And my reading list gets even longer

Because have I read any of the major award winners, other than Schneider winner The Running Dream? Nope.

Printz
Winner — Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

Honors — Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler; The Returning by Christine Hinwood; Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey; The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Morris
Winner — Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

Excellence in Nonfiction
Winner — The Notorious Benedict Arnold by Steve Sheinkin

Margaret A. Edwards
Winner — Susan Cooper

Batchelder
Winner — Eerdmans Books for Young Readers for Soldier Bear by Bibi Dumon Tak

Honor — Delacorte Books for The Lily Pond by Annika Thor

Odyssey
Winner — Listening Library for Rotters by Daniel Krauss

So, my predictions were quite wrong this year. Anyone else have any thoughts about the award winners and honor books? Or books you think got snubbed?

Gut feelings

Here are my Youth Media Awards predictions based on nothing more than gut feelings. My gut turned out to be surprisingly accurate last year, except for the YALSA Nonfiction Award, but who knows about this year; the following predictions could be way off base.

Printz Award
I think A.S. King will pull a David Almond (Skelling, 2000 Honor; Kit’s Wilderness, 2001 winner) and win for Everybody Sees the Ants (which did earn six starred reviews, per Whitney’s list).

I think A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, as much as I love it and hope it gets recognized, won’t even get an honor. This year’s Marcelo in the Real World, especially considering its performance in Mock Printzes (go check out Whitney’s Mock Printz roundup at Youth Services Corner!). I would *love* to be proved wrong on this one, though.

I think Chime by Franny Billingsley (which looks like the only book besides Everybody Sees the Ants to earn six stars) will get an honor.

Margaret A. Edwards Award
This could go to practically anyone, but I’d love to see Tamora Pierce honored.

Morris Award
I haven’t read Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley yet, but I think it’s going to win.

Nonfiction Award
After the last two years, I have no idea.

Odyssey Award
The Odyssey goes to “to the producer of the best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults,” not a book or author. So my pick is Scholastic Audiobooks for Beauty Queens by Libba Bray. Narrated by the author x different voices for the various characters + sound effects!

Other Youth Media Awards
Batchelder — I think a publisher will be honored for a children’s book I haven’t read. Then again, how many YA books in translation were published this year? Two? (Ruby Red and The Midnight Palace. Am I missing any?). So I probably should say I’m sure the Batchelder will go to a publisher for a children’s book I haven’t read. Delacorte for The Lily Pond by Annika Thor, to follow up their win in 2010, maybe?

Schneider Family — Um… The only 2011 YA book I remember reading with a disabled character is The Running Dream by Wendelin van Draanen, which I liked but am not sure it fits the award criteria, which states in part “Must portray the emotional, mental, or physical disability as part of a full life, not as something to be pitied or overcome.” Jessica gets there at the end, but the amputation *is* something she has to overcome, right?.

Who else is planning on watching the webcast on Monday morning? Do you have any predictions or titles you’d like to see win?

For predictions and coverage of awards I didn’t mention, check out:

• 100 Scope Notes
• A Fuse #8 Production
• Green Bean Teen Queen
• The Happy Nappy Bookseller (Coretta Scott King 1, Coretta Scott King 2, Pura Belpré)

Books I’m most looking forward to this year

A slightly belated list of books for the first half of the year, anyway.

Young Adult Books (or, forget mermaids, it’s the Year of Assassins and Mobsters)
Beads, Boys, and Bangles by Sophia Bennett (3/28/12). Because Sequins, Secrets, and Silver Linings was one of my favorite books last year and I can’t wait to spend more time with Nonie and co.

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore (5/1/12). Yes, yes, me and practically every other blogger has this book on their list.

Something Like Normal by Trish Doller (6/19/12). A book “about a young Marine’s return home from Afghanistan and the new life and love he finds while fending off the ghosts of war.” A timely, topical subject, and the buzz (however much credence you put into that) has been very positive. Not a fan of the cover, though.

Cold Fury by T. M. Goeglein (7/24/12). The first assassin/mobster book on my list, in which a girl discovers her family play an important role in the Chicago mob. Looks like it could be an exciting action/thriller.

