Yesterday was one of the happiest days of the year: ALA Youth Media Award Day!
Back in 2006 when Franki and I started the original A Year of Reading blog, our main purpose was to have a public chat about books all year and then see who could pick the Newbery and Caldecott in January.
We have rarely been right, but along the way, we found ways to give each other grace. The winner was in your Amazon cart? That counts. On the stack beside your bed? Counts. On reserve from the library but hasn’t arrived yet? Definitely counts. And my new one this year — read halfway through but didn’t love it and abandoned it? Still counts.
For a retired person, I’m pretty proud of how many winners in different award categories I read: American Indian Youth Literature Awards (CONTENDERS and MASCOT), Coretta Scott King (BIG, THERE WAS A PARTY FOR LANGSTON, AN AMERICAN STORY), YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults (NEARER MY FREEDOM), Pura Belpré (REMEMBERING, 1/2 of MEXIKID), Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award (THE BOOK OF TURTLES, JUMPER [on hold at the library]), Caldecott (IN EVERY LIFE, THERE WAS A PARTY FOR LANGSTON, BIG), Newbery (1/2 of MEXIKID).
I’ve got the Newbery winner, THE EYES & THE IMPOSSIBLE by Dave Eggers on reserve at the library but rather than going back to fill in any other holes, I’m going to concentrate on reading all the best that 2024 has to offer.
Did you read some winners in 2023? What 2024s are already on your TBR stack?
A(nother) Year of Reading 
Mary Lee, I’m very impressed by what you’ve read and embarrassed by what I haven’t! Thanks for sharing all these titles. I’m going to get busy!!!
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You’ve added to my TBR pile, so thank you!!
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My slice disappeared. I checked out two of the Newbery honors(Mexikid and Sion Sort of Says, but did not get them read before they had to be returned. And The Many Assassinations of Samir was on my holds shelf today, hold placed before it won.
Three books I loved in 2023 – The Labors of Hercules Beal, The Lost Library, and The Probability of Everything.
I had fun requesting books for the grandsons from the winning book lists.
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Wow, Mary Lee, I’m so out of it. I don’t even pay attention to the awards anymore. (I used to have a whole collection of the Caldecott’s, but gave them to a niece when I moved overseas.) I have just been off looking up some of these titles, and like Britt, I’m adding to my TBR list. Thanks!
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