Wooo <i>Ship Breaker</i>!

You’ve probably heard by now that five finalists for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature were named earlier today.

• Paolo Bacigalupi, Ship Breaker (Little, Brown & Co.)
• Kathryn Erskine, Mockingbird
  (Philomel Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group)
• Laura McNeal, Dark Water (Alfred A. Knopf)
• Walter Dean Myers, Lockdown
  (Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers)
• Rita Williams-Garcia, One Crazy Summer
  (Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers)

In terms of format, after the past several years (well, excluding 2008), I am somewhat surprised that all five finalists are novels. That said, I also think the NBA for YPL* includes more diversity among its finalists than most other important literary awards, and this year is no exception.

This includes the spectacular Ship Breaker, which is one of my favorite books of the year. It’s the book I nominated for the Cybils YA Fantasy/Science Fiction category. And, speaking of the Cybils, if you haven’t nominated anything yet, you still have some time to do so; nominations close on October 15 at 11:59 p.m. EST.

* no idea if this is the correct abbreviation, but I’m using it anyway

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