Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day are often confused and it’s frustrating that it perpetuates even with the gentle reminders. Inspired by today’s honoring the fallen I wanted to highlight several military stories that feature the death of soldiers both fictional and true.
With the one of the biggest nights in sports happening tonight, I wanted to highlight twelve teen sports books from the more nontraditional sports rather than the mainstream ones with an inspirational one-liner.
Monday was the Youth Media Awards presentation in Baltimore, Maryland at the American Library Association’s LibLearnX (midwinter) conference. It is the yearly celebration of literature for children and teens. Committees work for a year or more to choose award winners in categories from the Sibert to Giesel to Odyssey to Alex. Don’t know what each of them is about? You can learn more on the website including watching the award ceremony or reading the press release for all of the honorees and winners.
I had the honor of being on the Alex Award through YALSA this year which meant we were reading loads of adult titles to find the best titles that have teen appeal. We create a top ten and will have a long list of an additional twenty titles. The long list will be published shortly. This meant that the ALA conference was extra special in being able to bond in person with most of the committee members (including sharing a meal while we made author calls followed by a champagne toast). Yet it’s also about learning. Over three days of programming, I learned a tremendous amount from librarians across the country whether it was in conversations, presentations, or in line. And there were the unique and inspiring speeches of the recipients of the I Love My Librarian award that kickstarted the event on Friday night amid a Baltimore surprise– snow!
While the librarian awards began the conference, the book awards ended the conference with the best bookends anyone could ask for. Sitting in the seats reserved for the committee, you’re surrounded by the other committees with their fun accessories (looking at you Odyssey with your matching white headphones) and cool slogans (read: “For the weird ones” on the back of the Printz tshirts) but I thought our Alex shirts, designed by a committee member and executed by another, were a cut above. Switching out the laurel for hot peppers, the tag line was “is this too spicy?” *chef’s kiss*
Whether watchers or listeners were in the room or across the country watching online, you could feels the vibrations of cheers near and far. It’s a special moment for the creators of these amazing stories. Without them, there would be no celebration. There’s a cacophony of excitement from their publishers and editors, their family, and anyone who read and loved their work.
It’s a magical, magical event. If you have the chance to be there live, do it. Or, you can be like one of my favorite colleagues and rally your elementary school in the gymnasium with their socks, and shirts, and posters rooting on their favorites several states away. Either way, cheers were heard near and far.
I love the week between Christmas and New Year not only because I have it off since I work in education, but because I get to read because it’s vacation. Plenty of audiobook listening when cleaning and organizing plus plenty of tea sipping print book time. So when I saw a blogger @epiblogue’s Instagram post:
I felt seen. It’s a fun series of ladies lounging and reading their books. This one was my favorite and yes, this is exactly what “that week between Christmas & NYE” looks like for me minus the extra thick frock and fan, however I do have a chaise and a book. Endless books. This week has included Duel by the Bagleys, Tremors in the Blood: Murder, Obsession, and the Birth of the Lie Detector by Katwala, Ruptured by Rossmassler Fritz, Mascot by Waters and Sorrel, Crazy Food Truck by Ogaki, All the Fighting Parts by Sawyerr, Home Made: A Story of Grief, Groceries, Showing Up- and What We Make When We Make Dinner by Hauck, New Year’s Kiss by Matthews, The Shadow Prince by Durham, and 100 Unforgettable Dresses by Rubenstein.
Nothing that replace the feeling of learning about a new topic while reading. The special way that an author meticulously researches, bears their soul, and creates fluidity with factual information. It’s why nonfiction is my jam.
There is always overlap on lists– of course there are several graphic novels on this list that could have easily knocked off others on the YA graphic novel list but again, there are too many amazing books this year to limit ourselves. You’ll see iconic YA nonfiction authors like Steve Sheinkin and Don Brown, but you also have vivid memoirs and American history.
