ALA Book Awards!

Bonjour!

Today, the ALA Book awards were released.

As is usually true, the American Library Association's Youth Media Awards committees had more than a few surprises for readers eagerly awaiting the winners of the 2009 awards.


Receiving the 2009 Newberry Award is Neal Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, a dark story of a boy named Nobody, who is safe from a mysterious assassin only within the confines of a graveyard. I don't wan't to give away any more, as this is an excellent book that has a few fun surprises.

Newbery Honor Awards go to Kathi Appelt for The Underneath, Ingrid Law for Savvy, Jacqueline Woodson's After Tupac and D Foster, and Margarita Engle's The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom.

The 2009 Caldecott Award winner, Susan Marie Swanson, illustrated her book, The House in the Night, extremely well.




Receiving Caldecott Honor Awards were Marla Frazee for A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, Uri Shulevitz for How I Learned Geography, and illustrator Melissa Sweet for A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams.

The Carnegie Award has been presented to Weston Woods' film based on Christine King Farris' book March On!: The Day My Brother Martin Changed The World, as a little surprise.

Mo Willems has again took the Theodore Seuss Geisel Award for easy reader books with his latest installment in his popular series, Are You Ready to Play Outside? (An Elephant and Piggie Book).

Cool Tidbits...

Kadir Nelson has won the Coretta Scott King Author Award for We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. The King Illustrator Award goes to Floyd Cooper for his work in The Blacker the Berry.

The Printz Award for Young Adult Literature has been given to Melina Marchetta's Jellicoe Road.

The Pura Belpre Award for Hispanic literature goes to author Margarita Engle for The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom and illustrator Yuyi Morales for Just In Case: A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book.

Once again, to many children's delight, the ALA book awards are out. Happy reading!

Hitler Youth : Growing up in Hitler's Shadow

Guten Morgan, (good morning in german)
After giving out the "book of the month" award, it is time to start anew. Next month's award most likely will be given on Monday, February 23.
Anyway. After reading The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, I couldn't help but want to know more about the holocaust, and to know how historically accurate the book was. In order to find out, I went to the young adults non-fiction book (as I usually read mostly children's books) Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler's Shadow, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. In this absolutely horrifying book, Bartoletti describes some of the brainwashing that Hitler used on many teenagers of Germany, in order to gain their support and self sacrifice. To think that teenagers died happily for Germany, thinking that what Hitler was doing is right, and that Germans are the best people, and all others are inferior is quite scary.

I do not rate non-fiction due to the fact thet there is no storyline to rate.
Ages 13 and up
I just wanted to mention that I usually do not recommend that children undar a certain age SHOULD NOT read something, as I believe that if people do not know what mistakes were made in the past may make them again (this is why I am such an anti-censorship advocate), I don't think that this book is approriate for kids younger than at least 11, due to the horrors within.

Monthly Winner

On the 24 of every month, I pick the best book I reviewed since the month before. This month, the award goes to...
(Drum roll please)


The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
This book, along with getting the highest rating I have given since Harry Potter, kept me sitting in my seat, turning page after page (which I would have done anyway - probably the bookworm instinct in me), and had one of the best stories I have seen in a while. I can't help but warmly anticipate the sequel, and more books by this wonderful author. Even though the beginning was rather slow, I stuck with the recommendations that I have received, and it paid off. I also found out some more good news. According to Publishers Weekly, Book Two, titled Catching Fire is due out September 8th so you won't have to wait too long. The final book in the trilogy is tentatively scheduled for 2010.
Congratulations!!

The next award is on February 23, 2009
See you for the awards then.
My next review will be out tommorrow!

