The ALA Youth Media Awards were announced this morning. I'm late with this because of school but I did want to showcase the winners and compare my predictions. You can find a full list of winners herePura Belpre: My predictions
Predicted Author Award: The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan, illustrated by Peter Sis
Actual Winner: The Dreamer (yay my first awards post starts off with a correction prediction!)
Predicted Author Honors: Tortilla Sun by Jennifer Cervantes, The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez, When the Stars Go Blue by Caridad Ferrer, Efrain's Secret by Sofia Quintero and The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork
Actual Author Honors: Ole! Flamenco written and illustrated by George Ancona (see what I mean about picture books and MG/YA books being in the same cateogry??), The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba by Margarita Engle and 90 Miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Galbis
-While I knew Last Summer and Stars were wishful thinking, I'm really surprised about Tortilla Sun, The Red Umbrella and Efrain's Secret weren't honored. I thought for sure The Red Umbrella would receive an honor out of all my predictions. The Firefly Letters makes sense (Angela called it!) although I didn't think it was all that. I wanted more biographical details and less focus on poetry and Elena (one of the three women profiled, she's the wealthy one and that's the only thing that defined her).
Coretta Scott King Awards-My predictionsPredicted Winner: Three-way tie for me between Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper, One Crazy Summer and Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers
Actual Author Award Winner: One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (!)
Predicted Honors: Whichever of the book that should win but doesn't (i.e. if One Crazy Summer wins, Out of My Mind will get an honor, same with Lockdown or vice versa). Zora and Me by Victoria Bond and T. R. Simon, Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes and What Momma Left Me by Renee Watson.
Actual Author Award Honors: Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes, Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers, Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri (Jeannine called it!), illustrated by Randy Duburke.
-Not bad prediction or winner wise. Yes Walter Dean Myers has won or been honored loads of times but there's no historical fiction honored which I think is a good thing. I was pleasantly surprised to see Yummy win. I didn't dare hope that a graphic novel would win, but it was honored and that makes me so very happy. To top it all off, One Crazy Summer won and Ninth Ward received an honor! I'm over the moon :)
John Steptoe New Talent Author Award
Prediction: Good Fortune by Noni Carter
Actual Winner: Zora and Me by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon
-So I was off on this one. I'm disappointed. I haven't read Zora and Me yet but I was really rooting for 8th Grade Superzero. Nevertheless I'm happy that it was awarded to two authors who wrote about a lesser period of time in American history (and Zora Neale Hurston to boot).
A few other Awards & Books I want to read
Newberry Award Honor: Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus
Printz Award Winner: Shipbreaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Alex Award (adult books with YA appeal): Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok
Schneider Family Book Award: Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John (already wanted to read this one but I think a
Have you added any new books to your list after the awards? How dead-on (or off) were you?
I was very pleased when my Belpre honor prediction came true! I also wasn't a big fan of Firefly Letters, but I couldn't deny there was a patten of her placing in the awards.
ReplyDeleteI didn't formally predict the Printz, but in the kidlitchat last week I said I really hoped Ship Breaker was recognized, and then when it won I literally did a fist pump at my desk (I was alone in the office this morning - I could do all the silly celebrating I wanted). Was also super happy for the Stonewall and Schneider awards - I hadn't realized Almost Perfect was eligible this year (and what an apt title - it was seriously one of my favorite 2009 books) and Five Flavors of Dumb was one of the last books I read in 2010 and was also AWESOME. Highly recommend it - I don't recall if there's an Asian character, but one of the eventual band members is African-American (I didn't mention it in my review because a) I had soooooooooo much that needed to be mentioned and b) her race is only mentioned two or three times and it felt totally out of the blue each time)
Kallie one of the other band members in Five Flavors of Dumb is biracial, Black and White.
ReplyDeleteFive Flavors of Dumb is so good. You'll enjoy it after finals of course.
I was very suprised about 90 Miles of Havana getting an honor. I thought Red Umbrella and Sun Tortilla were both stronger debuts/novel.
Since 90 Miles to Havana and Red Umbrella both deal with Pedro Pan, I couldn't help but compare the two. In my opinion, Red Umbrella was simply a much smoother read all around.
re: Five Flavors of Dumb, it's not explicitly stated that Ed is Asian-American, but his last name is Chen, so I just assumed he was. (I know, I know, assumptions... He could be white and adopted for all I know, but I prefer to think of him as Asian-American.)
ReplyDeleteYeah, in Five Flavors of Dumb, Ed's last name is Chen, so I assumed he was Asian. That's one of the things that made me love the book so much! Cute Asian drummer!
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised The Red Umbrella did not get an honor. I am excited to read Alex winner Girl in Translation. And although this is not a winner, you have convinced me to read 8th Grade Superzero!
ReplyDeleteYou did such a good job of predicting! I haven't even heard of Yummy, but now I'll pick it up if I see it. Thanks for getting me even more invested in the ALA awards this year :)
ReplyDeleteI didn't have any predictions but I really wanted One Crazy Summer to win the Newbery. I added a ton of books to my wish list while putting others to the top.
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