Congratulations to the Printz winners

2009 Award Winner


Jellicoe Road
by Melina Marchetta
published by HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers




2009 Printz Honor Books

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing 2The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II, The Kingdom on the Waves, by M.T. Anderson, published by Candlewick Press.


The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart, published by Disney-Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group.



Nation by Terry Pratchett, published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers.



Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan, published by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Post-Dating the Printz

With the announcement of the 2009 Michael L. Printz Award only days away, and there is lots of fun speculation all over the kidlitosphere over which of the fantastic 2008 titles might win the prize.

But I've been thinking about great YA novels of the past, published before the establishment of the award. The Printz was first awarded in 2000 (Monster by Walter Dean Myers was that first recipient) but--contrary to what some people seem to believe, YA literature has been around long long before then. The American Library Association's Best Books for Young Adult committee has been around since 1966, compiling annual lists of the finest YA books.

So I thought it might be fun to play around with the idea of books that we think ought to have gotten the Printz--if the Printz had been around when they were published. Here are a couple of my nominations:

The Grounding of Group Six by Julian F. Thompson, 1983: Five high school students discover that their parents have sent them away to boarding school not for an education but to be murdered. Fun!

Owl in Love by Patrice Kindl, 1995: Were-creatures in YA are more common now, but this story of a wereowl remains highly original.

Squashed by Joan Bauer, 1992: Best book about a girl growing a giant pumpkin you'll ever read.

The Right Hand Man by K. M. Peyton, 1977: This might be one of those "What the heck?" titles, but it's wonderfully vigorous historical fiction.

And oh so many more, obvious titles come to mind like Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden, Ironman by Chris Crutcher, So Much to Tell You by John Marsden, The Chocolate War (natch) by Robert Cormier and some less obvious.

But what are yours? If you could go back in time and hand out Printz awards to pre-1999 titles, which would you pick?

Melissa W.

Reader's Choice Best YAs of 2008

Which young adult novels did you think were the best of 2008?

Feel free to include overlooked, understocked, and misunderstood favorites.

Some of my favorites this year include:

THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX by Mary Pearson
IMPOSSIBLE by Nancy Werlin
GRACELING by Kristen Cashore
THE SPECTACULAR NOW by Tim Tharp

What were your favorites?

Mar

13 Questions with Marlene Perez

Marlene Perez is the author of DEAD IS THE NEW BLACK. She lives in Orange County, California, where she's always on the lookout for vampires roaming her sunny suburb. So far, she hasn't spotted any. www.marleneperez.com

1) what's your book about?
DEAD IS THE NEW BLACK is the first book in a trilogy.

2) favorite Halloween candy?
mini mint Three Musketeers bars or those mellocreme pumpkins.

3) favorite spooky novel?
LOST BOY LOST GIRL by Peter Straub creeped me out. But my childhood favorite was WOLVES OF WILLOUGHBY CHASE by Joan Aiken.

4) fangs or fur?
Fangs. Vamps rule and werewolves drool.

5) Monster Mash, Thriller, or The Time Warp?
It's a tie. I love The Time Warp, but Thriller has Vincent Price doing a voice-over.

6) cape or no cape?
cape. I'm old-school.

7) Bela Lugosi or Gary Oldman?
Gary Oldman! I know Bela Lugosi is the premiere vamp, but Gary Oldman rocked the house as Sid Vicious, Dracula and Sirius Black.

8) Trick or Treat?
treat.

9) favorite costume?
Hmm. On me or someone else? My best friend and I (our names both start with M) once dressed up as M&M candies. Not very scary, but fun.

10) favorite scary movie or television show?
SCARY MOVIE: THE LOST BOYS
TELEVISION SHOW: Buffy, of course

11) what really scares you? (like spiders or the dark or whatever)
Lots of things. I'm a wimp. Spiders, heights, people who don't vote.

12) what’s your favorite way to spend Halloween night?
The people in our neighborhood all hang out together, then a group of parents & kids go trick-or-treating. I stay home and hand out candy. Then after the kids have gorged themselves on chocolate and have crashed, my husband and I watch a movie.

13) what’s the scariest thing that ever happened to you?
When I was growing up, I lived in an old farmhouse that was haunted.

13 Questions with A.M. Jenkins

Bio: A.M. Jenkins likes Halloween best out of all the holidays. It
requires little work, and the payoff is tons of chocolate.


1) what's your book about?
I've got three out right now that deal with the supernatural:

Night Road ("vampires" take a newbie on a road trip).
Repossessed (demon takes over a teenager's body).
Beating Heart (dead girl stalks living guy).


2) favorite Halloween candy?
Right now, Milky Ways.


3) favorite spooky novel?
For spooky, I like true crime. Nothing says scary to me like serial killers.


4) fangs or fur?
Me personally, I'd be a werewolf. But if I had to choose a romantic
partner, I'd choose a vampire just to be on the safe side. I'm not sure
how much body hair werewolves have normally.


