ALA's Midwinter Conference

Every year the American Library Association, ALA, has a midwinter conference. Usually held in January, these conferences provide many seminars, courses, and award shows for the members of ALA, educators, and authors. One of the most anticipated segments of the midwinter conference is the announcement of the ALSC, Association of Library Service to Children, and the YALSA, Young Adult Library Services Association, Award Winners. Awards that are received include, the John Newbery Medal for children's literature, the Michael L. Printz Award for young adult literature, the Randolph Caldecott Medal for illustrators, and the Coretta Scott King Award for African American authors and illustrators. I am most excited about the Newberry and Printz awards, because the winning books best fit my interest reading level.

I have decided to include the Newbery and Printz winners and honors (runner-ups) on this post, so you, the readers of The Bookshelf, will be aware of some of the most prestigious books to read this year.

John Newbery Medal Winner and Honors:

• Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool: WINNER, Twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker is the daughter of a drifter who, in the summer of 1936, sends her to stay with an old friend in Manifest, Kansas, where he grew up, and where she hopes to find out some things about his past.

• Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm: HONOR, In 1935, when her mother gets a job housekeeping for a woman who does not like children, eleven-year-old Turtle is sent to stay with relatives she has never met in far away Key West, Florida.

• Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus: HONOR, Fast-paced and full of adventure, this fascinating, true story is based on a real incident that occurred in 1841, and follows a young Japanese boy as he travels from Japan to America and back to Japan.

• Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman: HONOR, Welcoming her readers into the “wild, enchanted park” that is the night, Joyce Sidman has elegantly crafted twelve poems rich in content and varied in format. Companion prose pieces about nocturnal flora and fauna are as tuneful and graceful as the poems. This collection is “a feast of sound and spark.”

  

• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia: HONOR, The voices of sisters Delphine, Vonetta and Fern sing in three-part harmony in this wonderfully nuanced, humorous novel set in 1968 Oakland, Calif. One crazy summer, the three girls find adventure when they are sent to meet their estranged poet-mother Cecile, who prints flyers for the Black Panthers.

Michael L. Printz Award Winner and Honors:

• Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi: WINNER, Near a drowned New Orleans ravaged by hurricanes and global warming, Nailer and his young crew eke out a meager existence by scavenging materials on the ship-littered coast.

• Stolen by Lucy Christopher: HONOR, While on a layover at Bangkok Airport, 16-year-old Gemma, the unknowing object of a long obsession, is kidnapped by Ty and stolen away to the Australian Outback.

• Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S King: HONOR, Vera Dietz wants to be ignored, but the ghost of her ex-best friend won’t leave her alone in this dark comedy that examines relationships, identity, grief and flowcharts.

• Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick: HONOR, In this grim, chilling story set in the Arctic Circle, Sig finds his father’s frozen corpse as human predator Wolff arrives seeking retribution and a hidden Gold Rush treasure.

• Nothing by Janne Teller: HONOR, Pierre Anthon’s nihilism causes his classmates to begin a search for life’s meaning in this bold, unsettling parable translated from Danish.
  

There you have it! I would highly suggest clicking the link on the title for each book; it provides a much more descriptive summary, especially with the last one, Nothing. That summary was the best short one I could find for this modern-day Lord of the Flies. Nothing is an amazing book, different, but most certainly amazing. I plan to post a review on it soon. My personal favorite on these two lists is Please Ignore Vera Dietz. I read it about a week ago, and it is, so far, the best book I've read this year (and once again the short summary does not suffice this fantastic piece of literature). On my to-read list: Moon Over Manifest, One Crazy Summer, and Stolen.

I hope I've provided you with useful suggestions as to what to read this new year, and that this extra long post has not scared some of you away. :)

Best Books of 2010

It's that time of the year again. The time that I publish my annual "Best Books of [insert year]" list. I have included my list in this post, so you, the readers of The Bookshelf, can see what I enjoyed this year, and perhaps get suggestions of what you might want to read in 2011.

The best book that I read this year was The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I did a review of The Book Thief earlier in the year, and it is one of the best books that I have ever read.

Onto the list...

Notice the asterisk. As it says at the bottom of the document, this means that all of these books were read in 2010, but not necessarily in 2010. So, that explains why Catching Fire, book 2 of The Hunger Games, which was published in 2009, is on the list (It got second place!).

Which brings me to the second symbol on the list: the dagger. The dagger represents that only one book, per series, per year could make it onto the list. So, that explains why Catching Fire is on the list and Mockingjay, the final book of The Hunger Games is not (they were both, however, excellent reads).



Sorry... the spacing is a little off. It was changed slightly, because I had to move it from Word to Blogger.

If you're interested in other best book lists, here's a few: Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Publisher's Weekly, Entertainment Weekly, and The New York Times.

2010 has been a fantastic year for The Bookshelf. Here's to a new, joyful, book-filled 2011!

