The American Library Association announced the winners
of the Newbery, Caldecott and Printz awards today. These honor the best on Children’s literature. Past winners, like Johnny Tremain, The Graveyard Book, and The Westing Game are now consider classics so it’s a big deal to win. Not to mention a boost in sales. No doubt tomorrow hundreds of parents went into bookstores all over the country asking for them.
There are a few stand outs. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson has already won the National Book Award for Young Adult, was honored with the Coretta Scott King Award and was also a Newbery Honoree. It’s Ms. Woodson’s memoir of growing up in the south and in New York, told mostly in verse. On a personal note, Ms. Woodson lives in the neighborhood that I work in and is a very nice woman. So I couldn’t be happier for her. I haven’t read it yet but it’s definitely on the to-read list.
Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith was named a Printz Award honoree. I have read this and let me tell you, it’s kinda of messed up. I became interested in it since it takes place in Iowa, my home state. It’s a story of Austin, a horny teenager who struggling with his feelings for both his girlfriend Shann and his best friend Robby. If that wasn’t enough problems for a teenage boy, he and Robby accidentally unleashed six foot praying mantis’ that will destroy the world. Yeah, I know. Weird. In one way, it was refreshing to have a novel take on bisexuality in such a head on way but on the other hand, the female lead Shann, is pretty one dimensional. So it’s progressive in one way and a step back in another way. It’s still worth a read though.
Have you read any of the other winners or honorees? If so, sound off in the comments below.
I was Here by Gayle Forman. 
I haven’t talked about Fairest yet. It’s one I haven’t had a chance to read. It’s a prequel to the Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer. That would be Cinder, Scarlet and Cress. I love love this series. It’s a retelling of the fairy tales, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel but set in the future and with Aliens from the Moon! The last book, Winter was supposed to come out now but Miss Meyer had to push back the release because Winter with all of it’s characters and stories overlapping, it took longer to write. So we must make do with Fairest. The prequel about the big bad Lunar Queen Levana. I’m not sure if I really care that much about Levana’s back story but I need to read something to hold me over until November when Winter comes out.
I once described the first book in the The Academy Series, Game On, to friends as Gossip Girl meets Bollettieri’s. For those not in the know, Bollettieri’s is a tennis academy in Florida that has produced such great champions as Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Maria Sharapova and Seles herself. In Game On we are introduced to Maya, a tennis player who dreams of playing professionally. She has earned an 
Now, these are not the greatest books but I don’t think anyone who picked them up were looking for them to be. They are fun beach reads with not a lot of substance but a whole lot of drama. It turns out that Maya has more to worry about than just her tennis. She also has to contend with possible endorsement deals, internet gossip, jealous rivals and boys’ fickle affection. Life at the Academy is a lot harder than Maya thought it would be. The best thing about Game on and it’s sequel, Love Match is the friendship between Maya, Cleo and Renee. Renee is clearly in the Haves and Maya and Cleo, the Haves-not but they make it work. You don’t always get books with good female friendships. (You don’t really get it in movies or TV for that matter either.) Girls are often rivals for grades, boys, beauty, etc. I really dug the friendship of these girls. They are vastly different. Cleo is a free spirit and a lesbian. Renee is super rich and beautiful and Maya is your average American girl from Buffalo. They are constantly supporting each other and pushing each other forward. They sometimes get jealous of each other but they do always find ways back to each other. Oh and they talk to each other. What a concept! What I don’t really like about the series is the lack of tennis. Maya is determined to make it as a player. It’s her dream but tennis often falls to the back burner as soon as she has an opportunity to pose for an ad campaign or audition for a movie or Travis or Jake start to show interest in her. It’s not until one of those things falls apart that she recommits herself to tennis. Promising to focus on tennis from then on or until, you know, the next thing pops up. Not exactly the best message for young girls.
When I first read the description of Talon, I thought it sounded very familiar to another Teen series, Firelight by Sophie Jordan. They both feature a protaganist who are dragons or a form of dragons, that can blend in with humans. A human boy love interest, who is also a form of Dragon hunter/slayer and another boy dragon to complete the love triangle. As Talon progresses the similarities start to fade. Not completely, though. Readers of both will see them but it’s not the same.
Buzzfeed reimaged Harry Potter as if 
Holly Black is no stranger to Fairies. This is her third foray into the world of the fair folk. She first co-authored the Spiderwick Chronicles with Tony DiTerlizzi and then went solo on Modern Faerie Tales, Tithe, Valiant and Ironside. She knows her fairy mythology. The Darkest Part of the Forest is a return to her fairy roots, so to speak.
