2012 ALA Youth Media Awards

It's that time of year again! Earlier today the winners of the ALA Youth Media Awards were announced. These awards are given annually to the best of the best in children's literature in a variety of categories. On this blog I'll focus my efforts on the oldest and arguably most prestigious of these awards: The Caldecott and Newbery Medals. A full list of winners and honor books for all awards, however, can be found here.

Caldecott Medal

The Caldecott Medal is awarded each year to, "the most distinguished American picture book for children." This year's winner is A Ball for Daisy, written and illustrated by Chris Raschka. In this wordless picture book, Daisy is a sweet little dog who just loves her ball. She loves to play with it and chase it and fetch it, and even loves to curl up for a nap with it. One day Daisy's owner takes her to the park to play and tragically her ball is popped by another dog. Poor Daisy! She is so saddened by the loss of her favorite toy. But the next day when Daisy and her owner return to the park, the strange dog and his owner are also there, this time with a gift: A new ball for Daisy. All is well in the world again. What impresses me most about Raschka's illustrations is the way he is able to blend simplicity and unevenness to tell Daisy's story. I especially love the images of Daisy sleeping on the couch. Raschka paints a striped couch, but leaves out the lines that specifically detail the arms, cushins, ect. Only Daisy's presence on the sofa indicates where these dimension lines should be. The result is a cozy feeling that seems to reflect Daisy's mood perfectly.

Three Caldecott Honor books were also named:
-Blackout written and illustrated by John Rocca
-Grandpa Green written and illustrated by Lane Smith
-Me, Jane written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell

Newbery Medal

The Newbery Medal is given every year to, "the most outstanding contribution to children's literature." This year's award was given to Jack Gantos for his novel Dead End in Norvelt. A description of the book, taken from Gantos' website, follows: "Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is the story of an incredible two months for a boy named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation adventure are suddenly ruined when he is grounded by his feuding parents for what seems like forever. But escape comes where Jack least expects it, once he begins helping an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore—a chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, obituaries, Hells Angels, and countless bloody noses. Endlessly surprising, this sly, sharp-edged narrative is the author at his very best, making readers crack up at the most shocking things in a depiction of growing up in an off-kilter world where the characters are as unpredictable and over-the-top as they come."

Two Newbery Honor books were also named:
-Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
-Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin

My Thoughts

Predicting who will win the Caldecott Medal is, in my opinion, incredibly difficult given the number of beautiful picture books published every year. A Ball for Daisy is truly a worthy winner. I have a very soft place in my heart for wordless picture books so I was especially pleased to see this book take home the big prize. Quiet, sweet books that tug at your heartstrings, just as Daisy and the other Honor books do, have also been popular in recent years and it was interesting to see this trend continue.

Recent trends also continued to be seen in this year's Newbery award. Historical fiction remains popular, and every book granted a Newbery Medal or Honor this year was a work of this genre. Other Newbery surpises did make an appearance as well. Though I wasn't too incredibly shocked to see the big medal awarded to Gantos for Dead End in Norvelt (there had been plenty of buzz), I was rather surprised at the omission of Gary Schmidt's book Okay for Now from any kind of award. Breaking Stalin's Nose also blindsided this reader - this book wasn't even on my radar. Fortunately, the book sounds like an interesting read and I'm eager to get my hands on it.

Anna and the French Kiss

Take a look at the Teen / Young Adult section at your local library. You know what kinds of books you'll find? Honestly, a lot of depressing stuff. You'll find no shortage of heartwrenching, issues-driven dramas, bleak dystopias, and angsty supernatural stories. But what if you're in the mood for something on the light side? Stephanie Perkins has recently become one of my new favorite YA authors by virtue of her refreshingly light romances. Because sometimes you just need something happy.

Anna and the French Kiss is exactly my kind of escapist fiction. Anna has been sent to a boarding school for American teens in Paris, France. Despite the glamorous European setting, she isn't exactly thrilled to be leaving her home, friends, and almost-boyfriend behind. But things start to look up when Anna starts making friends in the dorms, including the charismatic Etienne St. Clair. The two instantly hit it off, but he is in a relationship and Anna still holds out hope that something will happen with the boy from home. As the year progresses Anna and St. Clair become friends but the timing for anything more is never right. Can a series of near-misses finally lead to romance?

Okay, Anna and the French Kiss isn't brilliant literature. But it's a light, pleasant read. Perkins does a good job of creating interesting characters and using the setting to her advantage. Reading Anna and the French Kiss is kind of like watching a romantic comedy - the story is somewhat unlikely, but it's probably going to make you smile.

Overall Grade: A-

Perkins' follow-up, Lola and the Boy Next Door shares many of the features that made Anna so much fun to read. Lola has only three wishes: To go to Winter Formal in an elaborate Marie Antoinette-style ball gown, for her parents to like her 22-year-old rocker boyfriend, and to never see Cricket Bell again. Unfortunately it doesn't seem that she is likely to get her last two wishes. Cricket grew up next door and broke Lola's heart before moving away two years ago. But when the Bell family returns Cricket is quickly thrust back in Lola's life. Now everything - Lola's relationship with her boyfriend, her home life, and even the Winter Formal - are all much more complicated than they used to be.

