Notes from The Max

5th Annual CYBIL Awards

On January 1st, the organizers of the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers Literary Awards (more commonly known as CYBILs) announced the finalists for the awards.

The CYBIL awards seek to reward children's and young adult authors (and illustrators) who write and create books that have both high literary merit and "kid appeal." The CYBIL organizers describe the award as "organic chicken nuggets: we're yummy and nutritious." The CYBILs strive to bring children's and YA literature bloggers together to form a community, to highlight the best reviews of children's and YA books and provide a space for book bloggers to communicate with one another.

This year, CYBILs will be awarded in 11 different categories, including (1) middle grade fantasy and science-fiction; (2) young adult fantasy and science-fiction; (3) middle grade novels; (4) young adult novels; and (5) middle grade and YA nonfiction. Among the finalists in these categories were some of the recent recipients of ALA's Youth Media Awards:

• Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes (MG Fantasy/Sci-Fi; a Coretta Scott King Author Honor book)
• Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi (YA Fantasy/Sci-Fi; the Printz Medal winner)
• Stolen by Lucy Christopher (YA Novels; a Printz Honor book)
• The Dark Game: True Spy Stories by Paul Janeczko (MG and YA nonfiction; a YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Honor book)
• Kakapo Rescue by Sy Montgomery (MG and YA nonfiction; winner of the Robert F. Sibert Medal)

For a full list of all CYBIL finalists, please visit their website. The winners of the CYBIL awards will be announced on February 14th.

2011 Youth Media Awards

Earlier today, the American Library Association announced the winners of the 2011 Youth Media Awards.

The Newbery Medal is given to the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The 2011 Newbery Medal winner is Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool. This year's Newbery Honor books are: Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman, Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus, One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, and Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm.

The Michael L. Printz Awards is awarded for excellence in young adult literature. Paolo Bacigalupi's Ship Breaker won the Printz Award, while the following four books are Printz Honor books: Stolen by Lucy Christopher, Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King, Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick and Nothing by Janne Teller. 

The Margaret A. Edwards Award honors an author, as well as a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature. The 2011 Edwards Award was given to Sir Terry Pratchett.

The YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults honors the best nonfiction book published for young adults during a November 1 – October 31 publishing year. Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing by Ann Angel is the 2011 Excellence winner. Four other books were finalists for the award: They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti; Spies of Mississippi: The True Story of the Spy Network that Tried to Destroy the Civil Rights Movement by Rick Bowers; The Dark Game: True Spy Stories by Paul Janeczko; and Every Bone Tells a Story: Hominin Discoveries, Deductions, and Debates by Jill Rubalcaba and Peter Robertshaw.

The Alex Awards are given to the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences:

• The Reapers Are the Angels: A Novel by Alden Bell
• The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
• The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni
• Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue
• The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant
• The Radleys by Matt Haig
• The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton
• Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok
• Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard by Liz Murray
• The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To by DC Pierson

Please visit the ALA's website for a complete list of winners.

Looking Forward to 2011

2010 is winding down, but we've still got a lot to look forward to in 2011.

The new year will see our celebrations of our 20th anniversary year kick into high gear. We'll host our 20th anniversary Essay Judging in March (where our volunteer essay judges will read and choose the essays that will make up the 20th volume of The Courage of Boston's Children) followed by our 20th Anniversary Awards Luncheon in May. We'll also hold our first final project showcase for our 9th grade students in June, along with publishing a short anthology of their writings, poems, art and multi-media projects.

We're planning on more teachers' workshops and the second year of our national essay contest, in partnership with Cambium Learning Technologies, is already underway. We'll have other 20th anniversary events as well, celebrating the two decades of successful the organization has had and the multitude of supporters, teachers, students and families who have been a part of that sucess.

We certainly hope you'll join us for some of these events. Please remember to check our Events page on our website for the most up-to-date information.

Have a very happy New Year and here's to 2011!

Best of 2010

As the year winds down to a close, here is a look at some of the best children's and young adult books from 2010.