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers (4/3/12). According to Nicki, “The publisher gave it some hefty advance praise saying, ‘I believe this is the best book we’ve published since Graceling.’” A historical fantasy about a seventeen-year-old girl in 15th century France, bringing the assassin/mobster book count to 2.

The Traiter and the Tunnel (The Agency) by Y. S. Lee (2/28/12). I really enjoyed the first two books in the series (first one reviewed here), with their blend of feminism, class and racial issues, and solid mysteries in a vividly depicted Victorian London. Okay, and I want to know what happens next between Mary and James.

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga (4/3/12). The son of a serial killer (did you think I was going to say assassin?) tries to solve a series of murders. Is it anything like Dan Wells’ John Wayne Cleaver books? Anyway, I am totally intrigued. And also want to read Wells’ Partials (2/28/12), since I just mentioned him.

Violins of Autumn by Amy McAuley. (6/19/12). Partly because I now just expect World War II-era YA books to be good. But I think most of the YA books from this time period that I’ve read have been set in the U.S., so I’m looking forward to something actually set in the war, and in Europe, even if the main character is American. Along the same lines, except for the American main character part, Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (U.S. publication: 5/15/12).

A Girl Named Digit by Annabel Monaghan (6/5/12). If I’m being honest, I never liked math. Yet I don’t mind reading about math geniuses. Plus the book sounds fun. Hmm, should I count being on the run from terrorists as an assassin/mobster book?

Tokyo Heist by Diana Renn (6/14/12). Art theft + the yakuza + Japan. Just one of these elements would guarantee that I’d take a closer look at this book. With all three? Have to read it. Assassin/mobster book count: 3.

Dark Eyes by William Richter (3/15/12). Is the Russian mafia involved? Between the Russian orphan, stolen fortune, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo comparison, I’m thinking yes, but we shall see.

This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers (6/19/12). Courtney Summers (previously: Some Girls Are) does zombies. I am so there.

Children’s Books
Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen (1/17/12).

The Last Guardian (Artemis Fowl) by Eoin Colfer (7/10/12). The last book in the series. I like the books in print but love them in audio. I have a few quibbles, but overall, Nathaniel Parker does an awesome job narrating the series.

Georgia in Hawaii by Amy Novesky, illustrated by Yuyi Morales (2/28/12). If you ever visit Oahu, take the time visit the Honolulu Academy of Arts, especially if you’re interested in Asian art. They also have a couple of Georgia O’Keefe paintings (like this and this) from her “Hawaiian tour,” as Georgia in Hawaii’s description puts it.

Neil Flambé and the Marco Polo Murders by Kevin Sylvester (1/3/12). Back in 2010, Early Word mentioned this series after Sylvester was on NPR. I thought it looked like a lot of fun—a fourteen-year-old superchef who helps the police solve murders and, c’mon, look at that cover—but I never got around to buying the books. Originally published in Canada, Simon & Schuster is now publishing the series in the U.S. and I will finally read them this time around.

Adult Fiction
The Chalk Girl by Carol O’Connell (1/17/12). At one point, I swear Putnam included the line “Before Lisbeth Salander, there was Kathy Mallory” in the book’s description, but it doesn’t seem to appear anymore. Which is a pity, because it’s totally how I’d try to sell this series. Okay, the last Mallory book came out pre-Dragon Tattoo, and I do think you should read the books in order to appreciate the gradual revelations about Mallory’s past, and I think O’Connell is a better writer than Larsson, and there are a lot of differences between the series. But if other books (*cough* like Dark Eyes *cough*) use a Dragon Tattoo comparison, then why not the series about a female computer genius with no social skills and a tragic childhood who now solves crimes, that was published first?

Looking ahead to 2013
Did anyone else know Soho Press is launching a teen imprint in January 2013? I didn’t until I visited the Soho website last month. Anyway, I tweeted that I was rather disappointed that the launch list doesn’t look as international as I’d hope a Soho list would be (and the only book I want to read at this point is Who Done It?), but I am curious to see what else they’ll publish.

Another paranormal roundup

of books I read last year.

Department 19 by Will Hill
I actually read this in, like, May, so I probably should’ve written about it earlier. I’ve been taking it booktalking, calling it Alex Rider on steroids, with vampires who get splattered instead of sparkling (which gets a nice response). Lots of action, lots of adrenaline. Lots of pages, for that matter. But the way Hill incorporates classic stories like Dracula and Frankenstein is fun, and the pages turn quickly.

