The 2011 National Book Award finalists have been announced, and there seems to have been some confusion about whether Lauren Myracle's Shine was on the list, or Franny Billingsley's Chime. Some sources are reporting only Shine and others are reporting both. (And some, of course, didn't feel that the Young Peoples' Literature category was worth detailing, but whatever.)
As the NBA website has both listed, that's what I'm going with:
Franny Billingsley, Chime
Debby Dahl Edwardson, My Name Is Not Easy
Thanhha Lai, Inside Out and Back Again
Albert Marrin, Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy
Lauren Myracle, Shine
Gary D. Schmidt, Okay for Now
So, like, did they forget to mention one and then throw it in later? Or was there so much confusion about the titles that they just figured, "OH, HELL. THEY'RE BOTH GREAT: LET'S JUST KEEP ALL SIX!"
ETA: Should have read the LA Times post more carefully: "We could have taken one of the books away to keep it five, but we decided that it was better to add a sixth one as an exception, because they're all good books." So, really, it was my second suspicion. Which is much more bizarre. And hilarious. Literary hijinks. I LIKE!
Ha! I just saw this in Publisher's Marketplace and came straight over here to see if you had said anything about it. And the Publisher's Lunch email makes it even more confusing, since they say, "It turns out that Wednesday's announcement of the National Book Awards was not entirely error-free, as in the early afternoon a sixth nominee in the Young People's Literature category - SHINE by Fanny Billingsley, published by Dial - was added to the list." Wha?
Posted by: Faith | 13 October 2011 at 02:13 PM
Holy crow. SOMEONE needs lessons in clarity.
Posted by: Leila | 13 October 2011 at 02:18 PM