This is old news, but worth sharing.  For those of you who may have missed it last year, the National Book Award began announcing a longlist of 10 books before announcing the shortlist and eventual winner.  The reason being to shine the spotlight on even more worthy books.  The NBA typically skews older with 2/3 of the list being young adult (and remember being young adult, doesn’t necessarily disqualify a book from Newbery contention).  I’ve highlighted four titles below that sit more comfortably in the Newbery field.  So, without further ado, here are the longlisted titles.

THE IMPOSSIBLE KNIFE OF MEMORY by Laurie Halse Anderson GIRLS LIKE US by Gail Giles SKINK by Carl Hiaasen GREENGLASS HOUSE by Kate Milford THREATENED by Eliot Schrefer THE PORT CHICAGO 50 by Steve Sheinkin 100 SIDEWAYS MILES by Andrew Smith NOGGIN by John Corey Whaley REVOLUTION by Deborah Wiles BROWN GIRL DREAMING by Jacqueline Woodson In theory, I love the idea of the longlist, and I wish ALSC could come up with a way to extend the spotlight in a similar fashion.  Perhaps, they could publish the titles on the final ballot, or perhaps they could have a two-tiered honor system (silver for genuine runner-ups, bronze for honorable mention).  For those of you who have been to the Youth Media Awards announcements you know there is often an audible response to the number of honor books announced (sighs and groans for fewer books, cheers and applause for more).  Back in the olden days, committees recognized 6-8 honor titles when the field was decidedly smaller.  Why not again? In practice, I have a quibble, however.  I had hoped that the move to a longlist would shine the spotlight on the full range of young people’s literature, and that has yet to really happen over the first two years.  To wit: Are picture books not young people’s literature?