The Seems: The Glitch in Time

Hi again!
Now it is time for a new series, a new age group, and a new genre. This wonderful book by John Hulme and Michael Wexler is an interesting story of the forces that control us. While some groups, like the religious right, may find this controversial and a insult to their beliefs, people who put this thought aside can heartily enjoy this wonderful work of literature. The Glitch in Sleep, part of the "Seems" series has been a big hit. A glitch appears in the "sleep department" of the seems and causes mayhem. The main character, Becker Drane is sent to solve the problem.
Hulme and Wexler do an excellent job with this piece of literature, and readers will be anxiously waiting for more.
4.0/5
Good
Ages 7 - 12

The Homework Machine

Aloha,
Good Morning.
As you can probably see, today am looking at The Homework Machine, by Dan Gutman. Mr. Gutman, a popular children's literature writer, has written countless books that children around the world have heartily enjoyed. In this particular book, Gutman uses his skill with the pen to create a wonderful story of a child who creates a homework machine. The three other kids at the table, who include a teachers pet, a class clown, and a slacker, find out about the machine and start to use it. However people start to find out that they are cheating.
In this excellent novel, Gutman does a great job understanding the average schoolchildren.

3.4/5
"Could have been better"
Ages 6-12

The Hunger Games

Hello,
I have recently read The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. This simply amazing book describes a possible future world, where the Hunger Games are sort of like today's Olympics, with one exception. Instead of playing sports, the tributes kill each other. Every year, some people are chosen to play from each district. In the book, the main character's sister is picked to go to the games. The main character volunteers, in order to keep her sister from dying. In a breathtaking adventure, Katniss, the protagonist, is forced to forge alliances, attempt to survive, and balance her personal issues, while trying to win the games.
Collins does a great job writing and leaves us hungry for more.

4.8/5
"Top of the line"
Ages 10 and up

Check out Stephanie Ford's review here!

39 Clues: One False Note

Hello,
Now I am going to review the second book in the series, after The Maze of Bones, called One False Note. In this sequel, Amy and Dan Cahill, the protagonists, are led to Vienna by a clue. A musical piece by Mozart called KV 617 is discovered. Amy and Dan are accompanied by their au pair, Nellie Gomez. Running around the world, social services in Boston, where the Cahills live, are looking for them, and trying to put them into custody.
Korman writes yet another novel full of danger that is sure to keep readers turning pages.

3.7/5
"keep it up"
Ages 7-13

39 Clues: The Maze of Bones

Hi again,
Today, I am reviewing the excellent novel, The Maze of Bones, by Rick Riordan. This is part of the 39 Clues series, which is going to be written by many well practiced children's authors, such as Gordon Korman and Peter Lerangis. While I disapprove of the fact that this is a money making scheme, I can't help but admit that this is an example of good children's literature. In the first installment of this series, Riordan weaves a tale of the legendary "Cahill" family, who supposedly have 5 branches, and include almost all famous people in this world. When Grace, the protaganist's grandmother dies, she leaves them a challenge to find the 39 clues of the Cahill family secret. The series leads them to all kinds of places, but their power-hungry relatives keep on getting in thier way.
Riordan does a great job keeping his writing alive after the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series

3.8/5
Good
Ages 7-13

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Hi!
I have decided to post more often that Sundays because of increased interest.
Today, I am reviewing a book called The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, by John Boyne. It was about the holocaust, and Nazi Germany. While it carried the usual stereotypes, and put the Germans in a bad light, it was in a twisted way. Bruno, the main character, is a Nazi child. He is unaware that anything is happening, and doesn't even know why they have to move when his father was sent to be in charge of a concentration camp. He, being completely innocent, goes to explore the surrounding area, When he finds out about the people across the fence, he befriends one.
Boyle does an excellent job capturing Nazi Germany, and clearly depicts what an innocent is like.

Recommendation: an excellent book for young adults, and should be required reading in schools.

4.3/5
Very good
Ages 11 and up due to references to was and Hitler

Schooled

Howdy,
Today, I am reviewing Schooled, by Gordon Korman. I have recently been reading many of Mr. Korman's books, as I feel that he has a great writing style. Schooled is about A child who came from a community that taught people non-violence, and was based on traditional hippie idealism. Cap, the main character, is elected 8th grade president, and gets caught up in the school's politics, but slogs it out till the end. Cap even manages to gain some popularity during his 4 weeks at Claverage middle school, dubbed "C Average Middle School". On his last day, he is attacked by some popular students, and is sent away by ambulance. When he returns to the community, everyone at his old school thinks that he is dead.
Korman once again shows his skill with the pen and shows his insight in a public school education in this wonderful story.

4.0/5
Very good
Ages 7 and up