Neil Gaiman is the master of the new tween ghost story and is now also the winner of the Newbery award and has a new movie coming out in just a week. What a whirlwind.

From the ALA site:

A delicious mix of murder, fantasy, humor and human longing, the tale of Nobody Owens is told in magical, haunting prose. A child marked for death by an ancient league of assassins escapes into an abandoned graveyard, where he is reared and protected by its spirit denizens.

“A child named Nobody, an assassin, a graveyard and the dead are the perfect combination in this deliciously creepy tale, which is sometimes humorous, sometimes haunting and sometimes surprising,” said Newbery Committee Chair Rose V. Treviño.

To purchase this book see the One Book, Two Book sidebar: Award Winners.

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Neil Gaiman Wins Newbery

The finalists are:

• A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce, published by Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic;
• Graceling by Kristin Cashore, published by Harcourt/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt;
• Absolute Brightness by James Lecesne, published by HarperTeen/Laura Geringer Books;
• Madapple by Christina Meldrum, published by Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books; and
• Me, the Missing, and the Dead by Jenny Valentine, published by HarperTeen

“After much discussion, the committee has put together quite a list for this first year of the award,” said Bonnie Kunzel, committee chair. “We hope librarians and teachers all over the country will enjoy these books themselves and share them with their teen readers.”

ALA

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Morris Award Finalists

The list is divided in to give age groups, from infant to ages 12 and up and contains an annotated bibliography of librarian recommended reading. There is also a Classics section.

“One of our goals as librarians is to provide all children with quality reading materials,” said ALSC President Pat Scales. “By teaming up with Oprah’s Book Club, we’re able to connect with a wide range of people we may not have reached otherwise. Whether children come into our library or are given a book from our recommended reading list, we are helping our youngest and most important patrons.”

The list was compiled by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) Quicklists Consulting Committee.

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Oprah’s Kids Reading List Announced

Every teen and every parents should register for Teen Read Week (you could win great prizes) but you can also learn tons about teen readers and books!

Click here to register for Teen Read Week.

Become a member of YALSA.

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Register for Teen Read Week!

The Caldecott Medal began in 1938 and is given annually by the American Library Association for the most distinguished picture book published in the previous year in the United States. It is announced at the Annual ALA Mid-Winter Convention and awarded at the convention.

The medal was named for Nineteenth-Century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott.

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What is the Caldecott Medal?

And Tango Makes Three, a book about two male penguins parenting an egg topped the ALA’s list of most challenged books in 2006 by parents and administrators, due to homosexual themes. In fact, four of the top ten books were challenged due to homosexual content.A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school, requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.The 10 Most Challenged Books of 2006 are:

1, And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell;

2, Gossip Girl series by Cecily Von Ziegesar;

3, Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor;

4, The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler;

5, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison;

6, Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz;

7, Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher;

8, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky;

9, Beloved by Toni Morrison;

10, The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier.

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Banned Book Week