Some YA I've Loved, and Dallas Buyers Club

I read We Were Liars not once, but twice, last weekend. It's every bit as fabulous as you've heard.

Maybe it's this interminable winter, but I am all into the New England thing all over right now. Being Henry David was a lovely amnesiac mystery cloaked all in Thoreau. I, for one, was rooting for reincarnation...

I read Boy Nobody over the holidays, and was thrilled to find the adrenaline-packed antics in the sequel, The Lost Mission, continued just moments after the first book closes. It takes place in a right-wing youth training compound in the New Hampshire mountains, and is non-stop fun.

Winger by Andrew Smith. Everyone else is onto Grasshopper Jungle, but I'm just behind. Bawdy like the only the youngest boy in the class can be, but this one blew me away. Such tender characterization, I even sold one of my Susanne Colasanti-loving regulars on it.

It's not YA, but it sort of is: I'm finished listening to The Goldfinch this morning, with that final meditation playing on the bridge over the Tennessee River as the sun was rising. The audio was 32 hours long, but every minute of it was terrific.  So much so, I'm a little sad to think about life with Theo and Hobie and Boris...

But I finally saw Dallas Buyers Club last weekend, and I was thrilled with one scene in particular. When Woodruff, the Matthew McConaughey character, gets such a grim prognosis, where does he go? TO THE LIBRARY. And armed with that information, including the toxicity of the current clinical doses of AZT, he starts taking control of his own healthcare. I hope it wins all the awards just because of that. Libraries save people, and they help them save themselves.

Get international!

Over the past year, I've had the terrific privilege of working with the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) (more) as the ALA/AASL representative to the Board of Directors. Now, I'm scheming ways to stay involved with the group after my term ends this fall...

Along with Jamie Naidoo at the University of Alabama, I'm one of two State Ambassadors for Alabama for the organization. Your state might have one as well. But that means we have access to all sorts of great information and opportunities associated with international children's literature, multicultural issues, and global understanding, all delivered in a convenient monthly newsletter...and you certainly don't have to be within Alabama to receive it...

If you're interested, I've created a Google form for you to sign up:

 

 

I've also included the text of this month's email from Constance Vidor below for a sample, and these are the links referenced:

The OIB list

Batchelder reflections

All the ALA awards

 

 

Very exciting events happened at the ALA Midwinter meeting this past weekend.  On Friday night, the 2014 USBBY Outstanding International Book award list was announced with books ranging from young children to young adult that were first published in a country outside of the U.S.  That list is here for your reading pleasure. OIB provides a great opportunity for you to promote international literature and USBBY in your state.  Bookmarks and other information can soon be accessed on the USBBY website.

The major ALA media awards were announced on Monday morning.  A number of these books have significance because of their global connections.  In particular, note the following books:

Marcus Zusak from Australia was given the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults.   He is most well-known for The Book Thief and I Am the Messenger.

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein got a Schneider Award and is set during WWII in the concentration camp where horrific operations were done on young women as medical experimentation.

Mandela by Kadir Nelson is a picture book on the life of Nelson Mandela and received an Honor for Illustration in theCoretta Scott King Awards.

The Nazi Hunters:  How a Team  of Spies and Survivors Captured the World's Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb received the YALSA Nonfiction Award.

Two of the Printz Awards for young adult fiction went to British authors -- Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner received an Honor award and Midwinter Blood by Marcus Sedgwick received the Printz medal.

Several of the Pura Belpre awards have global connections, especially for the Illustrator awards. Maria Had a Little Llama by Angela Dominquez has a Peruvian setting for this well-known nursery rhyme. Nino Wrestles the World by Yuyi Morales is based in Mexican lucha libre traditions and Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote is written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh from Mexico City.  Margarita Engle's Lightning Dreamer:  Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist received an Honor for text.

The Caldecott honor books include Journey by Aaron Becker, a wordless fantasy of imaginary adventures that incorporates nods to global connections across Europe and Japan.  Mr. Wuffles by David Wiesner has an "other" world connection through the alien spaceship that lands in the kitchen and becomes the cat's toy.  What will be of interest is that Wiesner created languages for the aliens and the insects, both spoken and written, as well as visual pictographs to record their travails with the dangerous cat.  Kathy Short served on this committee.

Two USBBY members, Doris Gebel and Linda Pavonetti, served on the Batchelder Award Committee, given to publishers for books first published in another country and language and then translated to English in the U.S.  The Batchelder Awards include The Bathing Costume, My Father's Arms are a Boat, and The War Within These Walls as Honor Books, and Mister Orange as the award winner.  Linda Pavonetti has written a short message about her impressions of these books and the award.

The ALA press release with all the awards.

 

I know I was sort of blown away by all those international connections! So, if  you want to stay in the loop surrounding international literature for children and teens, sign up and I'll be happy to share.

