The ALA Youth Media Awards were announced this morning. I'm late with this because of school but I did want to showcase the winners and compare my predictions. You can find a full list of winners herePura Belpre: My predictions
Predicted Author Award: The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan, illustrated by Peter Sis
Actual Winner: The Dreamer (yay my first awards post starts off with a correction prediction!)
Predicted Author Honors: Tortilla Sun by Jennifer Cervantes, The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez, When the Stars Go Blue by Caridad Ferrer, Efrain's Secret by Sofia Quintero and The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork
Actual Author Honors: Ole! Flamenco written and illustrated by George Ancona (see what I mean about picture books and MG/YA books being in the same cateogry??), The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba by Margarita Engle and 90 Miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Galbis
-While I knew Last Summer and Stars were wishful thinking, I'm really surprised about Tortilla Sun, The Red Umbrella and Efrain's Secret weren't honored. I thought for sure The Red Umbrella would receive an honor out of all my predictions. The Firefly Letters makes sense (Angela called it!) although I didn't think it was all that. I wanted more biographical details and less focus on poetry and Elena (one of the three women profiled, she's the wealthy one and that's the only thing that defined her).
Coretta Scott King Awards-My predictionsPredicted Winner: Three-way tie for me between Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper, One Crazy Summer and Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers
Actual Author Award Winner: One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (!)
Predicted Honors: Whichever of the book that should win but doesn't (i.e. if One Crazy Summer wins, Out of My Mind will get an honor, same with Lockdown or vice versa). Zora and Me by Victoria Bond and T. R. Simon, Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes and What Momma Left Me by Renee Watson.
Actual Author Award Honors: Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes, Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers, Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri (Jeannine called it!), illustrated by Randy Duburke.
-Not bad prediction or winner wise. Yes Walter Dean Myers has won or been honored loads of times but there's no historical fiction honored which I think is a good thing. I was pleasantly surprised to see Yummy win. I didn't dare hope that a graphic novel would win, but it was honored and that makes me so very happy. To top it all off, One Crazy Summer won and Ninth Ward received an honor! I'm over the moon :)
John Steptoe New Talent Author Award
Prediction: Good Fortune by Noni Carter
Actual Winner: Zora and Me by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon
-So I was off on this one. I'm disappointed. I haven't read Zora and Me yet but I was really rooting for 8th Grade Superzero. Nevertheless I'm happy that it was awarded to two authors who wrote about a lesser period of time in American history (and Zora Neale Hurston to boot).
A few other Awards & Books I want to read
Newberry Award Honor: Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus
Printz Award Winner: Shipbreaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Alex Award (adult books with YA appeal): Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok
Schneider Family Book Award: Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John (already wanted to read this one but I think a
Have you added any new books to your list after the awards? How dead-on (or off) were you?
