Patti and Joanna Discuss the Youth Media Awards 2013

What a morning!

Welcome to our 2013 ALA YMA Annual Chat! If you are not entirely familiar with the YMAs, you’ll probably find this conversation odd at best. Patti and I were watching a live webcast of the awards which were held in Seattle at 8 a.m. PST. That was 10 & 11 a.m. for us.
Here is the link to the official ALA list of winners so you can try and figure out to what we are referring.

As usual, there were Yays! Mehs. and Wah?s

And that’s just the way it should be. The reading list just got really long (HELLO, PRINTZ!) and I’ll be placing a bunch of titles on hold at my library. Er, if they have them. So maybe not so much the Printz books yet, especially The White Bicycle which apparently only the committee has copies.

Here’s to next year! - joanna

Patti: YO!
Joanna: Muzak!
Patti: It is cool jazz muzak. I don't know about you, but I think it might be my favorite kind.
Joanna: It's rather impressive. I wonder wh picks it.
Patti: I especially like how this one has a Peruvian wind flute vibe too. ALEX Awards!
Year of Wonders? [ed note: I think Patti meant Age of Miracles.]
Joanna: Maybe!
Patti: I do wonder if it is more of an adult looking back on their youth type book.
Joanna: Caring is Creepy? Girlchild - meant to read it.
Patti: Caring can be kind of creepy. Sometimes.
Joanna: Mr. Penumbra! Liked it.
Patti: These are great! I've not heard of one.
Joanna: LOL Patti.
Patti: OH I read My Friend Dahmer. It was good. I've read Pure too!
Joanna: The Round House. 2012 is the YEAR OF ERDRICH.
Patti: Tell the Wolves! The stamp of approval from Joanna!
Joanna: Oh wow I LOVE THIS LIST!
Patti: LOVED Where'd You Go Bernadette. Its got the stamp of approval for both of us. This was a fantastic, solid, great list.
Joanna: Yes. We kind of rocked this list between the 2 of us.
Patti: Indeed.
Patti: I'm drinking plain hot water. I wish that it had caffeine in it. Do you think we'll cut our hair really short when we're like 50? Is it inevitable?
Joanna: I think it's a possibility.
Patti: Does short hair or grey hair come first? I'm thinking grey hair becomes overwhelming and then you cut it. And then possibly dye it.
Joanna: And also it's really a pain. My hair is the longest it has been in ages. Buts I lurve it.
Patti: Schneider!
Joanna: Schneider Family - WILL YOU PICK SOMETHING?
Patti: Back to - LOL - I think I need this book for Charlie. His letters are wacked.
wicky wicky wack
Joanna: He'll work on it next year. Sam's letters have finally gotten small.
Patti: Other winners: Something about a homeless dog and something about someone who doesn't know who he is. (that is good news!)
Joanna: WOW. No Wonder? I thought that book was a shoe in.
4 Honor Books.
Patti: Lots of possibilities for Stonewall this year. I wonder if Ask the Passengers.. We've got Raina coming to TLA this year.
Joanna: DRAMA - a great choice. YES! She's awesome. And you'll get her husband, too?
Patti: Who is her husband?
Joanna: Dave Roman. Check out Astronaut Academy.
Patti: OH WOW!! That was a lovely book (Aristotle and Dante Discover the Universe). WE've got him coming too. I'm glad that Saenz is getting some love.
Joanna: You know your stuff! It wll be a great 100th Year of TLA. But just no Joanna.
Patti: Booo.
Joanna: :(
Patti: That puts a damper on it. for sure.
Joanna: Yeah, but then I'd never ever see you.
Patti: If I have time to go to the exhibits there will be a box for you.
Joanna: :D Woot!
Patti: Jenn and Rachel might go - we'll put them to work if they do! Corretta Scott King!
Joanna: Ah ha! Great. Demetria Tucker - goes to a librarian!
Patti: Lifetime achievement - Demetria Tucker. Wow. That's pretty neat! Doesn't it usually go to an author?
Joanna: Yes. I think this is great. Illustrator Honor - Christopher Myers (naturally)
Patti: Ellen's Broom
Joanna: Kadir - He's brilliant.
Patti: Kadir Nelson - who is the Mo Willems of the Coretta Scott King award.
Joanna: I love his stuff. YES! Too funny.
Patti: He is amazing. It is hard to beat him. Meh on the winner. I didn't like the art that much.
Joanna: Brian Collier. Author Honor - Jacqueline Woodson - Each Kindness
Patti: Again - no surprise there.
Joanna: A really touching book.
Patti: No Crystal Stair - people really liked this one. We almost picked it for Mock Printz
Joanna: I liked it.
Patti: I haven't seen the winning Hand in Hand by Andrea Pinkney
Joanna: Me neither. But I do like the Pinkney husband/wife team.
Patti: Pretty awesome. That is some hair! Love it. Ballyhoo! I'm going to start saying that. I like that word.
Joanna: Totally. Please do! Love bomb. He's fun.
Patti: wish the rest were as fun!
Joanna: EDWARDS Guess?
Patti: oh sh!t, no idea.
Joanna: Happy 25th anniversary. Tamora Pierce?
Patti: good guess.
Joanna: Phillip Reeve? MT Anderson JOHN GREEN?
Patti: john green. LOL.
Joanna: JINX!