The Lost Hero: Greek Gods Galore

This past week I finished read The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. Riordan is the author of The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, which I highly recommend (but don't see the movie- it was awful), so I had high expectations for this book. Fortunately, my expectations were not let down.

For those of you have read the Percy Jackson series, this book takes place only a few months after the final book. However, you do not have to read the Percy Jackson series before reading this book. The Lost Hero introduces all new characters, who discover they are demigods: the offspring of a mortal and a Greek God. The three main characters, Jason, Piper, and Leo are whisked off to Camp Half-Blood, a training area and school for young demigods. The camp is disgruntled, because a prophecy has been predicted by the camp's oracle. Nobody is exactly sure how to decipher the prophecy, but one thing's for sure: Jason, Piper, and Leo have to complete a quest to help fulfill the prophecy. From that point on, the three friends have to travel around the world, on a flying, metal dragon, named Festus (Latin for "happy"). I can't tell you exactly why they have to travel the globe, because that would be a major spoiler. I can tell you, however, that Percy Jackson is missing in this book, as in lost. Nobody knows where the hero is, and his disappearance ties in with the quest.

This was a great book. Rick Riordan did a great job at keeping the same mood and tone form his previous, phenomenal books. As always, his research must have been very extensive. There is a lot of accurate information about the places the characters travel to (Grand Canyon, NY, Quebec, Detroit, Oakland, Chicago, San Francisco, etc.), the Greek gods (he introduced many new gods, many of whom I'd never heard of until reading this book), and Roman gods (yes, there are also Roman gods, however I can't say anymore, or I'll be giving away a major spoiler). I admire his work, and will be reading his Egyptian mythology book, The Red Pyramid, next.


Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

National Book Festival 2010

Last Saturday, September 25th, I visited the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. The National Book Festival is an annual event, that has occurred every September since 2001. It takes place on the National Mall, a big stretch of grassy land between the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol (no, it's not a shopping mall). There was numerous tents spread out across the mall, each serving a different purpose. There were huge tents that were titled with a genre of fiction (or nonfiction), like Poetry and Prose, Mystery and Thrillers, and Teens and Children. At these tents you could listen to some of your favorite authors talk about themselves and their writings. I was able to listen to Suzanne Collins, the critically acclaimed and internationally best-selling author of The Hunger Games trilogy. Her tent was PACKED with eager fans (we probably created a fire hazard). I enjoyed hearing Suzanne Collins speak, and was even more excited to have her sign (stamp) my books.

At the Capitol end of the mall, there was twenty little tents where authors sat and signed their novels for excited fans. I went to the Festival last year, so my family and I were prepared for the long, no not long, ginormously (yes, spell check, it is a word. your little red line will not defeat me) long lines. There was an estimate 130,000 plus people at the Festival this year, and it seemed like every single one of them was in line to get their copy of Mockingjay signed by Suzanne Collins. Luckily, I got in line three hours early and was second in line! Unfortunately, due to a carpel tunnel injury, Collins was unable to sign her books. But, she did have an ultra, extra-special stamp designed especially for her book tour. You could hardly tell that it wasn't the real thing (see photo below)!

The National Book Festival also had tents with games for little kids, and a big book sales tent that sold books by the authors that attended the Festival. There was row, upon row of copies of Mockingjay. You can see for yourself in the photos below.

me, with my signed (stamped) Mockingjay

Mockingjays!

Suzanne Collins

End of the Week Update

I know. It has been FOREVER since I last posted. I have been über-busy lately with the first two weeks of school, homework, and a fever that I'm getting over. However, just because I haven't been posting on The Bookshelf, doesn't mean I haven't been reading books. Since last posting, I have read two books and have started another. I would write a review for the two books that I have read, but they are both sequels (well, actually one's a companion) to other books, and they would reveal spoilers. I have, however, included ratings for the two books that I read.

Mockingjay

The first book I read was Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. It is the third and final book in The Hunger Games Trilogy. I talked about the first book in the series, The Hunger Games, in a previous post. The first two books in series were phenomenal, and the third was, if possible, even better.

Mockingjay Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

Scumble

I also read Scumble by Ingrid Law. This is the second book in a series about people who get a special power, called a "savvy", when they're thirteen. The first book in the series, Savvy, was one of the best books I read in 2009, and Scumble is one of the best that I have read this year. One reason why I really like this series is because it takes place in a small town in Wyoming. I enjoy reading about the small town cultures and traditions, and how they effect newcomers and tourists.

Scumble Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

Clockwork Angel

I am currently reading Clockwork Angel by Casandra Clare. I have included the publisher's synopsis to explain what the book is about, because I have just started reading it. This book has received many starred reviews and accolades, and I plan to review it myself once I finish it.

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What's more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa's power for his own.

Once again, I must apologize for the length of time between posts. Look forward to more reviews, recommendations, and polls in the near future. Thank you.