The NBA nominations are out and the Young People's Literature category is rocking it:
Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith
(Henry Holt)
Phillip Hoose, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
David Small, Stitches (W. W. Norton & Co.)
Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic)
Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped (HarperTeen/HarperCollins)
LAINI! WOOT! RITA! WOOT!
I actually haven't gotten to Lips Touch: Three Times (Amazon
| Indiebound), but I know I will love it because Laini Taylor is an amazing person and a seriously amazing writer–her Blackbringer and Silksinger quickly became two of my favorite middle grade fantasies EVER.
And Rita William-Garcia is yet another awesome Vermont College faculty member to nab a much-deserved NBA nomination; Jumped (Amazon
| Indiebound) is absolutely brilliant and it makes me wriggle with joy to see it get this kind of attention.
The rest of the nommed books look great, too, actually*. What an awesome job the judging panel did; kudos: Kathi Appelt, Coe Booth, Carolyn Coman, Nancy Werlin, and Gene Luen Yang.
Oh, and, yeah, the rest of the categories are interesting too.
*Seeing from Twitter that David Small's Stitches may not actually be a children's/YA title. WEIRD. Updated: Aha! Ron Hogan investigates and finds out that Norton considers it a cross-over title and entered it for contention in this category.
Having read both “Lips Touch” and “Charles and Emma” I’d love to know how anyone could possible judge those books against each other – except subjectively as in “I liked this one more than that one”. (And that goes the same for the others.)
Why on earth do they keep lumping fiction and NF together in this category? It’s crazy.
I was expecting “Stitches” to be on an award shortlist, but was surprised to see it categorized for young readers. It’s fantastic, the best memoir I’ve ever read. It should win based on literary merit. But if the judges take a young audience into consideration, that might hurt its chances.