Two Printzes
Full disclosure: Of this year’s Printz winner and honors, I’ve only finished Charles & Emma and read half of Going Bovine and The Monstrumologist. (Also, I apologize to any Spin Doctors fans who may be out there.)
It struck me, as I was commenting at Maureen’s a little while ago, that this year’s Printz winner and honors are very similar to the 2008 list.
The White Darkness = Going Bovine (winners, about crazy people road/ice trips, if that’s not a spoiler)
Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath = Charles & Emma
Repossessed = The Monstrumologist
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian = Marcelo in the Real World (lots of buzz, ultimately shut out)
And, okay, the comparison falls apart with 2008 honorees Dreamquake: Book Two of the Dreamhunter Duet and One Whole and Perfect Day and this year’s Punkzilla and Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance 1973.
Other Youth Media Awards thoughts:
- I need to read Morris winner Flash Burnout and Newbery winner When You Reach Me. But in a nice display of prescience (all the more shocking since I was so wrong with my Printz predictions), I actually have both books checked out from the library right now.
- Abby called it.
- I agree with pretty much everything Sheryl said at A True Reality.
- Yay, Tanita! Congratulations for the King Author Honor.
- And one year after editing books that won the Morris (A Curse Dark as Gold) and Batchelder (Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit; I’m not sure if I ever linked to this before, but here’s a great behind-the-scenes look at its gorgeous design), Cheryl Klein‘s authors won a Schneider Family Award (Marcelo in the Real World) and a Batchelder honor (Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness). I’m a bit surprised she didn’t pick up an additional Batchelder honor for Heartsinger.
Your thoughts?
ETA: Totally forgot about Jim Murphy winning the Margaret A. Edwards. I mentioned on Twitter that I found this an interesting pick, because they’ve never picked an author of primarily non-fiction before. I’ve read, and enjoyed, An American Plague, so now I need to get my hands on the other books the committee cited. Except for non-fiction getting dropped from BBYA in the move to Best Fiction for YA (see also Marc Aronson’s take on this), this was a good award year for non-fiction.
I have to admit that my thought process in calling the Printz was something like this:
“Hmmm. Which book did a bunch of people really like and buzz about and I couldn’t stand? O YEA. GOING BOVINE. That’s totally gonna win.”
Maybe next year the Printz will be something I like! Or maybe I should think about, y’know, running to be on the committee someday.
Positive thinking is always good, but in this case, I’m against it. Your method has proven more accurate than an overview of mock Printzes, after all. Don’t you like having us in awe of your predictions? 🙂
It was a good year for nonfic, wasn’t it? Between Jim Murphy and nonfic showing up on a lot of the awards lists, there seemed to be more this year. I wonder if it’s because nonfic’s profile is rising or there was a lot of good stuff this year. Probably both.
I haven’t been able to follow a lot of the post-announcement opinions/coverage, so thanks for this wrap-up! Made it easy for me to keep up. 🙂
Yes, that Spin Doctors song is now in my head. In. My. Head.
You know, you’re kind of right about your comparison! Only Repossessed I enjoyed SO MUCH MORE than The Monstromologist. SO much more.
I very much need to get my hands on a copy of Flash Burnout as well – my prescience completely folded on me. I suck at predicting winners of anything, mainly because I pay little or no attention to award dates, forgot to check my email, and only found out about the King thing because I looked at SOMEONE ELSE’S blog.
Which was reality whiplash at its finest. But thanks for the congratulations! I will stop thinking, “Who me?!” about them eventually.
I’ve had a copy of the Monstromologist sitting around for a long time. I guess this will make me finally pick it up. I do have to admit I couldn’t make my way through Going Bovine. I am a big fan of Libba Bray so I’m glad she got some recognition.
I am a big fan of Libba Bray so I’m glad she got some recognition.
Yeah, it seems lots of people who didn’t like the book are still happy before her, whether because of the Gemma books or her blog, etc.
I never got into the Monstrumologist, but then again I didn’t try very hard either. Both Monstrumologist and Repossessed sounded good but…I don’t know, maybe I have some sort of block. The books didn’t seem to have the kind of fun I wanted.
I completely agree with you about The Monstrumologist. It was well-written, so it’s not like I stopped reading because of the writing. I just didn’t like it enough to continue reading another 300 pages or so, especially when I had so many other books I really wanted to read. I think with Repossessed, it was so different from Damages and — uhhh, what was the title of the one about the baseball player? — it was just not was I was expecting from Jenkins.
I totally tank with my Printz picks. Didn’t get a single one right. And I’ve only read one Monstrumologist. I loved how dark and creepy the book was. I thought it was well done but I am still surprised to see it get honored.
I tried to read Charles and Emma but couldn’t get into it.
Besides Marcelo in the Real World I am really surprised Carter Finally Gets it was excluded.
I can beat all of you. Not only did I not predict any award winners, or read any of the award winners. I didn’t even purchase them for the library.
*sigh*
I haven’t read nearly as many of the winners as I ought to have…though I guess that gives me a good way to start my TBR pile, post-Cybils. Interesting parallels between the two years’ lists–I’ll have to keep that in mind while I’m reading.
And, I totally cracked up the second I read the post title.
I would especially like to get my hands on The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I’m also a little belated with my personal picks for all of the awards, but excellent choices. Charles & Emma sounds interesting too.
youre not much of a fantasy fan are you, trisha?
i was disappointed that FIRE wasn’t on the shortlist
for PRINTZ. and i have read more realistic YA but
it’s not what i usually read, BUT FLASH BURNOUT
my second favorite read out of 41 books read (mainly YA)
in 2009. The King of Attolia took #1. =)
I like fantasy, but wouldn’t call myself a fan in the sense that I don’t actively seek it out. In bookstores, I don’t deliberately find and browse the fantasy section like I will the mystery and romance (and YA) sections.
As soon as I finish Ash (hopefully tonight), I’ll read Flash Burnout. I’m looking forward to it!
I was very surprised by Going Bovine’s win. I didn’t really have a different book in mind that I thought would get the Printz, I just had never even considered Going Bovine in that context at all. Which isn’t to say I didn’t like the book – it was harder for me to get into at first than a lot of what I’ve read this year, but ultimately I really enjoyed it and I can see why the Printz voters chose it. I hope winning gets it a bit more attention among my teens – I haven’t seen my library’s copy go out much at all so far. I think it’s a harder sell for those who like Libba Bray for her Great and Terrible Beauty trilogy – it’s so very different.