Michael L. Printz Award for Young Adult Literature announced

The 2011 winner of the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature was announced earlier this week , and it’s Paolo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker. The Printz award is given annually by the American Library Association (ALA) and is selected by a committee of librarians. You may have read our review of it this past summer; if not, check it out, and check out the book! I feel it’s worthy of the honor. In case you’re wondering who Michael Printz was, read here.

And if you haven’t read the 2010 winner, Libba Bray’s Going Bovine, I suggest you grab that as well. You would think a book about a 16-year old boy, named Cameron, with mad cow disease would be all drama and sadness, but when you read the first line—“The best day of my life happened when I was five and almost died at Disney World”—you know you’re in for a treat. I’m a sucker for sarcasm, and a fair amount of moments on Cameron’s Don Quixote-like quest to be healed—with his Mexican-American dwarf classmate who’s a hypochondriac, later on adding a Viking god trapped inside a garden gnome—are (IMHO) laugh-out loud funny. Enjoy!

-Debra B.

Michael L. Printz Award Announced

On Monday, January 18th, 2010 The Michael L. Printz Award for literary excellence in young adult literature was announced. See this link to find out more about this year’s winner and winners from previous years: www.ala.org/yalsa/printz!

Current Winner
Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen year-old who, after being diagnosed with Creutzfeld Jakob's (aka mad cow) disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure.

2010 Printz Honor Books

The committee also named four Printz Honor Books:

Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman

Once Charles Darwin sets his rational mind to marry the religious Emma Wedgeworth, they both must take a leap of faith in order to build a life together.

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

Will Henry, orphan and assistant to a monstrumologist, races against time to save his town (and himself) from the anthropophagi, a pod of monstrous creatures who prey on humans.

Punkzilla by Adam Rapp
Fourteen-year-old runaway Jamie, homeless and strung out, embarks on a harrowing journey to reach his dying brother.

Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance, 1973
by John Barnes
Karl Shoemaker wants to begin his senior year with a new identity separate from his counseling group, his alcoholic mother and the legacy of his dead father.

Printz Award Announced

This morning the 2009 Michael L. Printz Award winner and honorees were announced. Given by the Young Adult Library Services Association, YALSA, every year since the year 2000, the Printz award is awarded to the book that “exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature.”

Here is the winner:

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta (not yet available in the Chester County Library System)

It is the story of seventeen year old Taylor Markham, abandoned by her mother when she was eleven, who is trying to put together the clues about her past as she leads the other students in her dorm in a territory war.

The Honorees:

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II, The kingdom on waves by M.T. Anderson

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Nation by Terry Pratchett

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

To find out more about the Printz award and the honorees see the YALSA award webpage!

Award Winning Books

Why not read some award winning books? On June 30th 2008 five authors were honored by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). Every year one author is awarded the Michael L. Printz Award. This is an award given for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature.

The biggest honor of the evening went to Geraldine McCaughrean for her psychological thriller The White Darkness.

Four other books were presented Printz Honor Awards. They represent a variety of genres and formats. Here they are:

Dreamquake: Book Two of the Dreamhunter Duet by Elizabeth Knox

One Whole and Perfect Day by Judith Clarke

Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins

Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephanie Hemphill


You can find out more about any of these titles or hear the acceptance speeches given by the authors by visiting the YALSA website at http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/printzaward/Printz.cfm