Lemony Snicket Honors Noble Librarians

At the upcoming American Library Association's annual summer conference, Daniel Handler himself will present the first ever

Lemony Snicket Prize

for Noble Librarians

                Faced With Adversity.

This award is described by Handler/ Lemony Snicket as follows:

      “It is of the opinion of Lemony Snicket, author, reader, and alleged malcontent, that librarians have suffered enough. 

      Therefore he is establishing an annual prize honoring a librarian who has faced adversity with integrity and dignity intact. . . . 

      It is Mr. Snicket’s hope, and the ALA’s, that the Snicket Prize will remind readers everywhere of the joyous importance of librarians and the trouble that is all too frequently unleashed upon them.”

For more info about this fabulous new prize, see this ALA Press Release.

Awards of Interest to Upper Schoolers & Other Readers

Many readers will have heard of the Newbery (yearly prize to the author of  to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children) and the Caldecott (awarded annually to the illustrator of the most distinguished American picture book for children. 

But there are a host of other annual awards managed by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) that a good source of books titles for older readers: Alex,

The following highlighted titles are part of the Roeper M/U Library Collection.

Alex Award  


Given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18

Morris Award

Honors a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens and celebrating impressive new voices in young adult literature.

< The 2014 Winner:


                                     Honor books> 

                                                         

Printz Award

For a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature.

< The 2014 Winner (on order)

               <Honor books>  

For more information about the YALSA awards and booklists, click here.



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Awards Galore: sources for finding your next great read

One of the highlights of the American Library Association's yearly midwinter meeting; where thousands of hardcore committed librarians from academic, public and school libraries across the country and around the world gather; is the Monday morning Youth Media Award announcements. Librarians, after several days of committee meetings and local restaurant meals, haul themselves out of their hotel beds, and gather to cheer on the winners and honorees of the well know and prestigious awards such as the Newbery medal and the Caldecott medal.




The Roeper M/U library currently has copies of the 2014 Newbery winner on hand: Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo, as well as one of the honor books: One Came Home by Amy Timberlake 




There are several other well-less-known awards that are good sources for finding great books to read. These include:

• The Belpre Award 

 "...presented annually to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth."

 The provocatively titled Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina won this year's medal. 

One of the honor books is The Lightening Dreamer by Margarita Engle.           

• The Batchelder Award 

"... given to the most outstanding children’s book originally published in a language other than English in a country other than the United States, and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States."

Mister Orange by Truus Matti is the 2014 award winner. 

• The Schneider Family Award

"...honor[s] an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences."

This year's winner: Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wei

All the aforementioned titles are available at the Roeper M/U Library (unless someone else got to them first!)

Happy reading!  - aae

2014 Longlist of Contenders for Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction

So...many...books... Each year in the United States, hundreds of thousands of titles are published, in print and digital format (ebook and audio.) The magic of technology has enabled an explosion in self publishing as well, of which the major publishing houses pick up and republish a fraction.

How does one decide what to read next? Certainly word of mouth from friends and smart acquaintances can be helpful, especially if they share your literary taste. Belonging to a book club that meets monthly for social as well as intellectual sustenance can be useful to push one beyond their reading comfort zone. The New York Times Book Review and Publishers Weekly are also sources for hot-off-the-press suggestions, as well as the former's best seller lists. Since 1950, The National Book Foundation's annual awards have sought to "celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of great writing in America."  The ALA Youth Media Awards, including the prestigious Caldecott and Newbery (the former award recently celebrated its 75th anniversary; the latter is going on 100 years.)

There's a relatively new resource in town, an award born just a few years ago:

Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction

"...[E]stablished by Carnegie Corporation of New York and ALA in 2012 to recognize the best fiction and nonfiction books written for adult readers and published in the U.S. the previous year. The Medals and the lists leading up to the selection of the winners serve as a guide to selecting quality reading material.

The Andrew Carnegie Medals are the first single-book awards for adult titles given by the American Library Association and reflect the expert judgment and insight of library professionals who work closely with adult readers".

The purpose of the award is, in part, "recognition of Andrew Carnegie’s deep belief in the power of books and learning to change the world."

Check out the longlist of contenders for 2014, 44 titles selected for consideration by the super-stars of the library book review world (including the marvelous Nancy Pearl. 

Pew Research Center Report: E-Reading

Though the recent PEW report documents that e-reading is increasing along with e-reader ownership (kind of a no brainer) it also finds:

• Most American adults prefer print books over e-books.  
• 70 percent of Americans read print books last year, but only 4%read exclusively e-books. 
• The average number of books adults read or listened in 2013 was 12.
• The median/midpoint number of books read was 5 for 2013. 
• 3 in 10 adults adults read an e-book last year.
• Half of American adults now own an e-reader or tablet, a 7% increase from 2012.