Patti: He'll get it, but not yet. Tamora Pierce! And Joanna calls it right out of the gate.
Joanna: BALLYHOO! I totally got that from a blog. Maybe The YA YA YAs? I'll have to check. [Yes!] Well deserved.
Patti: Totally. High quality, lots of titles, great series. William C. Morris. Seraphina?
Joanna: It got a lot of love. I'm lousy with this one.
Patti: Wonder Show has such a pretty cover.
Joanna: It was on my read list but I didn't get to it.
Patti: NOT After the Snow. Anything but that.
Joanna: A fantasy would be nice..
Patti: SERAPHINA!
Joanna: You called it. WE ARE HOT!
Patti: The only choice.
Joanna: PATTI AND JOANNA KNOW ALL. Good. Maybe we'll get the nextbook faster.
Patti: Beware people! Printz?
Joanna: Printz..
Patti: Let's guess. I vote for Rollrock or Codename Verity.
Joanna: or the nonfiction?
Patti: The Bomb?
Joanna: Probably. Here we go NF Award.
Patti: NON FICTION. Steve Jobs....yawn. not the book - the man. so over it.
Joanna: Right.
Patti: Titanic I think had voices from the rats too.
Joanna: Wha?
Patti: Go BOMB!
Joanna: So tired of Titanic.
Patti: me too. DAMN, we are on FIRE!
Joanna: (insert sizzle sound)
Patti: These guys get love, but no love-bomb. what's up with that? Odyssey award (i don't listen to audio books)
Joanna: Forgot about the audio books part. The 9 year old in my house loved GHOST KNIGHT. I mean, how perfect is it for a 9 year old 4th grader?
Patti: The Fault in our Stars. John Green begins his winning year?
Joanna: Well, it's no for him, per se. But perhaps.
Patti: Ghost Knight! cuteness. He's stopped awarding Love-Bombs. Printz!
Joanna: FOUR HONORS? INDECISION!
Patti: 4 honors: That is a lot. That is indecision. OH WOW! Aristotle and Dante! Awesome.
Joanna: Saenz will rock TLA.
Patti: Code Name Verity. He's on two panels too.
Joanna: Argh. I had Dodger at home but didn't get to it.
Patti: Terry Pratchett! That is pretty damn cool. THE SUSPENSE, who will win!
Joanna: Oh good! An unknown. The White Bicycle. WTH? In Darkness?
Patti: HOLY SH!T! John Green and Rollrock get shut out.
Joanna: Unknowns FTW!
Patti: Wow. Totally unexpected. I kind of feel like they were an ornery committee wanting to pick something that people wouldn't expect. I'm not sure that they didn't deserve honors at the least. Very interesting. Let's go for the hat trip. Saenz for the win!
Joanna: Have you heard of it? White Bicycle?
Patti: Hat TRICK! and i think i've seen the cover. So my point that I am going to repeat is HAT TRICK for Saenz!
Joanna: Pura Belpre - Saenz again?!
Patti: lol - Oh damn. he's not coming - he came last year.
Joanna: No Honor for illutration?
Patti: I am on crack. no honor! Wow. They've got a tough crew on that committee.
Joanna: David Diaz - Kadir Nelson of the Pura Belpre. But I do love love him. Written by Gary D Schmidt? What? Crazy!
Patti: Whoa! interesting.
Joanna: I tried reading Schmidt's middle grade book about aliens and I couldn't do it. I read 50 pages and then stopped.
Patti: I wondered how that would be. Now i know!
Joanna: I feel like I'll try again when there aren't others competing for my attention.
Patti: I haven't heard of the Revolution of Evelyn Serrano. Like the cover. WOOT!
Joanna: IT’S A SWEEP!
Patti: What a year he's having. A Sweep indeed! I did love that book, but i will be honest and say I didn't love it nearly as much as some of the others I read. So much so, that it didn't even make my year favorites. But so happy for Saenz. This is pretty fantastic. I don't think he's gotten much love since his first book.
Joanna: Right. Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award
Patti: Oh wow! Very cool. They must have conferred with the Coretta Scott King peeps.
Joanna: What a great selection. I wonder if they did! Andrea Davis Pinkney
Batchelder Award
Patti: Ye translated goodness: A Game for Swallows - Graphic Novel! This has been the year of child soldiers.(Son of a gun) Winner has a picture frame on the cover and is about kindertransport.
Joanna: Looks good.
Patti: I'm ready for lunch.I have Boudin left over from last night and I am looking forward to eating it.
Joanna: We have a ways to go yet.
Patti: I'm fading!
Joanna: It's a lot of work. Sibert! Electric Ben - 9 year old just read this one. It's kind of like a comic.
Patti: Second mention for Moonbird. A book about a bird you can only see in moonlight.
Joanna: Titanic again.
Patti: heh.
Joanna: I'll have to check out Moonbird.
Patti: BOMB! Let's get it a Newbery mention and it will have its own Hat Trick. I never know about the Carnegie. But the Donaldson Crew released a new vid. And that did not win! CLOSE UP of an EYE! FREAKY! OHMYGOD. I don't like this.
Joanna: What's this one called again?
Patti: What's up with the kids pretending to fly? Something about Condors. Doesn't matter because you never have to witness this again. Why is there a horse? This is about Condors.
Are you horseback riding or talking about condors. let's focus people.

