{"id":43223,"date":"2024-01-24T18:33:49","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T23:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43223"},"modified":"2024-01-24T18:34:36","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T23:34:36","slug":"singing-the-praises-of-good-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43223","title":{"rendered":"Singing the Praises of Good Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s Book Award Season!<\/p>\n

Monday was the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards<\/a>, and it’s a time to celebrate Book Joy!<\/p>\n

What’s more, yesterday I spent five hours online deliberating with the committee to select this year’s Mathical Book Prize<\/a> winners (announced February 21), and I’m also in charge of getting some annotations in for the zero to five reading group of Capitol Choices<\/a> and overseeing the Young Adult Speculative Fiction judges choosing a Cybils Award winner<\/a> (announced February 14). So awards are on my mind!<\/p>\n

Now, I put a huge number of books on hold Monday. And was feeling smug that I already have several honorees checked out. But I wanted to take a moment to celebrate some of the books I’ve already read and already love.<\/p>\n

First, I was on the Morris Award committee this year and am super happy that now I can post the reviews I wrote of our winner and finalists. (I will try to get them posted within the next week or so.) Almost all of them won other awards, and I was so proud! So I have to celebrate them first:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Rez Ball<\/a><\/em>, by Byron Graves
\nOur William C. Morris Award Winner<\/a>!
\nAmerican Indian Youth Literature Award Winner, Young Adults
\nCYBILS Young Adult Fiction Finalist<\/a>
\nSonderbooks Stand-out<\/a>: #5 More Teen Fiction<\/p>\n

Saints of the Household<\/em>, by Ari Tison
\nWilliam C. Morris Award Finalist<\/a>
\nWalter Award Winner, Teen Category<\/a>
\nPura Belpr\u00e9 Award Winner, Young Adult Author<\/a>
\nSonderbooks Stand-out<\/a>: #4 More Teen Fiction<\/p>\n

Once There Was<\/em>, by Kiyash Monsef
\nWilliam C. Morris Award Finalist<\/a>
\nOdyssey Award Honor<\/a> (for the audiobook)
\nSonderbooks Stand-out<\/a>: #3 Children’s Speculative Fiction<\/p>\n

All the Fighting Parts<\/em>, by Hannah V. Sawyerr
\nWilliam C. Morris Award Finalist<\/a>
\nWalter Award Honor, Teen Category<\/a>
\nCYBILS Finalist, Novels in Verse<\/a>
\nSonderbooks Stand-out<\/a>: #8 More Teen Fiction<\/p>\n

She Is a Haunting<\/em>, by Trang Thanh Tran
\nWilliam C. Morris Award Finalist<\/a>
\nSonderbooks Stand-out<\/a>: #9 Teen Speculative Fiction<\/p>\n

For the other awards, the one that simply filled me with joy was the beautiful book Big<\/em>, by Vashti Harrison, winning the Randolph Caldecott Medal for most distinguished picture book of the year. Everyone, read this wonderful book! Read it to your children!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Big<\/a><\/em>, by Vashti Harrison
\nRandolph Caldecott Medal Winner<\/a>
\nCoretta Scott King Honor, both for Author and Illustrator
\nNational Book Award for Young People’s Literature Finalist
\nSonderbooks Stand-out<\/a>: #2 Picture Books
\n(Number one was my personal favorite for quirky reasons, but this was the book I wanted to win the Caldecott — and it did!)<\/p>\n

Another super joyful moment with recognition for a book of my heart was this one:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Simon Sort of Says<\/a><\/em>
\nJohn Newbery Medal Honor<\/a>
\nNational Book Award for Young People’s Literature Longlist
\nSchneider Family Book Award Honor, Middle Grades
\nCYBILS Middle Grade Fiction Finalist<\/a>
\nSonderbooks Stand-out<\/a>: #1 More Children’s Fiction<\/p>\n

And more favorites that picked up wins:<\/p>\n

Mexikid<\/em>, by Pedro Martin
\nJohn Newbery Medal Honor<\/a>
\nOdyssey Award Honor<\/a> (for the audiobook)
\nPura Belpr\u00e9 Award Winner, for both Illustrator and Children’s Author<\/a>
\nCYBILS Elementary\/Middle Grade Graphic Novels Finalist<\/a>
\nSonderbooks Stand-out<\/a>: #8 Children’s Nonfiction<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A First Time for Everything<\/a><\/em>, by Dan Santat
\nNational Book Award for Young People’s Literature Winner
\nCYBILS Elementary\/Middle Grade Graphic Novels Finalist<\/a>
\nSonderbooks Stand-out<\/a>: #1 Children’s Nonfiction<\/p>\n

In Every Life<\/a><\/em>, by Marla Frazee
\nRandolph Caldecott Medal Honor<\/a><\/p>\n

Remember<\/a><\/em>, by Joy Harjo, illustrated by Michaela Goode
\nAmerican Indian Youth Literature Award Honor, Picture Books
\nSonderbooks Stand-out<\/a>: #3 Picture Books<\/p>\n

The Lost Year<\/a><\/em>, by Katherine Marsh
\nNational Book Award for Young People’s Literature Finalist
\nSonderbooks Stand-out<\/a>: #4 Children’s Fiction<\/p>\n

Warrior Girl Unearthed<\/a><\/em>, by Angeline Boulley
\nAmerican Indian Youth Literature Award Honor
\nSonderbooks Stand-out<\/a>: #3 More Teen Fiction<\/p>\n

Hidden Systems<\/a><\/em>, by Dan Nott
\nNational Book Award for Young People’s Literature Longlist
\nSonderbooks Stand-out<\/a>: #3 Teen Nonfiction<\/p>\n

America Redux<\/a><\/em>, by Ariel Aberg-Riger
\nYALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist
\nSonderbooks Stand-out<\/a>: #7 Teen Nonfiction<\/p>\n

Now, because of reading for the Morris Award in 2023, I did not read widely this year. So this is a small sampling of award winners, but I am very sure that many more will show up on my 2024 Sonderbooks Stand-outs list.<\/p>\n

Happy reading!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s Book Award Season! Monday was the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards, and it’s a time to celebrate Book Joy! What’s more, yesterday I spent five hours online deliberating with the committee to select this year’s Mathical Book Prize winners (announced February 21), and I’m also in charge of getting some annotations in for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,411],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-award-winners","category-celebration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43223"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43225,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43223\/revisions\/43225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}