I read a blog post today about an award list. The author praised the list as being better than others because it was one from library folks and not critics or authors or others. I cringed at this. I think having a wide array of awards, awards determined by a variety of judges, is a good thing ( Read more... )

This time last year, I was excited when the National Book Award Longlist for Young People's Literature was released. I was part of that august panel of judges. We held our breaths waiting for the reaction from the public. It was by and large positive. However, all of us on that committee knew that tougher work was ahead. We had just a few weeks ( Read more... )

Things like this become viral on Facebook: https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/643-the-top-100-children-s-books-on-goodreads. And the people posting this link out pay little attention to the flaws of creating lists like this. So, let' ( Read more... )

I have reached the age where I am mu h more of a curmudgeon than I used to be. When I see people asking a question that they should be able to answer, it makes me a little irritable. Thank heavens I have friends and family who remind me that I have had 63 years to amass knowledge. I get that. I do. But I wish there were a way to share knowledge ( Read more... )

http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_xplrOHEQMimqheROuvFkng_10?ie=UTF8&node=13127710011Read more... )

Kudos to the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Committee for a fabulous shortlist. Here is the link ( Read more... )

One last post about the titles honored this week at the ALA Youth Media Awards is in order. Among my friends, the discussion was full of glee. We delighted in the titles we knew and consulted about the titles we did not know. I located a few of the books I had not read but knew were in some TBR stack or another so I have my reading stack for ( Read more... )

In the interest of providing some more resources for diversity, here is the announcement of the Sydney Taylor Award ( Read more... )

Here is a terrific link to take you to dozens of award lists and best lists. I have used these to compile the titles of the YA books appearing most frequently on lists. This is not a scientific compilation as I am certain I have missed some and that not all the lists have been published. However, this link is a good place to begin: Read more... )

No, not the usual holiday season. Tis the season to anticipate and predict which books will receive nods as the best of the year. Along with the predictions, though, has been some discussion about the previous award winners. For instance, there is some discussion on the yalsa-bk listserv expressing dismay about the previous winners of awards ( Read more... )