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Welcome. I hope that you have begun work on your goals. Don't know what a Golden Coffee Cup is? Check here. Today, folks, take this high five that’s includes ‘a princess for a day’ motif.

Laura Amy Schlitz –Rob Carr/Associated Press

Laura Amy Schlitz was the 2008 Newbery Winner for her novel Good Masters, Sweet Ladies. This is a beautifully rendered book. Each word is so carefully chosen and artfully placed. I’ve heard lots of teaching about voice, and I totally side with folks that voice is about the words. It’s about creating a world of words that gives life to your book. It’s poetic and lively. It’s wild and woolly. Your word choice is going to set your story apart. Get in there today and improve the word choice. Spice the lazy walks, pedantic sunrises, and boring, bland conversation. Go through a current work and choose 20 better words. Hey this applies for artist too. Make 20 better lines today. Voice will spring forth because only you would have chosen this creative expression for this story.

Yay, for hard word! Mmmm, coffee... Read the rest of this post

Oh good. Monica has begun to use her blog in a Newbery-related way. This is good news. It's not everyday you get to read the words of someone on such a committee as that. Not that Monica is going to give her thoughts on the current crop of literature. Last year's... let's say brouhaha, has left her disinclined to draw undue attention to thoughts on the matter. Instead, she prefers to bring up topics like this one posted just this week.

"What do you think about animal fantasies? Is there one out this year you think we should be considering for the Newbery? Or is there one we should NOT be considering?"

Don't look at me like that. Yeah yeah yeah, it's March. It's March and half the books coming out in 2007 haven't even been published. It's March and half the books coming out in 2007 haven't even been published AND making any kind of a prediction this early in the game can only lead to tears. And dark horses win all the time and a person could lose their life savings betting on the big kidlit awards and on and on and on.

So. That said. Here are my buzz-worthy thoughts thus far:

First of all, I'm hearing good things about Gary Schmidt's Wednesday Wars. Three different people I've talked to have been cooing over it. Remember Gary Schmidt? This was the fellow who won a Newbery Honor for Lizzie Bright and Buckminster Boy (a book that many feel should have won the Award fair and square that year). Well Wednesday Wars isn't out until May and I haven't been able to track anyone down who has a copy they're willing to share, but you can bet it'll be at the top of my list when I DO find it.

Recently I finished The Baptism by Sheila Moses and I am happy to report that she is in fine form. If you read The Legend of Buddy Bush then you know that, yellow telephone notwithstanding, Moses is a great writer. Her Return of Buddy Bush was a pale sequel to the original, but with The Baptism she's back and better than ever. I have a quibble as to whether or not it stands on its own without the other two books, but I've faith that it'll win over a reader here and there.

Emma Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis is going to be one of those books that goes any which way. It's definitely a contender in terms of dark horse candidates. The cover does it no favors, but the story is certainly strong and the writing good. I'm not sure how it'll fare later in the season, however.

And then, of course, there's good old The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick which hasn't a snowball's chance in hell. A wonderful, fun book that I'm definitely going to make my homeschooler book group read the minute I have a chance, but it hasn't a prayer in terms of standing on its own without relying on its pictures. Plus the writing, while fun, isn't extraordinary. If there were any justice in this world it would win a Caldecott, but I'm not sure the committee will see it that way. Then again, Roger Sutton's on that committee and he's professed to love the title....

I love me my Faeries of Dreamdark by Laini Taylor and wish it could win just a little something-something, but that something-something will not be the Newbery. I figure I'll rally my forces to push for it to win the Fantasy category in next year's Cybils.

And yourself? Read anything top-notch lately?

Once upon a time I was on the 2007 Newbery committee and it was a lovely time. But I was a blogger and I liked to write reviews of potential contenders so as to post them on my site. ALSC, as it turned out, had not had to contend with this issue before. So it is with great pleasure that I turn your attention to a recent School Library Journal article Should Members of Book Award Committees Be Allowed to Blog? All sorts of hotsy-totsy topics come up in it. Roger Sutton's threat to quit the Caldecott committee if he couldn't blog. What happened when someone thought that Nina Lindsay was on the 2007 and not the 2008 committee. The final decision . . .

Let us all exhale a sigh of relief then. As Mr. Sutton said, "calmer heads have prevailed."

Now to go repost all my review from 2006. Oog.

Thanks to Educating Alice for the link.