Katherine Patterson for the Laura Ingalls Award. Good choice.
Joanna: Nice. She's still the Ambassador of Reading?
Patti: No idea
Joanna: Geisel Award.
Patti: Bated breath...
Joanna: exhale
Patti: OH Jeebus. They should just rename it. I have to say I love Pete the Cat. I love the videos too.
Joanna: Pete the Cat and His 4 Groovy Buttons. Oh my. I need Rabbit and Robot.
Patti: Oh cute! I like the looks of the winner.
Joanna: Pete - great storytime book.
Patti: Up, Tall, and High. is the winner
Joanna: CALDECOTT
Patti: CALDECOTT! I have no ideas! I loved Bear has a story to tell
Joanna: 5 HONORS = indecision again.
Patti: totally
Joanna: Creepy Carrots. Didn't read it
Patti: Creepy Carrots was very good. Extra Yarn - still haven't read.
Joanna: Extra Yarn - love everything about it.
Patti: Green (ack! didn't like. Pretty, but still wasn't won over)
Joanna: Laura VaccaroSeeger is also amazing. Always great stuff from her. Didn't like Green either!
Patti: I have not seen Sleep like a Tiger! Excited about it. Looks great. THIS IS NOT MY HAT!!!! Oh wow!
Joanna: TWO CALDECOTS IN ONE YEAR
Patti: That is great. Publishers will take more risks on funny subversive stories. Hopefully, anyway.
Joanna: AGREED.
Patti: 3 NEWBERY Honors:
Joanna: 3 HONORS FOR NEWBERY
Patti: Less indecisive.
Joanna: Splendors and Glooms - very very good.
Patti: BOMB!
Joanna: Bomb has no morroom for medal. 3 Tmes Lucky - Did not like so well. Applegate AGAIN! Wow.
Patti: The One and Only Ivan - you read it?
Joanna: Just Wow. No. It's a talking animal book. Not my top pick. But it's for younger readers so that's nice.
Patti: She's come a long way from the Animorphs. haha
Joanna: A LOOOONNNGGG Way!
Patti: You don't like talking animals in your books/
Joanna: So hilarious.
Patti: I don't mind talking animals, but I hate horse stories.
Joanna: I did love the underneath. [Ed: Whoops, confused Applegate with Kathi Appelt.] I just need to pick them up. No interest in horses.
Patti: And stories with gratuitous librarians. blech.
Joanna: Blech x2.
Patti: Alright! I have to get back to work. Are you able to clean this up? I can later if you're not able.
Joanna: Nope I got it. It was good again this year. Enjoy your lunch.
Patti: Thanks! and it was lovely talking to you as always!!! I still am reeling over the Printz.
wow!
Joanna: A great tradition. Me too! Good for them. Shine the light on something new or off the radar.
Patti: I guess. But I'm shocked they didn't get honors. And Code Name Verity did. I started to re-read it and didn't think it held up as much as some of the others. Oh well. I did love it regardless. Have a great day and thanks for doing the cleaning!
Joanna: The Fault in our stars?
Patti: I never re-read that one, but I did Rollrock and it was LURVLY even on the second read.
Joanna: She's amazing. Yes. OK - i'll keep you here forever so go!
Patti: yes! bye!
Joanna: Adios!