• School Library Journal released its "Best of 2010" list, divided into fiction, nonfiction and picture books. According to SLJ editors, fantasy books continue to dominate the top spots, with books that are "frightening, edgy, wildly funny, electrifying, and magical, with protagonists fighting evil in brilliantly created new landscapes, realms, and kingdoms, as well as in our world."
• SLJ also released its list of the Best Adult Books For Teens, books that are typically published for adult audiences but that will also appeal to older teen readers. This list has fiction and nonfiction selections and includes one of the most buzzed-about books of 2010, Emma Donoghue's Room.
• Kirkus Reviews divded its list of top 2010 books into children's and teens categories, then further subdivided the books by genre (such as books that "make you think," sci-fi and historical fiction). Kirkus culled their list from the thousands of reviews they write each day, selecting the best of the very best.
• Like SLJ, Publisher's Weekly distinguished their best 2010 children's and YA books by sorting them into three categories: fiction, nonfiction and picture books. The fiction category contains books for both middle grade and high school readers, and includes many of the books that earned starred reviews from PW earlier in the year.
• Boston-based children's publishing magazine Horn Book offered up their Fanfare 2010 list, revealing its best children's and young adult books of the year. In addition to picture, fiction and nonfiction books, Horn Book also singles out folklore and poetry books.
• Bookselling powerhouse Amazon.com goes into great detail with its Best Books of 2010 lists: there are lists for both middle grade readers and teens, and editors' picks and customer favorites. And for those tech-savvy readers with a Kindle or e-reader, Amazon also lists its choices for the best e-books of the year. 
• If the above selections weren't enough, there are list "best of 2010" lists from Barnes and Noble and the Columbus Dispatch and for local readers, Boston Globe's 10 Glittering Stars of 2010.

Several books appeared on a number of lists, indicating both widespread popularity and critical acclaim. These titles include Alchemy and Meggy Swan (Karen Cushman), Revolution (Jennifer Donnelly), Incarceron (Catherine Fisher), One Crazy Summer (Rita Williams-Garcia), Will Grayson, Will Grayson (John Green and David Levithan), Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins), Countdown (Deborah Wiles) and Fever Crumb (Philip Reeve).

Taken all together, these lists provide a glimpse into a year in children's and young adult publishing. And, as we move towards the new year, more books will start to get their time in the spotlight as we anticipate the Newbury and Printz awards, which will be announced at the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting in January.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays and Happy Reading! Stay Warm!

From,

Elizabeth, Meredith and your friends at The Max

The Weather Outside is Frightful

Here in Boston, it's the season for warm coats, hats, gloves and scarves as the temperature drops and snow starts to fall. Inspired by the winter season, here are some cold and icy reading suggestions for middle grade and teen readers. Be warned, though: you might want to make sure you have a blanket near by, just in case you start to shiver.

• A Kingdom Far and Clear - Novelist Mark Helprin teamed up with award-winning illustrator Chris Van Allsburg to create a trilogy of illustrated novels: Swan Lake, A City in Winter and A Veil of Snows. Set in a fictional wintry world, this trio of stories retells the classic ballet Swan Lake, then imagines the tumultuous consequences and events of years later. 
• The Golden Compass - The first novel in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, this book sees young Lyra Belacqua travel to the cold, arctic north and to Svalbard, home of the armoured ice bears. 
• Brian's Winter - In this alternate ending to Paulsen's Newbery Honor-winning book Hatchet, Brian's Winter imagines what would have happened if Brian had not be rescued and instead had to learn how to survive in the wilderness during the winter.
• Ice - In this novel based on "East of the Sun, West of the Moon," Sarah Beth Durst weaves a modern-day fairy tale. Cassie, who lives in an Arctic research station with her father, has her life change in an instant when a polar bear approaches her and asks her to be his bride.
• Odd and the Frost Giants - In this Neil Gaiman story written for World Book Day, Odd is a young Norseman who leaves his village and befriends a trio of animals, who are really gods in disguise and who need his help to outwit the Frost Giant.
• The Snow-Walker Trilogy - from the author of the highly praised Incarceron (Catherine Fisher) comes this trilogy of people ruled by an evil snow-walker, her half-human son and the clever girl determined to see the rightful heir back on the throne. 

Enjoy!

