Katherines won so decisively. It's made me resolve to get me hands on a copy as soon as possible. I heard John Green's acceptance speech for the Printz honor, and the book sounded incredibly cool. I have to give it a try.

On to the next poll...

The new poll question serves to wrap up Wizards Wireless' discussion of American Library Association awards, and asks which ones are your favorites. Forgive the lengthy options... not all the awards are well known, so I thought quick summaries might help.

Incidentally, the poll asking about favorite Newbery medalists is still running. Be sure to vote if you haven't yet. The Giver is currently in the lead, followed by From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler which is in second place. Tied for third are Number the Stars, The Bridge to Terabithia and A Wrinkle in Time.

Printz Awards

Wizards Wireless tends to review far more picture books than young adult (YA) books. But, as the American Library Association awards draw closer (they'll be announced on January 14th), I thought I'd highlight a few of the major awards. Also, it's a great way to prepare for the January Carnival of Children's Literature which is all about children's and young adult book awards. (See this post for more information and how to submit).

I've already talked about the Caldecott and the Newbery, so today I'm focusing on the Printz award. What is that, you ask? The Michael L. Printz Award is given to a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. And one of the most intriguing things about it is that there is no residency requirement stating that the author must live in the United States (like there is for the Caldecott and the Newbery). This opens the Printz Award to an intriguing and diverse group of candidates.

The first Printz Award was bestowed in 2000, so the list of winners isn't nearly as long as some of the other awards. Here's my list of favorite Printz winners and honor books (keeping in mind that I don't read a lot of young adult books):

• 2007 winner: American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
• 2005 winner: how i live now by Meg Rosoff
• 2005 honor: Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
• 2004 honor: A Northen Light by Jennifer Donnelly
• 2000 winner: Monster by Walter Dean Myers

If you're interested the Printz Awards, here's where you can find out more. And here's a list of all the winners and honor books. Tune in on January 14th to find out which book will win this year.

Congratulations to kidlit blogger Liz Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy, who's on the 2009 Printz committee!

And here's a short story about the generosity of librarians. I was privileged enough to be able to attend the 2007 Newbery/ Caldecott/ Wilder Award Banquet at the American Library Association conference in Washington D.C. I was chatting with the librarians sitting at my table during dinner, and one of them turned to me and asked if I was going to attend the Printz Award ceremony (which was the following evening). I said no... the event was sold out. She handed me her ticket, and said she had to leave town early to catch a plane.

So, that's how I ended up going to the Printz Awards.

And I'm very, very glad I did because a cool thing about the Printz awards is that all the authors who have been honored get to talk, not just the winner. I got to hear some of the great current young adult writers in the field speak, including: M.T. Anderson, John Green, Sonya Hartnett, and Markus Zuzak. Also I got to hear Gene Yang's acceptance speech for American Born Chinese, which was quite a thrill. I had just finished writing a very long paper (40 pages!) for library school about Chinese American children's and young adult books, and American Born Chinese was a central part of my thesis. It was wonderful to be able to hear Yang's perspective about a book I had read so many times. The Printz Awards were inspiring and made me resolve to read more young adult literature (which I will, I promise!)

Do you have any favorite books that have won a Printz? See the new poll in the sidebar of this blog (which includes both winners and honor books) or write about them in the comments.

Update: The Printz poll results are here.