September 18, 2013

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The Long List

The Long List

Everyone’s seen the NBA long list, yes? Five titles are what I would consider firmly children’s and not within the Printz purview. Of the other five, four were on our own longlist the other day, have garnered several stars, and are the books people* are generally speaking about. (*people in this case=book people with a [...]

Aaand We’re Off!

Aaand We’re Off!

Well, Labor Day has come and gone, which means our labors are beginning again! Which means it’s time to say: Welcome to Someday My Printz Will Come, 2013 edition. The purpose of this blog is to speculate, with textual evidence, about books that are potential contenders for YALSA’s Michael L. Printz Award, given annually to [...]

Printz and the Power of Story: Honorees Get Personal at Awards Reception | ALA 2013

Nick Lake

For many young adult literature aficionados, the highlight of the American Library Association’s annual summer conference is the ticketed reception for the Printz Awards. A central theme emerged at this year’s celebration: the power of storytelling and its ability to connect kids to larger truths about the world.

Tamora Pierce Wows YALSA at Edwards Celebration | ALA 2013

Cover_SLJ1306_web

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Margaret A. Edwards Award, given by the Young Adult Library Services Association in honor of work that makes a “significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.” The award, which is sponsored by SLJ, was presented Saturday to Tamora Pierce for her “Song of the Lioness” and “The Protector of the Small” series. As the featured speaker at the event, the feisty and mischievous Pierce did not disappoint.

We Aten’t Ded*

We Aten’t Ded*

Hello! If you have been checking back regularly, you might have A: been disappointed when we did, after all, go dark, and B: noticed that we edited our last post to reflect that we would indeed be going mostly dark. Life. It gets in the way, doesn’t it? We have lots to say today, so [...]

Finding Sleepers

Suggestions for 2013 books have been flowing in, and I’ve been thinking a lot about how we find books, and how we create the contender list that we post come the on-season in September. (A brief housekeeping note: unlike our fellow award bloggers over at Heavy Medal and Calling Caldecott, we won’t go totally dark [...]

What Do We Read Next? or, Potential Contendas

Ok, so we’re a month plus into 2013 and I’ve finally, finally! started a 2013 title. (Just One Day, by Gayle Forman, in case you wondered.) And now I need to decide what to read next. So let’s talk 2013 publications that belong on the contenda list already, whether for critical acclaim (by which I [...]

More on the Awards

Apologies for the radio silence! Almost as soon as the YMAs were over, it was time for an annual conference on education and technology, and I’m afraid I switched gears 100% from my book self to my tech self, and the blog was the poorer for it. We will be taking a brief hiatus soon [...]

Watching the Awards…

Watching the Awards...

The following stream of consciousness reflects my real time responses while watching the YMAs; I liveblogged through the YALSA portion of the morning. For those seeking actual information, the ALA Press Release is the place to go. Trying to liveblog here. This might be an Epic Fail, but doing my best! Lots of good stuff [...]

All the Books!

Ok, not all the books, but a whole cluster of the titles that we wanted to cover and hadn’t gotten to yet, tidily rounded up in one post for your perusal. In the last two weeks, I’ve read two more from the original contenda list (Pinned and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the [...]

All You Never Wanted

Another (and last for the year) guest post from pinch-hitter Joy Piedmont. This time, Joy raves about a book that made the contenda list with three stars but mostly deserves recognition as a serious buzz book. I’m a long time fan of Adele Griffin’s, and this is, I think, a stronger candidate than her last [...]

Mock Printzing the Weekend Away

Mock Printzing the Weekend Away

On Saturday, Someday joined forces with HVLA to host a proper Mock Printz. (And speaking of mock awards, if you haven’t already, hop on over to Heavy Medal for the deets on their Mock Newbery. Riveting reading!) Our first ever live Mock event was a little chaotic (we learn by doing) and completely fantastic. Joy [...]

Lots of Unfinished Books

One of the things that no one believes when I say it is that I read less on winter break than any other time. There’s just no time — my kid stays up too late, we’re always visiting family or being visited, and if I manage to finish a book it’s a miracle. And actually, [...]

Bomb

Guest blogger Joy Piedmont is back (and I think we’ll be taking advantage of her at least once more before the season is done!), covering another major nonfiction title of 2012. Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon, Steve Sheinkin Flash Point, September 2012 Reviewed from final copy When I say, “World [...]

The Brides of Rollrock Island

The Brides of Rollrock Island, Margo Lanagan Knopf, September 2012 Reviewed from ARC My first draft for this post, which sat in WordPress for two weeks, taunting me, read as follows: “So much to say! And none of it coherent!” You know how I delayed and delayed writing about The Raven Boys? And then was [...]

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece

Another guest post from Joy Piedmont, who is saving our bacon at this crunch time, as we realize just how many books we haven’t read yet! My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece, Annabel Pitcher Little, Brown, August 2012 Reviewed from an ARC Annabel Pitcher’s debut novel has earned four starred reviews landed on Kirkus’ Best [...]

The Raven Boys, at Long Last

The Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater Scholastic Press, September 2012 Reviewed from ARC So, I’m ready to talk about The Raven Boys. I’ve read it twice. I really really like it. Maggie Stiefvater clearly grew up drinking from the same story well as I did, and this is one that hits pretty much all my buttons. [...]

The Diviners: Divine, and the Bee’s Knees Too!

One of the best things about having progressed from new librarian to rapidly aging librarian is the opportunity to work with bright young things. Former colleague Clair Segal is now the library technology coordinator at an independent school in NYC, and has graciously agreed to guest blog for us once again, this time about Libba [...]

We’re ba-ack!

Were ba ack!

Hello hello from snowy upstate! We are back, and we have a lot to say, starting later this evening (now that we’re in, we have some post editing and such to do. Also, children.). But in the meantime, comments are so very open and also we wanted to make sure you had the new URL [...]

Where We At?

You might, perhaps, have noticed the blog has been slow. You might have found yourself, say, spending scads of money on Thinkgeek or Onlineshoes or Etsy while waiting for a blog post to load. Oh, was that just me? Well, I’ll have some happy relatives come Christmas. But you know what I am talking about, [...]