5) Monster Mash, Thriller, or The Time Warp?
Werewolves of London!


6) cape or no cape?
No cape, not nowadays. That's just freakin' weird.


7) Bela Lugosi or Gary Oldman?
Louis Jourdan!


8) Trick or Treat?
Treat (see above, #2)


9) favorite costume?
Anything with fake gore. The gorier the better.



10) favorite scary movie or television show?
Scariest movie ever: The Changeling, with George C. Scott.


11) what really scares you? (like spiders or the dark or whatever)
City ordinances about not wearing saggy pants. I lie awake nights,
terrified that my tax dollars are being used to nag somebody about their
pants.


12) what’s your favorite way to spend Halloween night?
Handing out stuff that's not candy, like glow-in-the-dark eyeballs,
while I eat the candy I bought to give out.


13) what’s the scariest thing that ever happened to you?
Having to give a keynote dinner speech to 400 sleepy, full-bellied
librarians.

13 Questions with Kristopher Reisz

Find out more about Kristopher Reisz at http://www.kristopherreisz.com


what's your book about?
Unleashed is a werewolf love story set in the crumbling, beautiful city of Birmingham. It's got lies, truth, a mushroom god, and as much merry hell as I could fit into 300 pages.


favorite Halloween candy?
Anything shaped like an eyeball.


favorite spooky novel?
I read Nick Mamatas' Move Under Ground earlier this year. It has Jack Kerouac fighting Cthulhu. If the sheer bad-assery of that idea didn't just knock you out of your chair and hurl you into the wall, my heart weeps for you.


4) fangs or fur?
Dainty little blood-sipping fangs or inch-long, bone-crusher, meat-ripper fangs? I've always preferred werewolves over vampires. How anybody can respect a monster that cleans under his fingernails is beyond me.


5) Monster Mash, Thriller, or The Time Warp?
I'll be difficult and pick Werewolves of London.

cape or no cape?
Cape does not allow wearer to fly.


7) Bela Lugosi or Gary Oldman?
Is this a real question? Gary Oldman is a good actor and probably a very nice guy. Bela Lugosi is a legend. It's like comparing apples to Jesus. The Jesus of creepy.


8) Trick or Treat?
Or? Who says there has to be an 'or'?


9) favorite costume?
Once I dressed up like a barrel of toxic waste. That costume got extra points for being environmentally savvy AND having lots of room for candy storage.


10) favorite scary movie or television show?
The Real World


what really scares you? (like spiders or the dark or whatever)
Heights. All my nightmares are about falling. Or different body parts turning into Jell-O. But my answer's still heights.


12) what's your favorite way to spend Halloween night?
Looking out for house-rollers and egg-throwers. Keeping watch over the night makes me feel a little like Batman.


what's the scariest thing that ever happened to you?
Once I was visiting Glasgow, fell down some stairs, and got a concussion. I left the hospital with four stitches in the back of my head and no idea where I was. I spent the night trying to find my hotel, but I kept blacking out, then realizing I'd walked God-knows-how-many blocks without remembering.

I wound up at a police station, but don't know how. The police dropped me back off at the hospital, who just sent me out again. It was a long, ugly n

13 Questions with Cynthia Leitich Smith

Cynthia Leitich Smith is the author of the YA Gothic fantasy novel
Tantalize (Candlewick, 2007, 2008) and "Haunted Love," which appears in
Immortal: Love Stories with Bite, edited by P.C. Cast (BenBella,
2008)(exclusive to Borders/Waldenbooks).
Visit: http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/

1) what's your book about?
Tantalize is the story of Quincie P. Morris, who's trying to help save
her family's Italian restaurant by launching it with a vampire theme.
But just before the debut party, the chef is brutally murdered, and the
question lingers--is the murderer a vampire in wolf form or the hybrid
werewolf who's also Quincie's first love and best friend. Tantalize is
the first of three companion books, including Eternal (Candlewick, 2009)
and Blessed (Candlewick, TBA) in an overarching storyline, all from
Candlewick Press. Here's also a graphic novel adaptation in the works.


2) favorite Halloween candy?
Mini Snickers.


3) favorite spooky novel?
Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause.


4) fangs or fur?

Both.


5) Monster Mash, Thriller, or The Time Warp?
Thriller.


6) cape or no cape?
Cape.


7) Bela Lugosi or Gary Oldman?
George Hamilton.


8) Trick or Treat?
Treat!


9) favorite costume?
Vampire.


10) favorite scary movie or television show?
Classic: "The Lost Boys" (1987)
Contemporary: "The Faculty" (1998)


11) what really scares you? (like spiders or the dark or whatever)
Heights, germs, enclosed spaces, children under 3, lettuce.


12) what’s your favorite way to spend Halloween night?
Watching spooky movies with my very cute husband--having already had a
party for my pals the weekend before.


13) what’s the scariest thing that ever happened to you?
Farrah hair.