Shaken & Stirred: Nationally Booked

October 14, 2009

Nationally Booked

The NBA nominations are out and the Young People's Literature category is rocking it:

Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith
(Henry Holt)
Phillip Hoose, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
David Small, Stitches (W. W. Norton & Co.)
Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic)
Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped (HarperTeen/HarperCollins)

LAINI! WOOT! RITA! WOOT!

I actually haven't gotten to Lips Touch: Three Times (Amazon | Indiebound), but I know I will love it because Laini Taylor is an amazing person and a seriously amazing writer--her Blackbringer and Silksinger quickly became two of my favorite middle grade fantasies EVER.

And Rita William-Garcia is yet another awesome Vermont College faculty member to nab a much-deserved NBA nomination; Jumped (Amazon| Indiebound) is absolutely brilliant and it makes me wriggle with joy to see it get this kind of attention.

The rest of the nommed books look great, too, actually*. What an awesome job the judging panel did; kudos: Kathi Appelt, Coe Booth, Carolyn Coman, Nancy Werlin, and Gene Luen Yang.

Oh, and, yeah, the rest of the categories are interesting too.

*Seeing from Twitter that David Small's Stitches may not actually be a children's/YA title. WEIRD. Updated: Aha! Ron Hogan investigates and finds out that Norton considers it a cross-over title and entered it for contention in this category.

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Read Read

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