It’s that time of year again! I’ll have a week’s worth of posts about best books of 2023, minus books for adults because they’ve had to be secret this year because of the committee work I’m doing.
As always, my books are always based on the publication year. So these are truly my favorites of the year published IN the calendar year, not what I read this year which could include oldies or even galleys of future books.
Tonight I’ll be sharing picture books.
What do they all have in common? A beauty in their storytelling and a powerful message be it nonfiction or imaginary. Either way I could spend my time staring at each page or going back to pour over the words.
One of my favorite booktalks each year is for the AP Language classes because it’s all nonfiction and each student has to have a different book than every other student across the multiple classes. And my opening lines to start the booktalk each year always have to do with curiosity; essentially, permission to love what you love without fear of judgement by others.
Serial killers? Sure!
Psychology? Done!
Mongol Empire? We’ll make it work!
Animals? I’m your woman!
I use the example quite frequently that little kids love to read about animals and you don’t have to grow out of it. I haven’t. I’m more into animal books as an adult than I ever was as a kid. I recently read a 2023 book that got me thinking about my love of these types of stories. Here are my recommendations.
The day before Thanksgiving I turned the page to chapter 40 (a bookish pun I couldn’t resist). Coming up on the day, I thought about the fun little things I could do to make it special because I was excited about moving to another age bracket. So I came up with a list of 40 books that I would reread this year– generally books I own because books I own are books that I had previously read and knew I needed to own.
But I admit that I rarely reread books. It’s either a committee assignment that forces a book reread, an upcoming author visit, or in the case of Saga, a comfort read during the pandemic. It’s still rare. Yet, I wanted to recapture the feelings I had years or decades ago with this retrospective over the course of this upcoming year.
These books have changed my thinking, warmed my soul, or hearken back to another time in my life. I’ll be updating my journey periodically on Instagram. Here were the books I settled on.
Last year I was training for a 15K in the summer which would lead to running my first half marathon in the fall. Eight years ago I would have laughed at you if you told me I was going to be a runner. And seven years ago, I would have laughed (as I did my friends and colleagues) if you told me you listened to audiobooks while running. Because I was decidedly *not* a runner, I could only imagine getting pumped up to run with music.
Fast forward to last year’s training and I couldn’t imagine running WITHOUT an audiobook. I’m sure there were mornings where I ran farther because I didn’t want to stop reading. And even now, now that we’re also dog owners again, the daily walks also include audiobooks if I’m not walking with another family member in addition to any running I do. Here are a few of the memorable audiobook runs and walks.
This was my first ever audiobook run. You can never go wrong with Steve Sheinkin’s nonfiction.
My first Colleen Hoover book was this audiobook while running. Spicy!
Nugent’s Little Cruelties was so complicated, deliciously messy, and screwed up (in all the best ways) that I remember my eyes bugging out a little while I was running. What was I listening to?!?!
Beautiful storytelling and a vivid setting combined to immerse me in a mystery that absolutely took me to another time and place. I definitely ran longer than I had planned to keep reading.
This poetry collection includes nature sounds while the the multiple narrators share the poetry and while you’re actually walking in nature, it was captivating.
When books are memoirs, you need to have an audiobook narrated by the author. This one was not only perfectly executed as an audiobook, but it also spoke to me on a deeper level that I ended up buying the book to own in addition to listening to it a second time.
I don’t have a crystal ball and I don’t have visions, but I do have my friend and co-presenter Stacey, dozens of books read, and lists to forecast for the upcoming Youth Media Awards.
Last night I spent several hours with librarians, reading teachers, and other specialists talking about the Youth Media Awards and putting together predictions. It included a Kahoot to open, a break for dinner, then a K-12 discussion of books to put on our radars or preliminary thoughts of titles that have been read from the group. It was a good, bookish night that even after a day of work is uplifting and enriching.
We’ll follow up virtually in January to discuss the winners, honors, and losers.
What’s on your list?
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Readers Be Advised 