- “Eleanor & Park” by Rainbow Rowell (St. Martin’s Griffin)
- “Kingdom of Little Wounds” by Susann Cokal (Candlewick)
- “Maggot Moon” by Sally Gardner, illustrated by Julian Crouch (Candlewick)
- “Navigating Early” by Clare Vanderpool (Delacorte Books)
According to Goodreads, “Midwinterblood” is about the following:
Have you ever had the feeling that you’ve lived another life? Been somewhere that has felt totally familiar, even though you’ve never been there before, or felt that you know someone well, even though you are meeting them for the first time? It happens. In 2073 on the remote and secretive island of Blessed, where rumour has it that no one ages and no children are born, a visiting journalist, Eric Seven, and a young local woman known as Merle are ritually slain. Their deaths echo a moment ten centuries before, when, in the dark of the moon, a king was slain, tragically torn from his queen. Their souls search to be reunited, and as mother and son, artist and child, forbidden lovers, victims of a vampire they come close to finding what they’ve lost. In a novel comprising seven parts, each influenced by a moon – the flower moon, the harvest moon, the hunter’s moon, the blood moon – this is the story of Eric and Merle whose souls have been searching for each other since their untimely parting.
Congratulations to all of the winners, including the storied Newbery and Caldecott Medal winners, “Flora & Ulysses” by Kate DiCamillo and “Locomotive” illustrated by Brian Floca, respectively. Here are highlights from the ALA YMA winners — the YA ones anyhow — (and what we plan to read in 2014):
1. Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults: We hope to read all of the books we haven’t gotten to yet, beginning with “Midwinterblood,” which is on the way to me from Macmillan, and then “Kingdom of Little Wounds,” and finally “Maggot Moon.” My daughter and I are currently reading “Navigating Early,” and of course, you know how we feel about “Eleanor & Park.”
2. Schneider Family Book Award for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience. The teen winner is “Rose under Fire” by Elizabeth Wein, a book we’ve been meaning to read!
3. Alex Awards for the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences: I read and loved “The Sea of Tranquilty” by Katja Millay, but now I’m going to check out “Mother, Mother,” which my friends at From Left to Write read as a Book Club pick, so I’m fairly certain I can borrow a copy.
4. Margaret A. Edwards Award honors an author for significant and lasting contribution to YA Lit: Markus Zusak is this year’s winner, and we’ve read “The Book Thief” but nothing else of his body of work, so we hope to read “I Am the Messenger” or “Getting the Girl.”
5. Pura Belpré Award for Text honoring a Latino writer and illustrator whose children’s books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience: “Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass” by Meg Medina. You can read my review of the bullying-themed novel at Common Sense Media. I’d also love to read the honor book “The Living” by Matt de la Peña.
6. Mildred L. Batchelder Award for an outstanding YA book translated from a language other than English and subsequently published in the United States: “Mister Orange” is the winner. Originally published in Dutch in 2011 as “Mister Orange,” the book was written by Truus Matti, translated by Laura Watkinson. It’s set in 1945 Manhattan and follows a grocer’s son who develops a relationship with one of his parents’ customers, to whom he delivers a weekly crate of oranges.
7. Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award for a young adult book of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered experience. The winners are “Beautiful Music for Ugly Children” by Kirstin Cronn-Mills and “Fat Angie” by E.E. Charlton-Trujillo. I have had the latter on my Kindle for months! Time to move it up the TBR list.
8. William C. Morris Award for a debut book by a first-time author writing for teens: “Charm & Strange” by Stephanie Kuehn, and we hope to also read all of the honor books as well: “Sex & Violence,” by Carrie Mesrobian; “Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets” by Evan Roskos; “Belle Epoque” by Elizabeth Ross; and “In the Shadow of Blackbirds” by Cat Winters.
9. YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults honors the best nonfiction book published for young adults: “The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World’s Most Notorious Nazi” by Neal Bascomb. My 12-year-old son is a big fan of this book; maybe I should read it too!
10. Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults: The winner is “P.S. Be Eleven” by Rita Williams-Garcia (can’t wait to read it). I’ve already read honor book “March: Book One” written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, illustrated by Nate Powell.
11. Odyssey Award for best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults: “Scowler” by Daniel Kraus and narrated by Kirby Heyborne. I also want to listen to “Eleanor & Park” narrated by Rebecca Lowman and Sunil Malhotra.
Checking our post from last year, here’s what we read from the 2013 award winners:
- Michael L. Printz Award books “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” by Benjamin Alire Sáenz; “Code Name Verity” by Elizabeth Wein; and that’s it (we still have to read Nick Lake’s “In Darkness”!)
- William C. Morris Award honor books “Love and Other Perishable Items” by Laura Buzo and “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” by emily m. danforth
- Pura Belpre Award winner “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
- Stonewall Young Adult Literature Award winner “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” by Benjamin Alire Sáenz and honor book “Drama” by Raina Telgemeier
- Alex Award winners “The Round House” by Louise Erdrich and “Pure” by Julianna Baggott
- All the Caldecott winners, thanks to having a 5 year old!
So which of this year’s titles are you planning to add to your must-read list this year?
What Do You Think?