More Award Nominees I Haven't Read

Edgar Award YA Nominees:
Rat Life by Tedd Arnold
Diamonds in the Shadow by Caroline B. Cooney
Touching Snow by M. Sindy Felin
Blood Brothers by S.A. Harazin
Fragments by Jeffry W. Johnston

Romantic Times YA Nominees:
The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti
Marked by P.C. Cast
Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson
Something Rotten by Alan Gratz

I did read Marked and liked it okay but didn't love it. The romance wasn't a huge element in that, IMO. I am waiting to read Nature of Jade once it is checked in. I never realized there was a strong romantic element to Something Rotten. I do love how many categories RT has for their awards. I would love to see something like this for YA awards. What is the best YA romance of the year, for example? I kind of liked The Off Season, although it isn't a traditional romance with HEA. Last year, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist won. I can't think of a better, more fitting winner.

Printz Award

So I watched the book awards on the ALA webcast this morning, and I was pretty shocked by the results. Like Trisha said, "Huh?" I know a couple of people were happy with the winner, but I had really not heard much about any of these books, save for Your Own Sylvia. I mean, did anyone have any of these in their top 10 possibilities? I can't comment on their quality since I haven't read any of them, but I've started The White Darkness (not blown away by the first chapter but giving it a chance). Of course, I'm probably just bitter and disappointed that Freak Show didn't win anything and that we won't get to hear James St. James give an acceptance speech this summer. I am glad that this gives me some new titles to check out, and since they don't overlap with the National Book Awards, it's good to see that recognition gets spread around. I'm surprised The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian didn't get anything, though, since there has been so much librarian-love for that book.

I am also a little surprised by the Alex Awards. I thought Nineteen Minutes would be a good candidate, as would The Zookeeper's Wife.

Various Things

I have just a few random things going on in my mind today, and rather than post separately about each, I think I'll just combine them all here, especially since none of them are particularly exciting in and of themselves.

1. I posted the other day about how Kristen Stewart is going to play Bella in the Twilight movie. Supposedly filming starts in February, but when are they going to cast the Cullens??? Shouldn't they have done that by now? I once posted that I thought Jonathan Rhys Meyers would make a good Edward, but he does/did drugs and that turns me off. Still . . . . (Last time I made the mistake of posting a picture of JRM and then we kept getting all this traffic from Google image searches for him.)

2. Amazon has voting for the best teen books of 2007. The candidates are the top ten best selling books for teens on Amazon.com through October 2007. I am really surprised at some of the books on there (Math Doesn't Suck, for instance - - was it really that popular?). The editors' picks are kind of interesting. I don't think I've seen anyone talking about Arrival by Shaun Tan.

3. I wore my "Sam Hellerman is a Genius" shirt last Friday because I was booktalking King Dork. It was fantastic! Someone in every single period asked me about it before I even started talking about books. "Who is Sam Hellerman? "What does your shirt mean?" I need to get/make some more fun book shirts. (Un)fortunately, I checked out King Dork in the very first period, so I could only kind-of describe the book and not check it out to anyone.

National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature

Today, the National Book Foundation announced the finalist for the National Book Awards. The following are the finalist in the area of Young People's Literature:

Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Kathleen Duey, Skin Hunger: A Resurrection of Magic, Book One
M. Sindy Felin, Touching Snow
Brian Selznick, The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Sara Zarr, Story of a Girl

Sadly, I've only heard of one of these books....and I haven't read any of them! Couldn't they have chosen at least one or two popular titles! I mean, I'm not expecting the see Stephenie Meyer on the list (she's far too good for a stupid National Book Award)...but at least something we might already have in our collection!