Wolf Mark by Joseph Bruchac
I seem be comparing a lot of books to the Alex Rider series these days. This one is Alex Rider meets the new Kelley Armstrong series.

Possess by Gretchen McNeil and Misfit by Jon Skovron
If there’s one thing that automatically downgrades a book in my eyes, it’s using the term hari-kari instead of the correct word, harakiri. I mean, is that so hard to get right? Possess used hari-kari, so it lost practically all the points I’d mentally given it for having a hapa protagonist. I did like the the dark, spooky vibe, but didn’t buy the romance or anything else outside of the horror, really.

Basically, if you’re looking for a book that mixes Catholic school with demons and a bit of romance, you should read Misfit instead. It was just shortlisted for the Cybils in the YA Fantasy and Science Fiction category, so I’m not the only one who thinks highly of it. It’s got an awesome voice, a believably difficult father-daughter relationship, a sweet romance, and flashbacks that totally work. (I’ve lost a lot of patience with flashbacks since I started blogging.)

Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris
Maureen said, “The plot is so thin you can see through it, but you’re having too much fun to care,” and I completely agree. It’s a short, quick read, with an appropriate amount of gore (it is a zombie book, after all), and a smart, scientific heroine.

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Another Cybils YA Fantasy and Science Fiction finalist. (Seriously, this panel did an awesome job!) I know others have made the old school Supernatural comparison, but it’s true. And as I love the early seasons of Supernatural, well, naturally I ended up really enjoying this book. I mean, urban legends, ghost hunting, an unexpected twist concerning [possible spoiler?] a deceased parent. If you’re a Supernatural fan, read this book.

Bonus contemporary novel
Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
I liked Anna and the French Kiss, but didn’t love it the way everyone else seems to. Perkins totally won me over with Lola and Cricket and the chemistry between them. Plus, she made Anna and Etienne an integral part of this book in a completely natural way. Can’t wait to read Isla and the Happily Ever After later this year.

The 2011 Cybils finalists

were announced yesterday and a lot of awesome books were shortlisted. How many have you read?

Does Dark Destiny have a new cover?

Saw this on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Previously: I am going to get these books confused next summer

The Shattering by Karen Healey

So ultimately, I was a bit disappointed by Karen Healey’s debut novel, Guardian of the Dead. But I ended up absolutely loving her new book, The Shattering.

As children growing up in the tourist town of Summerton, New Zealand, Keri and Janna were close friends. They grew apart as they got older, but when Keri’s brother commits suicide, Janna is the only one who can break through Keri’s grief. It took only one sentence: “If you want to find out who killed Jake, follow me.”

Ten years ago, Janna’s older brother killed himself. Now she’s sure it wasn’t suicide, after all. Janna’s friend Sione has done some research and uncovered a string of suicides across New Zealand with a few key similarities. One of them being, all had been in Summerton on New Year’s Eve the year prior to killing themselves. Skeptical at first, Keri soon believes that Sione and Janna are right. There’s something unnaturally perfect about Summerton, and whoever is behind the perfection doesn’t want Keri, Janna, and Sione to interfere.

The basic plot of The Shattering is not new, but Healey executes it very well. Keri’s family is devastated by Jake’s suicide, and although their grief lingers throughout the story, Healey introduces the main plot—figuring out who is killing the young men who visited Summerton and framing it as suicide—almost immediately. The Shattering has an ominous, foreboding feel that reminded me a bit of Lois Duncan (though it’s been years since I’ve read any of Duncan’s books, so perhaps it’s more accurate to say it reminded me of some of her books as I remember them).

Books that alternate first- and third-person narratives don’t always work for me, but Healey effectively switches between Keri’s first-person narration and and a limited third-person from Janna and Sione’s POVs. The different POVs also contribute to one of The Shattering’s greatest assets: its diversity. Not just racial and ethnic diversity, but also in terms of sexuality and socioeconomic status. In some ways, it feels like I’m doing the book a disservice by mentioning it, because I would have enjoyed the book without it (or without as much of it), that it’s like a huge bonus. And it’s so well-integrated into the story—the influences on characters are visible and important without, for the most part, being an issue or the source of problems—that it never feels forced or false. Never feels like a book ABOUT diversity, but simply a book about three diverse characters who have each lost someone and come together to try to stop the killings.

