excitedNewbery Award
Honors:
Penny From Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
Rules by Cynthia Lord
Winner: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron (Read an excerpt)
** I highly recommend all three honor books, all of which are on my Best Books of 2006 list. I read The Higher Power of Lucky after it received the award.
While I enjoyed The Higher Power of Lucky to an extent, I enjoyed the runners-up quite a bit more. I think they were "meatier," and that's what I'm drawn towards: long, in-depth stories. Lucky left me wanting more: more details about her mama, her father (though I understand why there was so little about him, because he was 99% absentee dad), and Brigitte; more about the other residents in town (we didn't get to meet a good thirty of the townsfolk, and I wanted to feel that "everyone knows everyone" feeling, which I had growing up in a small town still much bigger than Lucky's); and simply more overall.
As far as the controversy over a clinical term: It had little to do with the plot and was simply technical. The book is completely G-rated.
All four titles had to do with families - not just blood relatives, but friends, both lifelong and new/unexpected; not just immediate family, but extended family (look at all of Penny's relatives!); not just mother, father, daughter, son, but guardians and others.
Printz Award
Honors:
Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
Surrender by Sonya Hartnett
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Winner: American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
** I have read three of the honors: Octavian Nothing (tolerated), Katherines (enjoyed, marked many quotes), The Book Thief (loved, placed on my personal all-time favorite books list). I have not yet read Surrender nor American Born Chinese.
Alex Awards
BOOK OF LOST THINGS
THE WHISTLING SEASON
EAGLE BLUE
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS
COLOR OF THE SEA
FLOOR OF THE SKY
BLIND SIDE: THE EVOLUTION OF A GAME
BLACK SWAN GREEN
THE WORLD MADE STRAIGHT
THE THIRTEENTH TALE
Schneider Family Awards
Deaf Musicians (children)
Rules by Cynthia Lord (middle school)
Small Steps by Louis Sachar (teen)
Coretta Scott King
Steptoe: Traci Jones for STANDING AGAINST THE WIND
Illustrator honor: JAZZ
Poetry for Young People: LANGSTON HUGHES
Winner: MOSES
Book Honor: The Road to Paris
Winner: COPPER SUN by Draper
Margaret Edwards: Lois Lowry
Arbuthnot Lecture: David Macaulay
Wilder: James Marshall
Carnegie: Knufflebunny by Mo Willems
Batchelder
Honors: LAST DRAGON, KILLER'S TEARS
Winner: PULL OF THE OCEAN
Sibert
Honors: FREEDOM RIDERS, QUEST FOR THE TREE KANGAROO, TO DANCE
Winner: TEAM MOON
Geisel
Honors: MOVE OVER ROVER, MERCY WATSON GOES FOR A RIDE, NOT A BOX
Winner: ZELDA AND VIY: THE RUNAWAYS
Caldecott
Winner: Flotsam, illustrated by David Wiesner
Honors:
Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet, written and illustrated by David McLimans
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Carole Boston Weatherford
Related Booklists: Newbery Awards, Best Books of 2006