An SF book wins the Big One!

ALA announced its youth literary awards today and I am so pleased that Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me won the Newbery! In my review, I praised both her treatment of time-travel and her quirky writing style. That this is a work of innovative science fiction is icing on the cake.

I read three of the four Newbery Honor books (rats, I suspected Hoose's Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice was going to win something but I hadn't gotten to it yet) and am especially happy to see Lin's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (my review) and Kelly's The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (my review). In my review of Philbrick's The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg, I compared it to works by Mark Twain and Sid Fleischman in the way it effectively uses an all-American style of folksy humor as a counterpoint to deathly serious subjects like slavery and war.

In other award news, three cheers for Caldecott winner The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney, which was a front-runner in all the mock Caldecotts and deservedly so. That Vaunda Nelson's Bad News for Outlaws won the Coretta Scott King Author award probably made me happily yip the loudest this morning (here's my rave review), and thankfully I have not only read the Printz winner - Libba Bray's Going Bovine (my review) - but one of the honors as well - John Barnes' Tales of the Madman Underground, for which I wrote a glowing Goodreads review.

As always, the youth awards have shown me the gaps in my reading - this year, I'll be playing catch-up with most of the Printz honors and many of the Belpre winners, including Julia Alvarez's Return to Sender, and Sibert winners, especially Tanya Lee Stone's Almost Astronauts (nonfiction is NOT my strong point - I suppose I've just added to my growing list of New Year's Resolutions. Read more nonfiction!).

Ah! This is a lovely way to start this rainy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Congratulations to all the winners!

It's time for some Newbery Buzz

C'mon, guys - it's practically fall already, and I've heard hardly a word about Newbery contenders. Since Heavy Medal, that fabulous Newbery blog written by Nina Lindsay and Sharon McKellar, hasn't revved back up yet, I'll have to start things rolling with some of my own favorites (click the titles to read my reviews):

The Singing by Alison Croggon - this probably won't be a real contender - it's YA-ish, plus it's #4 in a series - but man, it's good

Where the Mountain Meets the Sea by Grace Lin - a Chinese-inspired fantasy quest, impeccably plotted and charmingly written

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead - you've read the raves; now read the book! Best thing I've read in a long time

Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson - makes intensely good writing look easy

Okay, now it's your turn - let's get this party started!

Newbery Buzz

The year is half over - has the next Newbery winner been published yet? I've only ever predicted the Newbery winner correctly twice in my life - Susan Patron's The Higher Power of Lucky and Linda Sue Park's A Single Shard. Or to be accurate, my favorites just happened to win those years.
So far, many of the books I've loved this year aren't even eligible, being British - Well Witched by Frances Hardinge and The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd, for example. But here are some Newbery Possibilities so far:
Fortune's Fool by Kathleen Karr - medieval Germany, a roaming jester and his intrepid companions, plenty of wit and wisdom.
The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry - a smooth and oh-so-satisfying parody of those "old-fashioned" books.
Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls Book 1: Moving Day by Meg Cabot - okay, not exactly high-brow, but oh so fun to read.
I'd like to read Savvy by Ingrid Law, and of course there are any number of nonfiction titles that have been getting great reviews.
Please give me recommendations!