December News from The Max

December - and cold weather - are officially here. In between holiday shopping and seasonal parties, you may have missed some of the literary-related news in recent weeks, so here's a quick overview from The Max:

• Finalists for a couple of American Library Association Youth Media Awards have been announced. YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association, a branch of the ALA has revealed the five finalists for the Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults award and the William C. Morris Award, which honors a book written for teens by a previously unpublished author. The nonfiction finalists include Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing; They Call Themselves the KKK; Spies of Mississippi; The Dark Game; and Every Bone Tells a Story. The Morris finalists are: Hush; Guardian of the Dead; Hold Me Closer, Necromancer; Crossing the Tracks; and The Freak Observer. The winner will be announced at ALA's Midwinter Meeting in January, along with the winners of the Newbery, Caldecott and Printz awards.
• Saturday December 4th was the First Annual Take Your Child to a Bookstore day. The grassroots campaign was started to encourage parents and guardians to bring their children to a bookstore and hopefully instill a lifelong love of reading. Bookstores across the country - including some in Medford and Andover, MA - particpated by scheduling family-friendly activities. Organizers hope to make this event a yearly occurance.
• A new social networking site called Figment is aimed at literary-minded teens. The project, which launched on Monday December 6th, allows teen writers and readers to post their own writing - whether it's a novel in progress, short stories, poems or more - and then give and receive feedback from the community of users. Approximately 4,000 teens registered as Figment users in the first day. 
• Scholastic, which is the largest publisher and distributor of children's books, recently released a list of the top 10 trends in children's literature for 2010. Among the popular trends are a growing young adult audience (thanks to the many adults who read YA), an increased interest in both dystopian fiction and mythology-based stories, more books in a diary or journal style and less attention on picture books.

Any big stories you think we missed? Let us know in the comments!

Happy Thanksgiving from The Max!

During this season of Thanksgiving, The Max would like to take the time to say "thank you" to all of those who help make our work successful: our Board of Trustees, our donors and supporters, our volunteers, Courage Curriculum teachers, students (past, present and future), parents and guardians. We are truly grateful!

We wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, fun and lots of pumpkin pie! And, of course, lots of reading!

All the best,

Elizabeth and Meredith

[Photo via Google Image Search]

National Book Awards, 2010

Last night, in New York City, the National Book Foundation awarded its 2010 National Book Awards to four deserving authors. The National Book Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the previous year. Along with the National Book Critics Circle Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, the NBAs are one of the three most prestigious book awards given to American authors. Some even describe the NBAs as the "Oscars of the literary world."

The 2010 NBA for Young People's Literature went to Kathryn Erskine for her novel, Mockingbird, which tells the story of Caitlin, an 11-year-old with Asperger's syndrome, who must learn to cope with the death of her older brother. In her acceptance speech, Erskine credited her mother with teaching her to learn about the "why's" of the world.

The other finalists in the Young People's Literature category included Paolo Bacigalupi (Ship Breaker), Laura McNeal (Dark Water), Walter Dean Meyers (Lockdown), and Rita Williams-Garcia (One Crazy Summer). The winner and the five finalists were selected from more than 200 submitted titles.

Other winners of the night: Jaimy Gordon in the Fiction category for Lord of Misrule; Patti Smith in the Nonfiction category for Just Kids; Terrance Hayes in the Poetry category for Lighthead; and Tom Wolfe for the lifetime achievement award (Distinguished Contribution to American Letters award). The Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community was given to Joan Ganz Cooney, one of the driving forces behind the Sesame Workshop and Sesame Street. 

You Are What You Read

Think back to your childhood and adolescence, maybe even your early young adult years. Which books stand out the most? Which books made the biggest impact on your life? Scholastic is asking everyone to consider which five books had the biggest effect on their lives, then list them on a new social networking website called You Are What You Read.

According to the website, You Are What You Read "provides a unique opportunity for readers all over the world to connect with each other through their shared bookprints, as Scholastic celebrates the books that bind us together and make us who we are today."

Readers are encouraged to create their own bookprints, lists of five books that "left an indelible mark on our lives, shaping who we are and who we become." Then, they can exchange messages with other readers who have listed the same or similar books on their bookprints. The interaction allows for readers to promote literacy and their favorite books, while engaging with new people online and discovering new books to read.

Users can even view and compare booklists by celebrities, including President Bill Clinton, Taylor Swift, Ellen DeGeneres, and Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe. You Are What You Read also features special sections for educators, librarians and authors. Readers of all ages can participate, though Scholastic did create versions for both young readers and adults. Lesson plans for teachers wanting to use You Are What You Read in the classroom are forthcoming, as is an area for children to have a deeper social media experience through their reading preferences.

Scholastic is a global education, publishing and media company dedicated to children's literacy. You Are What You Read was created as part of Scholastic's 90th anniversary celebration.