Mock Printz Winners

Well, friends, despite the fact I didn't blog about the rest of the Mock Printz books I did read them. And I got together with a big group of lovely ladies to discuss them. Here are the results:

Winner:
The Fault in our Stars - John Green

Honors:
The Brides of Rollrock Island -  Margo Lanagan
Code Name Verity -  Elizabeth E. Wein

The Fault in our Stars was the runaway favorite (no surprises there right?). I was in favor of Brides, but I was in a clear minority. And it is hard to begrudge The Fault in our Stars. It was an excellent book.

I can't wait to see what the real committee chooses. There is a lot of buzz/librarian investment for all three of these titles and if they pull something out of left field there will be riots. I kind of can't help but want a riot...but do I want a riot more than i want Brides to win? Oh man, it is hard to say!

End of the Year Reading

Goodness, it's already the new year! Make that 28 days until the Youth Media Awards. While I am looking forward to the new year of reading (ahem Sarah Dessen and Melina Marchetta) I still have a small mountain of reading to finish for 2012. Here's a terribly thrifty review list of what I managed to read recently. Happy New Year, Oops Readers!

Every Day by David Levithan
He pulled off what could have been a disaster. A little sci-fi, a little mystery, and chapters of great characters. This one made Patti's Mock Printz list and I would love to hear the discussion. It's still a distance from Stars and Verity for me, but dang, David Levithan is amazing. How does it do it all?

Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead
I loved this book. I didn't burst into tears like I did for When You Reach Me, but I was with Georges the whole book. Reading as an adult, there aren't too many mysteries in middle grade stories, but they're not written for me so I overlook it.  Knowing that things are never what they seem in a Rebecca Stead book I still fell for this one hook, line, and sinker. The one about his mother I didn't even see coming. And I thought I had the title all figured out. Silly me.

One Year in Coal Harbor by Polly Horvath
A second Polly Horvath novel this year! A cause for celebration. A companion to Everything on a Waffle? Deliciously wonderful. Twelve year old Primrose continues to delight and we also have a return of chapter-ending recipes complete with our heroine's comments. I submit the final line of "Tater Tot Casserole", which, by the way, is in Primrose's charity cookbook entitled Just Throw Some Melted Butter on It and Call It a Day. :

On a cold rainy night when people are not participating in the better plan you have for them, this can be a comfort. (p. 116) 

Polly Horvath books are refreshingly strange. She makes you think with vocab like ersatz and adjudicator and references to Mary Oliver essays and French recipes. She's left of center with a big heart. And really, really funny.

A Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
Rowling is a bad ass. Case closed. A total departure from HP while also being completely great in its own right amazes and thrills me. She didn't have to write anything else, ever!, but she did and it is really good. The best book of the year? Nah. The most surprising? Probably.

The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan

Check another great Mock Printz book off the list. Margo Lanagan's stories embrace folklore, mythology (whether based on traditional tales or something she crafts herself), and fantastical imagery. And they've also given me some of the creepiest chills while reading.

I loved the movie The Secret of Roan Inish when I saw it back in college, so this summer when I heard about a Margo Lanagan selkie story I anticipated all kids of love. What would Lanagan add to the folktales?

My initial thought after finishing: this was pretty darn tame for a ML book.

I definitely found the weak-minded men leching after their stolen selkie brides creepy. I kept thinking that there has to be more to the story than the men leaving human women behind for these brides. Albeit brides given to them by a scheming witch. Still, a rather tame witch as witches come.

So where's the catch? These men must have repercussions for keeping their wives. I want justice for all the girls and women! But then, are the men bad? Am I starting to feel sorry for them? Might that be a glimmer of devistation on the horizon? Because that would be Lanagan style. Gently slip those chills in there.

I knew the brides would find their way back to the sea, but how and would it be terrible? By this far into the book readers will piece together potential for what may come. Brides makes for another excellent example of a storyline revealing itself in bits and making the reader stretch her mind back to previous names and details. When the revelations unfold, whoa. Chills! Thank you, author!

The verdict? I still have Verity and Stars on top of my list. I'm in the midst of a detour (Alice Munro's Dear Life) and then I'll dive into Every Day. A great list of reading so far!