Post-YMA reading edition

I thought about doing The Hub Reading Challenge, but frankly I had read too many of the books involved already, and there weren't that many others there that appealed at this point.

But ALA Midwinter and the Youth Media Awards have directed my reading nonetheless. Because of my USBBY Board appointment, I've been paying more attention to books with international connections or in translation. I had read the Batchelder Honor book A Game for Swallows last year. Unlike Little White Duck, it didn't make it on to my favorites of the year, but it was a solid pick.

I actually ordered the Batchelder Prize Winner My Family For the War by Anne C. Voorhoeve from the YMA floor, it sounded that perfect. A ten year old Christian girl must leave Berlin on the kindertransport, and she lives with an Orthodox family in Finchley before bring evacuated to the countryside. It's a wonderfully hefty book. I'm not sure it's not just Literature rather than kidlit or YA. I'm curious to know how it was marketed abroad.

I read the Morris finalist After the Snow last weekend. It's offbeat. I usually love the post-apocalyptic stuff, especially after climate change, and this had some of the most imaginative language I've ever encountered. I definitely see why it won that...

But the best thing I've read since Midwinter has to be Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow. His writing has gotten more robust, and he's do scarily intelligent and incisive, it makes for the best sort of reading experience. I can't wait to recommend it.