Edgar Awards Snub Stead's ‘When You Reach Me'
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By Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal, 01/27/2010
It might be more interesting to note what didn’t get nominated for this year’s Edgar Awards than what did. Among the missing from last week’s list are When You Reach Me (Random, 2009) by Rebecca Stead, the 2010 winner of the John Newbery Medal for outstanding literature, and Scott Westerfeld’s steampunk novel, Leviathan (S & S, 2009), which was one of the 74 submissions in the Young Adult category but failed to receive a nomination.
Although When You Reach Me, about a 12-year-old girl who receives enigmatic notes that claim to want to save her life, was one of 73 books submitted in the juvenile category, it failed to pick up a nomination from the five mystery writers who served as judges.
Sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America, the Edgar Awards are for best mystery published in a calendar year, and it is given in nine categories, including best juvenile and young adult mystery. They were launched in 1946, with the first juvenile award going to Phyllis Whitney’s The Mystery of the Haunted Pool (Westminster, 1960) in 1961. The young adult award was created in 1989, with Sonia Levitin’s Incident at Loring Grove (Dial, 1988) winning that year. Over the years, classic mysteries such as Virginia Hamilton’s The House of Dies Drear (MacMillan, 1968) and John Green’s Paper Towns (Penguin, 2008) have been Edgar recipients.
This year’s awards will be presented at the 64th Edgar Awards Gala Banquet on April 29, 2010 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.
Following is a list of five nominees in the juvenile and young adult categories:
Best Juvenile
The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity (S & S, 2009) by Mac Barnett. In his first case, Steve Bixton has 
a national treasure to recover, a criminal mastermind to unmask, and a social studies report due Monday—all while on the run from cops, thugs, and secret-agent librarians.
The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour (Random, 2009) by Michael D. Beil. Sleuths in school uniforms who decide to help out a weird lady, and end up hiding under tables, tackling word puzzles and geometry equations, and searching rather moldy storage rooms for “the stuff that dreams are made of” (that’s from an old detective movie). There’s a boy who complicates things.
Closed for the Season (Houghton, 2009) by Mary Downing Hahn. Arthur and Logan set out to solve the mystery of a murder that took place some years ago in the old house Logan's family has just moved into. The boys' quest takes them to the highest and lowest levels of society in their small Maryland town, and eventually to a derelict amusement park that is supposedly closed for the season.
Creepy Crawly Crime (Holt, 2009) by Aaron Reynolds. A graphic novel has Joey Fly trying to find a stolen diamond pencil box for his beautiful butterfly customer.
The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline (Penguin, 2009) by Nancy Springer. Part of a series, Enola’s landlady, Mrs. Tupper, is abducted, and Enola will put absolutely everything at risk to find her.
Best Young Adult
Reality Check (HarperCollins, 2009) by Peter Abrahams. Cody’s girlfriend, Clea, is sent off to a Vermont boarding school and then goes missing. Cody sets out to find out what happened and unearths the town's secrets.
If the Witness Lied (Random, 2009) by Caroline B. Cooney. Three orphaned teenage siblings, separated by the tragic supposed patricide of their father by their two-year-old brother, reunite a year later to save this same brother from the clutches of their evil aunt, who wants to sell them out on a tell-all television show.
The Morgue and Me (Penguin, 2009) by John C. Ford. This debut novel about a boy fresh out of high school with a college scholarship decides that an unusual summer job in the morgue will get him through the next few months.
Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone (Houghton, 2009) by Dene Low. Petronella Arbuthnot's coming-out birthday party in Edwardian London goes awry when her guardian, Uncle Augustus, accidentally swallows a beetle and two important guests are kidnapped.
Shadowed Summer (Random, 2009) by Saundra Mitchell. Fourteen-year-old Iris doesn't have to make up spooky stories for excitement, because a real one falls right in her lap. A ghost begins to haunt her and she's convinced it's the ghost of a teenage boy named Elijah, who disappeared.
