I went to North Carolina and all I got was this major award nomination

[rj_anderson]

This past Thursday I flew down to the AASL (American Association of School Librarians) conference in Charlotte, NC to meet some fellow debut2009 authors, hang out with my agent, drive up to visit cesario, and maybe, if all went well, get to sign a few of my books at the AASL PitStop. Those were my expectations, and they were modest and practical ones, and I had no

Comments

[the_gentleman]

Congratulations! I used to do Carnegie award reading groups at school (we held an award ceremony and tried to second-guess the actual decision) and I was always impressed with the quality of the books. So yeah, that's pretty amazing!

[rj_anderson]

The stupidity of me is that I was all emo about not being eligible for the Newbery, and I had completely forgotten about the fact that I was still eligible for the Carnegie. Clearly I need to pay more attention to the UK side of things!

And thank you.

[olmue]

HELLO, B&N and Borders.

That's all I have to say.

(And congratulations, of course! :)

[rj_anderson]

You think so? I don't know... my experience so far has been that US publishers and big chain stores don't pay much attention to anything that happens outside the US. Maybe if I won the Carnegie (not that I expect to!) they would notice, though I'm a bit skeptical even about that. But I would be delighted to be proven wrong!

[olmue]

Well, Americans are sometimes pigheadedly ignorant about anything that happens outside our borders...But seriously, they SHOULD wake up!

I noticed that my library has it on order, though. So maybe readers will discover it this way and then go looking for the sequel at the bookstore, at least in NW Arkansas.

[karenhealey]

Oh my God! The Carnegie! Congratulations!

(And I am certain Knife is *way* better than The Last Battle.)

[rj_anderson]

Heh. One of these days I really must get around to writing my essay about why I love THE LAST BATTLE. Though if I were choosing just one of the Narnia books to win the Carnegie, admittedly, that one would not be my choice. (I'm much more fond of The Silver Chair.)

And thank you so much!

[kerravonsen]

Oh yes, I love The Last Battle, it is awesome... and I will commit non-sycophanty by saying that, no I don't think Knife is better than The Last Battle, sorry.
(still totally squee-worthy for the nom, yes!)

I haven't actually thought about which Narnia book is the best. The Silver Chair and The Last Battle are probably the deepest two, yes. My favourite bits in Prince Caspian are the whole Lucy-sees-Aslan thing, but the structure of the book isn't so good. And the follow-the-signs thing in Silver Chair is a similar stricture as the Lucy-sees-Aslan thing in Prince Caspian, anyway. Voyage of the Dawn Treader was the most fun, I think. We got Eustace and Reepicheep!
Well, they're all wonderful, anyway.

[rj_anderson]

I don't think KNIFE is better than THE LAST BATTLE either. But I won't reproach Karen if she feels differently!

[yahtzee63]

What wonderful news! Congratulations on the amazing nom, and good luck!

[kristin_briana]

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!