ALA Youth Media Awards: Actual Results

I was so excited to see the ALA Youth Media Awards trending on Twitter this morning! I wasn’t surprised, though, because my Twitter Feed BLEW UP with all the folks at ALA Midwinter down in Dallas tweeting about the results.

Thanks goodness for those folks! I was in staff development all morning, so I couldn’t even watch the results online. I did, however, call some attention to myself as I gasped at the various results on my phone. If you want to check out the full results for all the award (there are a lot), you can see them over at ALA. Here are the final results for the two awards I’ve been watching the closest, the Printz and Newbery, as well as the awards given to some of my favorite books of the year. Links have been added to all books I’ve read and reviewed.

The Michael L. Printz Award

(for excellence in literature for young adults)

Winner

Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

Honors

Why We Broke Up Daniel Handler

The Returning by Christine Hinwood

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

John Newbery Medal

(for most outstanding contribution to children’s literature)

Winner

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

Honors

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai

Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin

Now I’m really peeved at myself for giving up on Dead End in Norvelt a couple of weeks ago! I just couldn’t get in to the story. While I offer the greatest of congratulations to the winners of these awards, I was sad about the absence of some of my favorites on the list. I was very, very surprised to see that Okay for Now didn’t even win a Newbery honor. I guess the ending was very problematic. I was particularly surprised to see that A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness was not on any of the lists. None. I’m guessing this is because it was ruled ineligible, but I’m not sure. And after all the buzz I saw over Amelia Lost, it also failed to appear on any lists (even the non-fiction awards). Sometimes I wish I could be a fly on the wall during the committee meetings to see exactly how those discussions go down. It must be a fascinating process!

I don’t have time to make picture collages for all of the awards, but here are the others that featured favorite books of mine or categories that I pay special attention to (like the Stonewall Award). What did you think of the awards? Joys? Surprises? Disappointments?

William C. Morris Award 

(for a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens)

Winner

Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

Honors

Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard

Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Schneider Family Book Award 

(for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience)

Middle School Award

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

close to famous by Joan Bauer

Odyssey Award 

(for best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults)

Winner

Rotters by Daniel Kraus, narrated by Kirby Heyborne

Honors

Ghetto Cowboy by G. Neri, narrated by JD Jackson

Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt, narrated by Lincoln Hoppe

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, narrated by Steve Westand Fiona Hardingham

Young Fredle by Cynthia Voigt, narrated by Wendy Carter

Stonewall Book Award -Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award

(children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience)

Winner 

Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy by Bil Wright

Honors

a + e 4ever drawn and written by Ilike Merey

Money Boy by Paul Yee

Pink by Lili Wilkinson

with or without you by Brian Farrey

About these ads