Book source: public library.

The Girl Is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines

I don’t know what it is about the era, but all the recent World War II-set YA novels I’ve read (Ten Cents a Dance, Flygirl, and although it’s actually post-WWII, What I Saw and How I Lied) have been superb, especially when it comes to atmosphere. So I shouldn’t have been surprised that The Girl Is Murder is likewise a standout novel, with a flawed but strong-willed narrator, a sufficiently constructed mystery rooted in the time period, class and a bit of racial tension, and, of course, a great sense of atmosphere.

Although her father doesn’t want her to know, Iris Anderson knows that they are in rather precarious financial straits. Her father’s PI business is struggling, in large part because of his struggles with a recent disability (he lost his foot at Pearl Harbor). Iris knows that she is capable of assisting her father, but he refuses to allow her to help.

When a boy who attends Iris’s new school disappears, Iris thinks this is her chance to significantly contribute to her father’s investigation. Iris transferred from an exclusive private school to a public high school, and as a new student, no one knows anything about her personal life. On her first day of school, Iris met a girl who was part of the missing boy’s old crowd. Why not make the most of this acquaintance, Iris reasons? But is solving the case worth all the lies she must tell her new friends and her father in order to solve the case?

I can’t put my finger on what kept me from loving The Girl Is Murder instead of just liking it, as I do now. The atmosphere in the book is fabulous, full of slang and smoking, and Haines vividly brings WWII-era New York City to life. Iris, in many ways, is reminiscent of Ruby from Ten Cents a Dance, and not just because of their family’s financial straits and initial willingness to fudge certain aspects their identities; I think it’s their determination, and their respective authors’ ability to keep them sympathetic. And yet… Despite containing many of the elements I’m drawn to, The Girl Is Murder just didn’t have that extra something to make it a book that I loved.

One nitpick: Iris is a high school sophomore, but later in the book she mentions having four more years of high school to complete.

Book source: public library.

Sidekicks by Jack D. Ferraiolo

After spending the past six year as sidekick to the famous superhero Phantom Justice, Bright Boy (real name: Scott Hutchinson) decides it’s time for a change. Scott still believes in saving people from evil villains, but can’t he do it while wearing something other than bright yellow tights? The tights are embarrassing to begin with, but when television cameras catch him getting a little, uh, involuntarily excited while holding the very attractive woman he just rescued, Bright Boy becomes a joke. Seriously, even the little kids at Scott’s school are laughing at Bright Boy.

It doesn’t help that Phantom Justice’s archnemesis, Dr. Chaotic, returned to town after a five-year hiatus (translation: he just broke out of prison). Dr. Chaotic’s sidekick, Monkeywrench, was always a thorn in Bright Boy’s side, and now Monkeywrench is back as well. Only Monkeywrench now has a brand new, totally awesome, costume.

So not fair.

Phantom Justice refuses to listen to Scott’s complaints about his Bright Boy costume. Nothing their butler/trainer Louis says can convince Phantom Justice, either. No one else knows that Scott is Bright Boy, which is fine; Scott understands why Bright Boy’s identity must be kept secret. And, hey, at least this means no one knows it was Scott who had that untimely physical reaction.

Until Bright Boy and Monkeywrench lose their masks while battling one night, and Scott immediately recognizes Monkeywrench as one of his classmates.

Jack D. Ferraiolo’s Sidekicks is funny and fast-paced, with unexpected twists that kept me glued to the pages. Ferraiolo, a writer and producer of children’s television shows, is as adept at writing action scenes as he is delving into Scott’s emotions. And, perhaps due his television background, the story feels tightly written, without any padding or momentum-sapping scenes. Not until the very end of the book (in all honesty, my least favorite part) does Sidekicks lose a bit of steam. However, even taking this into account, Sidekicks is one of my favorite books of the year, an entertaining mix of humor, action, and depth, starring a likable, sympathetic main character.

Book source: public library.

Cross-posted at Guys Lit Wire.

I am going to get these books confused next summer