 

 

 

All about Midwinter

I'm writing this in a hotel room at the Philadelphia airport...the insane weather conditions in the southeast thwarted my trip home, but didn't put a damper on my mood. After bracing myself for a rough ride, I had such a great time hanging out with some of my favorite librarians and dearest friends in Philadelphia. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

I checked everything, so I don't have pajamas, a change of clothes or even toiletries beyond the toothbrush and toothpaste I caged from the Sheraton desk clerk, but I DO have a digital projector with me. I hauled it to and  around Philadelphia because I freaked out about not being sure there would be one for the USBBY program on Friday. I needn't have worried, the room on the top of the Loew's Hotel was well-equipped and had an amazing view, much like the Council suite on the same floor, which I finally availed myself of on Sunday evening. The USBBY event went off without a hitch, with more than eighty people there, and Maryann MacDonald was such a pro, and Bloomsbury had a nice reception after, too. I'm really looking forward to the next USBBY event at Annual now. And every Batchelder winner was on the Outstanding International Books list the committee announced Friday night, so that was a little thrill.

Council? The wheels grind slow but exceedingly fine. It's interesting to see work started at one conference adopted (as in the case of the "no prayers, only moments of silence" policy at meetings) or not (as in the Code of Conduct). Well, the COC (with clarification about peaceful protesting added by SRRT) has been adopted by the organization, but it is not policy per se. I was actually having a pang of regret about not running in the election again. It took five meetings for me to feel like I know what's up, and now my term is almost over, with just Annual to go.

The Youth Media Awards? I sat with my friend the incredible Angie Manfredi, just behind the Carnegie committee, and it was a real party. I sort-of couldn't believe how many winners and honors books I'd read this go-round...and I am thrilled about Midwinterblood snagging the Printz. Marcus Sedgewick is amazing in both range and craft. And I can't wait for the Odyssey work! Can Daniel Kraus come up with something quick so we can give it another medal?

I might not see much of school this week -- weather day tomorrow, delay Thursday, then Friday is an ALLA PD day in Birmingham. But, with all the apocalyptic weather craziness, I just can't worry about much. I'm running at about half speed. But I feel like I have a better sense of proportion. And for everyone who was kind and supportive, know that was very healing for me. I love this work.

Some sisterly love

Will you be at Midwinter? My last dining guide to Philly is sorely outdated, many of my favorite places (Bindi, TBar), going out of business, but here are some suggestions.

I hope everyone will come to the USBBY program at 8:00 p.m. Friday at Loew's Hotel. I've had the privilege of talking with author Maryann Macdonald, who will be speaking, and she is absolutely delightful. This year's Outstanding International Books list will be announced, too, and Bloomsbury Children's Books is planning a nice reception.

I also have ALA Council (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday mornings) to look forward to, and some really fabulous author events on my calendar, too.

http://c0468711.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/liberty-bell-philadelphia-with-love-587.jpg

Also, an update on the YALSAblog situation: I really appreciate all the gratitude and support from my wonderful colleagues around this. I am really over any hard feelings about it, and hope the division will find someone who will move it in the direction they want, since I just don't think that IS me.

Historicity

I've been reading (and loving ) Alex title Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt. Like Eleanor & Park and The Interestings, it's SO '80s. And it's got me thinking that people in my generation are in a strange position. When I was born, it had not even been thirty years since people were held in Nazi concentration camps. That seemed like a particularly ancient history, even then. The eighties are about the same distance from kids born today. So, my upbringing must seem at least as remote to the teens I work with as those of Sally J. Freeman, or Elizabeth in Lois Lowry's Autumn Street.

I also think that Generation Y is almost a "lost" generation in terms of leadership in the workplace. We spent so long being subservient and respectful of our elders (the Greatest Generations and our Baby Boomer parents) that some of us still don't feel grown up enough to tell other people what to do. And our lifestyles aren't grown up. I think about my own parents, younger than I am now, dressing up and going out to formal events. There are no formal events in my life, and, having been to an opera and a couple of symphonies lately, I can say there seem to be very few left in our society. And maybe something's crushed our capacity to dream. We graduated college before the tech start-ups, before projects like etsy and kickstarter would have enabled us to follow and monetize our bliss. Now there are younger, hungrier Millenials nipping at our heels, and we're being told that we're too traditional, or lack the requisite skills of the "digital native."

Awesome image from Kim France's Refinery29 article on the '80s
http://www.refinery29.com/80s-fashion#slide-1

I work in a state where the emphasis on college and career readiness is, in my opinion, out-of-whack. At the state level, and in many local school systems (thankfully, not my own, which has particularly robust arts and humanities courses), there doesn't seem any interest in teaching anything that doesn't lead directly to a particular career path. I thank my lucky stars for the "cultural literacy" vogue when I was in high school. I feel that all that knowledge -- call it useless or arcane because you can look it up on your phone -- has served me well as a citizen. But now I guess all this rote random factual information might be merely cluttering up my brain and inhibiting some of the strange and uninhibited creativity I see in younger people.

But I really don't want to spend all day making gifs or youtube videos or taking pictures of myself or my food. I'd rather read a book (or really do just about anything else) than reddit or do quizzes on buzzfeed. And I prefer face-to-face learning to virtual, and lecture at that. So I'm feeling like a dinosaur in many regards.

And as for the recent college grads who are finding the employment climate so rough, I have little sympathy. It took six years and two master's degrees before I made five figures a year. But, truth be told, I now have little ambition for a job beyond the one I have now. I could do it, happily, until retirement. I just hope someone younger, cheaper, and less inhibited doesn't edge me out of the way before I'm ready.