ALA awards!

[penmage]

It's the ALA awards! It will surprise no one that I am watching the Twitter feed and the webcast and also liveblogging.

Okay, first up, the Alex Award--adult books that also work for teens. Yay, Dragons of Babel!The Good Thief! Sharp Teeth!

I am pleased.

YAY! Waiting for Normal won the Shneider!

Okay, Coretta Scott King. Here we go.

We Are the Ship! Yes!

YES! Kadir! YES! I would rather it be for Change Has Come, of course, but still! Kadir! AWESOME. So well deserved.

Okay, the Odyssey Award for audiobooks. Awww, Elijah of Buxton. And I'm Dirty. And NATION, yeah! And of course, Sherman Alexie. :D

I didn't think I would be as excited for this one (as fox1013 knows) but I TOTALLY AM.

YES! LAURIE YES! Margaret A. Edwards! I'mr eading Wintergirls now and Chains is AMAZING, so YEAH!

Okay, William A. Morris. No one is surprised that I am crossing fingers for CURSE DARK AS GOLD. please please please.

YAAAAAAAAAAY! Cybils committee! You know I am jumping up and down right now! CURSE! YEAH, CURSE!

OKAY THE PRINTZ WE CAN DO THIS.

YEAH OCTAVIAN TWO PRINTZES!

Eh. Frankie.

YAY NATION NATION NATION NATION NATION!

Um. Now I need to read Tender Morsel, don't I.

I HAVE JELLICOE ROAD IN MY BAG RIGHT NOW! For reading after Wintergirls. YEAH!

Okay, the Belpre is taking a really long time.

Okay, the Sibert. We are the Ship is really cleaning up this year! Kadir, will you be able to carry all those medals? What do you think? Do you think there's going to be space for them on the jacket?

YAY! Ashley Bryan won the Wilder! There is not a sweeter, nicer and more talented man.

By the way, I just want to take a moment to be amazed at how on top of things ALA is this year. I recall prevous years when it was impossible to get in to the webcast. This year, the webcast was easy to get into, and the twitter feed is really on top of things. Rock on, ALA.

Okay, here comes the Giesel! I'm calling Mo Willems!

HA! I totally called it, you guys! Are You Ready to Play Outside FTW!

CALDECOT OKAY YOU GUYS HERE WE GO.

A Couple of Boys YAY! Marla Frazee!

A River of Words awesome yay!

...The House of the Night? Seriously, I have never heard of this one. It's this year's Higher Power of Lucky.

OKAY. THE CALDECOTT. WE CAN DO THIS YOU GUYS.

YAY KATHI! YAY UNDERNEATH!

Aww, Savvy!

Tupac and D Foster! Yay!

THE GRAVEYARD BOOK! YES YES YES YES YES!

I am so happy right now.

Whew. I'm shaking. Good show, ALA. Good choices.

I'm so happy I've read most of the winning novels. Otherwise I would never get copies in the mad dash.

Edit: The ALA website is apparently down, so full list of awards and honors here.

Comments

[fox1013.livejournal.com]

I RATIONALLY SHOULD NOT BE THIS EXCITED CONSIDERING NOTHING HAS REALLY BEEN ANNOUNCED AND YET :DDDDDDDDDD

[penmage.livejournal.com]

What, nothing? The Schneider! The Alex! And here comes the Coretta Scott King! Ahhhh!

[cidercupcakes.livejournal.com]

Every time I look through Change Has Come, I start crying. Like clockwork. &KADIR; And yay Chains!

[penmage.livejournal.com]

Do you love it? I love it. It was seriously put together in a week out of enthusiasm, excitement and joy. A WEEK.

[janni.livejournal.com]

So question: As the only fantasy reader I know who found Coraline and The Wolves in the Walls merely okay (though I like his adult books fine, especially Neverwhere), does The Graveyard Book manage to do things those books don't?

[penmage.livejournal.com]

I also found Coraline and Wolves merely okay, but I really liked Graveyard. It reminded me more of Neverwhere than his kid stuff--it almost feels to me like an adult book in kidlit clothing. I really liked it.

[akamarykate.livejournal.com]

I am so happy for Laurie Halse Anderson! And OH, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman BOTH won awards this year!!

How have I not seen Change Has Come? I NEED THIS BOOK STAT.

[penmage.livejournal.com]

I KNOW! Neil and Pterry in one year!

I AM SO THRILLED I AM STILL WRITING IN CAPSLOCK.

And Laurie. I am so happy for her. So deserved. Wintergirls and Chains are both amazing.

Go find Change Has Come. It's goooorgeous.

[akamarykate.livejournal.com]

I just started Chains last night; Nation sucked me in and I babbled about it for days; I have not yet read The Graveyard Book but now I really want to, especially since you said it reminds you of Neverwhere. And I NEED to read A Curse as Dark as Gold now, too. And about 15 million other books--I love this day. I'm tearing up with how much I love children's/MG/YA books!

I am going by at least 2 bookstores on my errands this afternoons. There will be stops. I hope to find Change. I may have to buy two, one for my sister who will never let me have it back if I lend mine to her.

[penmage.livejournal.com]

Graveyard reminds me of Neverwhere more in tone that content. I think you'll like it. It's his best children's book, without question.

I looooove Curse. I am happy like crazy that it won. I know it's not the Printz or anything, but it's possible that Curse winning the Morris is the thing that made me happiest of all the awards. I am beaming.

Change is awesome. It's a perfect gift book because it's small and beautiful and gorgeous. I <3 it.

Are you friends with me on goodreads?

[akamarykate.livejournal.com]

I'm not on goodreads, but I think I need to be--I tried one of the other book-based networks (shelfari?) and thought their interface was non-intuitive. I'll try goodreads tonight--are you penmage there?

[penmage.livejournal.com]

I really like goodreads. It's very interactive, which is nice, and it's a good way to keep track of your books. You can organize your stuff into a lot of different shelves--I've found it very usable.

[janni.livejournal.com]

I was thrilled about the lifetime achievement award, too--well deserved!

(And a little surprised, too, that CHAINS didn't even receive Newbery honors ... but I guess lifetime achievement trumps that anyway. :-))

[akamarykate.livejournal.com]

I'm just a little way into Chains, and I too am surprised it wasn't in the honors mix. But the award she did get is awfully shiny!

[g33kgrrl]

Did you see Neil Gaiman's blog about it? It's especially charming even for him.

Also, the tag is pretty adorable.

[penmage.livejournal.com]

He is adorable, as per usual. <3333

[janni.livejournal.com]

And then there was his twitter, which was a slight bit less ... polished. :-)

[akamarykate.livejournal.com]

*SPORFLE*

Oh, I hadn't seen that--thanks for the pointer.

[emsbookshelf.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

Haha, I know you're totally psyched about CURSE. :) I'm super excited for Neil Gaiman. I actually just snagged two signed, first editions of GRAVEYARD BOOK this morning. Lucky me!

[penmage.livejournal.com]

Signed first editions of GRAVEYARD! How did you manage that?

I'm also thrilled for Graveyard--it's a lovely book, but I never ever expected it to get this kind of recognition! There's a certain fun in being able to say that we shortlisted them first :D.