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Commentator Jonathan Hunt Considers this Year’s Contenders
The most interesting thing to me about this year’s crop of Battle of the Kids’ Books contenders is how there is virtually no overlap with ALA’s Youth Media Awards. ONE CRAZY SUMMER is the most obvious exception: with a Newbery Honor and the Coretta Scott King Award, not to mention a National Book Award nomination and the Scott O’Dell Award, it’s the most decorated book of the year at this point (like CLAUDETTE COLVIN was last year). Also, THE DREAMER did manage to pick up the Pura Belpre Award to go with its earlier Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor. (A CONSPIRACY OF KINGS didn’t get any Youth Media love, but was, of course, the other Boston Globe-Honor Book Honor.) And WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON was a Stonewall Honor book and Odyssey Honor audiobook.
The Newbery went to MOON OVER MANIFEST with honors to TURTLE IN PARADISE, HEART OF A SAMURAI, and DARK EMPEROR. The National Book Award went to MOCKINGBIRD. Our juvenile picks included COUNTDOWN, KEEPER, and A TALE DARK AND GRIMM. And obviously, we all picked ONE CRAZY SUMMER. FORGE is the odd man out.
The Printz went to SHIP BREAKER which was also a National Book Award finalist. Our fantasy picks included A CONSPIRACY OF KINGS and THE RING OF SOLOMON (and I guess you can also lump KEEPER, TALE, and HEREVILLE into the genre at the juvenile end). We had a hard time leaving so much great fantasy off the list, namely FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK, THE WHITE HORSE TRICK, MOCKINGJAY, MONSTERS OF MEN, and INCARCERON, but FEVER CRUMB, PATHFINDER, WHITE CAT, THE CURSE OF THE WENDIGO, THE RED PYRAMID, and BEHEMOTH also had very good reviews. A great year for fantasy and science fiction!
The nonfiction, particularly the young adult nonfiction, was the other strength of this publishing year. Neither the Newbery nor the Printz recognized nonfiction this year (boo! hiss!), the Sibert went young, and the YALSA Nonfiction Award went eclectic. The latter committee did recognize THEY CALLED THEMSELVES THE KKK, but not THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE BARBIE, while SUGAR CHANGED THE WORLD was beyond their eligibility period. To my mind, THE WAR TO END ALL WARS, BUILT TO LAST, and THE NOTORIOUS BENEDICT ARNOLD (which I read after we put the list together) are all good enough for our list. While KAKAPO RESCUE didn’t impress me quite as much (for my money FROZEN SECRETS was the best science book I read last year), I do think it was the best Scientist in the Field book and it would have made the Undead Poll very interesting. In retrospect, maybe we should have included more of these titles, even if Houghton Mifflin Harcourt did publish most of them.
But poetry fared even worse than nonfiction. We had a single poetry title on the list last year (SWEETHEARTS OF RHYTHM), but nothing this year (boo! hiss!), despite DARK EMPEROR, UBIQUITOUS, MIRROR, MIRROR, WICKED GIRLS, and BORROWED NAMES. We had one graphic novel last year (THE STORM IN THE BARN), but squeezed two onto this year’s list: HEREVILLE and THE ODYSSEY. We seriously considered YUMMY, while MEANWHILE and SMILE also drew strong reviews.
Last—and definitely least—the young adult fiction, which is to say that we felt this area was not quite as deep or quite as excellent (generally speaking) as it has been in years past. Printz honors went to STOLEN, PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ, REVOLVER, and NOTHING. While LOCKDOWN and DARK WATER were finalists for the National Book Award. Our young adult fiction choices included AS EASY AS FALLING OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH, THE CARDTURNER, WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON, and TRASH. BUTTERFLY, REVOLUTION, and THE THINGS A BROTHER KNOWS also got good reviews.
So . . . any questions or quibbles? Tell us what we got right—and what we got wrong!
— Commentator Jonathan Hunt
Filed under: 2011, Commentary
About Battle Commander
The Battle Commander is the nom de guerre for children’s literature enthusiasts Monica Edinger and Roxanne Hsu Feldman, fourth grade teacher and middle school librarian at the Dalton School in New York City and Jonathan Hunt, the County Schools Librarian at the San Diego County Office of Education. All three have served on the Newbery Committee as well as other book selection and award committees. They are also published authors of books, articles, and reviews in publications such as the New York Times, School Library Journal, and the Horn Book Magazine. You can find Monica at educating alice and on twitter as @medinger. Roxanne is at Fairrosa Cyber Library and on twitter as @fairrosa. Jonathan can be reached at hunt_yellow@yahoo.com.
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