Because my co-host Jennifer Studebaker and I have to travel to San Diego the first weekend in January for different library conferences, the only day that would have worked was January 1st - obviously, out of the question. As much as I love debating the literary merits of young adult novels, the only things I will be doing on the first day of the new year are writing up my annual list of New Year's resolutions, visiting with my friends Gary and Allan, watching Joe Paterno school Urban Meyer and later willing Wisconsin to beat the Horned Frogs (enough, already with your undefeated season - y'all never could have beaten Oregon or Auburn!).
Jennifer and I thanked our awesome attendees for supporting our event. We acknowledged the hardships of not having Winter Break to finish a 10 title book list and the taking up of one of the few remaining weekend holiday shopping days. We begged to be forgiven. I offered the olive branch of research I had done the week before (in the form of an Excel spreadsheet) that showed a January workshop date would be guaranteed for the next six years even if the co-hosts needed to attend Midwinter (you know, say, if someone had selection committee meetings to attend and major book awards to help announce ;)
The workshop participants (school librarians, public librarians, and teens) broke into small groups and spent two hours discussing and then voting on the book that they felt was the best young adult title for the 2010 publishing year.
The ten pre-selected titles were:
They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: the Birth of an American Terrorist Group -
Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Black Hole Sun - David Macinnis Gill
Wicked Girls: a Novel of the Salem Witch Trials - Stephanie Hemphill
The Water Seeker - Kimberly Willis Holt
A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend - Emily Horner
Finnikin of the Rock - Melina Marchetta
Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty - G. Neri ; illustrated by Randy DuBurk
Revolver - Marcus Sedgwick
Last Summer of the Death Warriors - Francisco X. Stork
Nothing - Janne Teller
Amazingly, each small group had a different #1. Once every group had detailed the reasons why they selected a particular title as their top winner, the floor was opened up for individual advocating on a book's behalf. During the discussion of the novels, I was really struck by how many of the titles dealt with the power of group dynamics:
Bartoletti's book exposed the group dynamics involved in the spread of klan groups across the south during Reconstruction.
Gill's book featured a band of mercenary soldiers who are governed by a code of ethics.
Hemphill's historical novel in verse contemplated the power of girl groups.
Holt's book dealt with disparate groups of people coming together to make new families.
Horner's contemporary love story included a group of kids struggling to stage a musical and all the inherent drama (both literal and theatrical) that involves.
Neri's graphic novel showed the terrible price paid by an 11-year-old wanting to belong a group and willing to become a gang member to fit in somewhere.
And, of course, the unsettling actions a group of 13-year-olds undertake in Teller's book.
There was passionate debate about the fact that Teller's book is a translation (Does the translator deserve any credit for how powerful a read this book is? Once a book is translated, can the book still be considered solely the author's work?).
Several people lobbied for Revolver - pointing out how brilliantly the author matched the spare setting of the book with equally sparse language. I'll have to say, the lobbying moved the book up several positions on my list of ten but failed to change my vote for #1 which ending up being our winner.
The 2011 Mock Printz Award goes to:
Nothing by Janne Teller
Honor Books:
Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick
Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
Even though I prefer to have Mock Printz in January, the upside to hosting the event in December is that I will be able to spend this Winter Break reading all the finalist titles for the William C. Morris YA Debut Novel Award and the Excellence in Nonfiction Award.
I am headed to ALA's Midwinter Meeting to help host YALSA's Midwinter Institute: "Teen Services and the Whole Library Experience." Seeing Neil Gaiman interviewed by Nancy Pearl and attending the Youth Media Awards in person will definitely be the high points of my trip.
Here's hoping I don't have to rush the stage if some undeserving title ends up the winner!