Just as with Anna, Lola and the Boy Next Door is guaranteed to give you the same fluttery, swoony feeling as a good romantic comedy. Lola gets bonus points, however, for a few interesting details. Most significant is the role that Lola's parents play in the story - not only are they a pair of gay men free from bad stereotypes, but they're also actively involved in Lola's life. The norm is generally to minimize or eliminate the role of parents in books for teens, it's refreshing to see some parental influence.

Overall Grade: A-

Desperate for more Stephanie Perkins? A third companion novel, Isla and the Happily Ever After is set to be published Fall 2012.

New Job!

Hello, denizens of the Internet!

I have a bit of exciting news to share (well, exciting for me anyway). I've recently accepted a new job! I'm so excited about the prospect. This is still a youth services position, but I'll be working in a slightly larger library with a small youth services staff. I'm so anxious to be working in a department with other people who care passionately about working with young people.

The new job, of course, means that I'm probably going to be moving sometime in the near future. I'm not planning to disappear completely from this blog during the transition, but if things seem slightly sporadic then that is probably why.

Wish me luck!

Neat Shelves

Just last week I blogged about how important it is for librarians to weed their collections, thereby ensuring that the shelves are full of attractive, generally newer books in good condition.

But there's more to having attractive library shelves than just having a current collection. It's also important these books be displayed in a pleasing manner.

For example - which of the two shelves below would you rather browse if you were a library patron?



The truth is, no patron wants to walk into a library and be forced to search though the sloppy, disorganized mess that embodies the first shelf. The second shelf, however, is much more pleasing. The books are all supported in an upright position and all books are pulled evenly to the front of the shelf. This makes it much easier for patrons to browse. And as we all know, the easier it is for patrons the browse, the more likely they are to find what they need and check out more books.

Now I just need to convince the rest of my staff of how important it is to keep the shelves neat...

Hugo

Not too long ago, I was given a copy of Brian Selznick's book The Invention of Hugo Cabret for Christmas. This coincided brilliantly with the release (and my subsequent viewing) of the movie "Hugo," based on this Caldecott Medal-winning book.



For those of you not familiar with the book that this movie is based on, please do yourselves a favor and track down a copy today. At 533 pages long, the books is certainly thick and heavy and may seem intimidating at first. But when you open up the book, you will quickly discover that more than half of the pages feature stunning pencil illustrations! Despite its heft, The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a fairly quick read that will keep readers turning the pages.

Hugo is a young boy living in the walls of a Paris train station in 1931. An orphan, his survival relies on his ability to remain hidden and keep the station's clocks in order. But soon Hugo crosses paths with an old toy seller and his secrets are slowly revealed. What follows is a fascinating mystery connecting Hugo's dead father, a mechanical man, a key, and silent movies.

Brian Selznick's acclaimed book is a fascinating piece of storytelling. The way that words and pictures are combined to create a sort of movie in book form is absolutely inspired. I was a tad anxious about the movie version as I feared that some of the magic would be lost on the big screen. Fortunately, in the end the movie did not disappoint.

Directed by Martin Scorsese, "Hugo" manages to capture all of the brilliance of the book. The cinematography is very well done and helps to set the tone and feel of the movie in the same way that the pictures did for the book. It is also worth noting that very little in the movie seemed to be obviously computer generated. This tone of realism is necessary for a film set in this time period and is especially important given its focus on early silent films - early filmmakers didn't have access to computer graphics, so it is fitting that "Hugo" uses such graphics very little and integrates what they do use seamlessly.

The film generally stays very true to the book in terms of story, the greatest notable change being the development of the station inspector's character. Hugo's interest in magic is also greatly glossed over, allowing the movie to focus more on his relationship to his father. Even with these alterations, the story is still completely absorbing and the setting atmospheric. I highly recommend the film to all fans of the book, as well as to anyone who is a fan of movies.

Overall Grade (Book): A+
Overall Quality of the Film: A
Overall Faithfullness to the Book: A-

*disclaimer* I saw this movie in 2D, not 3D. I debate if 3D would detract from the old-fashioned, magical tone of the film. Then again, what do I know?

Weeding

Last week was, as you know, the last week before the new year. In library land, this means that it was also my last chance to do any weeding before my year-to-date circulation statistics reset themselves. Unfortunately, I still had to weed the entire picture book collection - one of the largest collections down here in the children's department.

Fortunately, thanks to my Uber Librarian Skills, I got it all done just in time. And look at all of the picture books I was able to discard!:


Non-librarians might be asking: What is weeding? Why is it important?

Well, weeding is when a librarian goes through the collection and removes any materials that the library no longer needs. Believe it or not, libraries cannot keep every single item they purchase forever, and eventually some items need to be let go.

A book, for example, might be weeded for a number of reasons. Maybe the book is damaged beyond repair. Maybe it hasn't been circulating. Or maybe it's just old and out of date. Whatever the reason, it's a good idea for libraries to discard items like this so that there is plenty of room on the shelves for new books to be added while still leaving enough empty space to make for easy browsing. Patrons are more likely to find what they need - and more likely to check out more books - if the shelves are neat, have some empty space, and are filled with clean/attractive books. Weeding helps librarians to create this kind of space.

Needless to say, my picture book collection is looking mighty attractive after all of that weeding.