2006 Printz, etc.

As I wasn't at work yesterday, I had to wait an extra 24 hours to find out who the 2006 winners were -- it was agony:

2006 Printz winner:  Looking for Alaska, by John Green  (Printz Honor books listed here)

2006 Margaret A. Edwards Award:  Jacqueline Woodson

2006 Alex Awards:  I've read and reviewed four of the ten:  Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys, Gregory Galloway's As Simple As Snow, Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, and Jeanette Walls' The Glass Castle.  (The rest are listed here.)

2006 Newbery Medal:  Criss Cross, by Lynne Rae Perkins  (Newbery Honor books listed here)

2006 Caldecott:  The Hello, Goodbye Window, illustrated by Chris Raschka (Honor books listed here)

Without having read any of the Printz Honor books, I feel slightly guilty saying this, but Chris Lynch totally got robbed.  Inexcusable should have at least made the cut.  On the other hand, GOOD JOB, Newbery judges!  I'm very happy to (for once!) see a non-Avi list!  And hooray for Chris Raschka!  You rock.

Comments

[C.C.]

I agree about Inexcusable, robbed. FYI, the Newbery link goes to the Caldecott page (not that I couldn't figure it out or anything, but thought ya might like to know).

[Chrissy]

God, I feel so out of touch.

[Leila]

Robbed. Also, I'm shocked that Sandpiper didn't get a mention.

Then again, maybe they're trying to avoid the Avi syndrome.

[jess]

I swore loudly when I read the Newbery list. Tee-ohed, to say the least.

[C.C.]

Oh yeah, except: Goodbye Window ruled, (now I'm going to have to go pull down Waffle and cry a lot, and then make a note to remember to buy Charlie Parker Played BeBob, Mysterious Thelonious, A Poke in the Eye and Yo! Yes? on Saturday). I haven't read any of the other Prinz honors/winners either. I'm sorry I CANNOT read Looking for Alaska, it's in my contract allowing me out of the state. Black Juice does look interesting though, and the Princess Academy is promising based on The Goose Girl. Very unusual treatment of the the "retold fairy tale genre". Contemplative. Philosophical. I liked it a lot.

Oh, and YAY! for Jacqueline Woodson, it's about time she get's a life time award for always writing good books about interesting things in a good way. There aren't enough awards out there for stuff like that.

Finally: I finally got my paws on Indigo's Star and loved it. Did you read the Horn Book article about her? Something to the effect that when she won some award (Smarties I'm sure) the introducer was like, "And finally, just some nice books about some funny people, with no issues." And the article writer was like, "Well, unless by "issues" you don't mean: adoption, bullying, romance, marriage, divorce, infidelity, glasses, and the handicapped. But I see "the introducers" point in that they don't seem like "issues" books." Yay Hilary McKay.

[Leila]

How much did you love Rose? She's so much like Phoebe, but different. Her ongoing mural killed me. I'll have to look up the Horn Book article -- the 'no issues' thing is a riot. But I get what the introduction meant, too -- they aren't angsty books at all. No moaning and groaning about the hardships they face and blah-di-blahblah. The books are about the people, not the issues. (Phew. It took me a long time to come to a very simple point. Sorry.)

Looking for Alaska has nothing to do with the state, from what I remember -- there's a character named Alaska, is all. I liked it, but I didn't love it. I would have been okay with it getting an Honor, but not so much the actual Award. Chris Lynch's book was WAY more deserving, I think.