I love this time of year! I get to know and learn from a new group of students. Summer is ending and fall is beginning and, as a result, Las Vegas has great mornings and wonderful evenings. A start to think about the NCTE convention (I need to register tomorrow, but at least I have a hotel!) and the ALAN workshop. I get to chat with colleagues old and new; it is rejuvenating and inspiring. I hope to see many of you there. If don't know you yet, please say hello.
Perhaps, one of the most exciting parts of fall is the announcement of the National Award longlist for Young People's Literature. I love this list and others like it and the statements they make about quality literature. This list also allows us to keep a pulse on issues of diversity in authors, characters, themes, and genres. I watch carefully to see what is included and what isn't.
I have written about the award (You can read our article about cultural diversity in the award in the first 20 years of the ward here.). Some of the past winners are among my favorite books: Brown Girl Dreaming, Inside Out and Back Again, True Believer, and When Zachery Beaver Came to Town. Of course, there are others that I admire, teach, and recommend. In fact, if anyone wants to make a case that Young Adult literature has an abundance of literary quality, just have a list of all of the final five books for this award since 1996. You would have a list of 115 books that could keep people reading for while. Don't worry spending a lot of time compiling the list, you can find the list here.
*to all images are hot linked to a place get the book.
Perhaps, one of the most exciting parts of fall is the announcement of the National Award longlist for Young People's Literature. I love this list and others like it and the statements they make about quality literature. This list also allows us to keep a pulse on issues of diversity in authors, characters, themes, and genres. I watch carefully to see what is included and what isn't.
I have written about the award (You can read our article about cultural diversity in the award in the first 20 years of the ward here.). Some of the past winners are among my favorite books: Brown Girl Dreaming, Inside Out and Back Again, True Believer, and When Zachery Beaver Came to Town. Of course, there are others that I admire, teach, and recommend. In fact, if anyone wants to make a case that Young Adult literature has an abundance of literary quality, just have a list of all of the final five books for this award since 1996. You would have a list of 115 books that could keep people reading for while. Don't worry spending a lot of time compiling the list, you can find the list here.
*to all images are hot linked to a place get the book.
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What a List!
To begin with, I have to tell you that I feel like a slacker. I read a 100 or more YA books a year, but I have only read one on this years list, Boots on the Ground. A them.Couple more have been on my "to be read list," but I just haven't worked my to The Poet X, The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, and The Journey of Little Charlie. Over the last several years I have had a better track record. Usually, I have managed to be over 50% and some years as many as 7 of the 10. Not this year. I have some reading to do over the next few weeks. I know that my colleague Sharon Kane (You should check out her past post on the contributors page.) will be examining this list as well. She usually has her students reading the books off the list.
The following list has some hyperlinks. The authors name is hyperlinked to the a page inside the National Book Award web page. On that page you will find a description of the book offered by the publisher, a brief description of the author, and some links to other informational pages. The titles are link to a Kirkus Review with the exception of A Very Large Expanse of Sea with is linked to an interview in the Los Angles Times.
- Elizabeth Acevedo, The Poet X
(HarperTeen / HarperCollins Publishers) - M. T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin, The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge
(Candlewick Press) - Bryan Bliss, We’ll Fly Away
(Greenwillow Books / HarperCollins Publishers) - Leslie Connor, The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle
(Katherine Tegen Books / HarperCollins Publishers) - Christopher Paul Curtis, The Journey of Little Charlie
(Scholastic Press / Scholastic, Inc.) - Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Hey, Kiddo
(Graphix / Scholastic, Inc.) - Tahereh Mafi, A Very Large Expanse of Sea
(HarperTeen / HarperCollins Publishers) - Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint
(Dutton Children’s Books / Penguin Random House) - Elizabeth Partridge, Boots on the Ground: America’s War in Vietnam
(Viking Children’s Books / Penguin Random House) - Vesper Stamper, What the Night Sings
(Knopf Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House)
I have enjoyed browsing through the publishers descriptions of the book and reading the Kirkus reviews. I hope that you will spend some time exploring as well. I love the diversity in terms of authors, theme, genre, and settings. Perhaps, the most important thing you can do is share this list and the descriptions of these books with your student. That is exactly what I will be doing with the graduates I will be seeing next Monday. I will show them the post in advance and discuss a few of the books. I will encourage them to take a couple of minutes to share with their students as well.
This post is a just a bit on the short side, but it packed with some informative reading between now and when the winner is announce in on Nov. 14, 2018 in New York City.
Until next week.
This post is a just a bit on the short side, but it packed with some informative reading between now and when the winner is announce in on Nov. 14, 2018 in New York City.
Until next week.
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