2006 ALA Awards

And The Winners Are...

• Michael L. Printz Award
• Robert F. Sibert Book Award
• Coretta Scott King Award
• Alex Awards
• Margaret A. Edwards Award
• Schneider Family Book Award

The American Library Association (otherwise known as the ALA) has announced its 2006 awards, honoring the best books published in 2005. And we've got them all for you right here!

Curious about the ALA and its awards? Here's a little background...

2000 marked the debut of the Michael L. Printz Award, which was established to recognize a book that "exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature," according to the Young Adult Library Services Association division of the American Library Association. The Award is named for Michael L. Printz, a former school librarian at Topeka West High School in Kansas. Throughout his career he was a respected colleague and teacher, and an active and dedicated member of YALSA. He passed away in 1996. The Printz winner and up to four honor books (or runners up) are chosen annually by a committee of nine YALSA members.

The Robert F. Sibert Award, established by the Association for Library Service to Children in 2001, is awarded annually to the author of the most distinguished informational book published in English during the preceding year. The award is named in honor of Robert F. Sibert, the long-time President of Bound to Stay Bound Books, Inc. of Jacksonville, Illinois, and is sponsored by the company.

The Coretta Scott King Award is given to an African American author and an African American illustrator for an outstandingly inspirational and educational contribution. The books promote understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples and their contribution to the realization of the American dream. The Award is further designed to commemorate the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to honor Mrs. Coretta Scott King for her courage and determination to continue the work for peace and world brotherhood.

The Alex Awards were created to recognize that many teens enjoy and often prefer books written for adults, and to assist librarians in recommending adult books that appeal to teens. The award is named in honor of the late Margaret Alexander Edwards. Nicknamed "Alex," this young adult specialist at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland firmly believed that adult books are as beneficial toward enhancing and enriching the minds of young adults as designated "teen books" are.

The Margaret A. Edwards Award, established in 1988, honors an author's lifetime achievement for writing books that have been popular over a period of time. It recognizes an author's work in helping adolescents become aware of themselves and addressing questions about their role and importance in relationships, society, and in the world.

The Schneider Family Book Award, donated by Katherine Schneider, Ph.D., honors an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences. The book must portray some aspect of living with a disability or that of a friend or family member, whether the disability is physical, mental or emotional. Recipients are selected in three categories: birth through grade school (ages 0-10), middle school (ages 11-13), and teens (ages 13-18).

Winning Books

2006 Michael L. Printz Winner

LOOKING FOR ALASKA
John Green
Dutton's Children's Books
ISBN: 0525475060
Ages 12-up
160 pages
March 2005

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Miles "Pudge" Halter is abandoning his fairly normal life. Fascinated by the last words of famous people, Pudge leaves for boarding school to seek what a dying Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." He makes friends with people whose lives are anything but safe and boring. One of them is the self-destructive and sexy Alaska, who has perfected the arts of pranking and ignoring school rules. Pudge falls impossibly in love. But when tragedy strikes the close-knit group, Pudge must come face-to-face with death and learn some valuable lessons in the process.

2006 Michael L. Printz Honors

BLACK JUICE
Margo Lanagan
Eos
ISBN: 0060743905
Ages 12-up
208 pages
March 2005

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Between the covers of BLACK JUICE lies a challenging and lyrical short story collection where mad clowns, dragon angels, sad elephants and dancing gypsies reside. Incorporating elements of science fiction, fantasy and horror, each story transports readers to richly realized worlds that defy definition.

I AM THE MESSENGER
Marcus Zusak
Knopf
ISBN: 0375830995
Ages 14-up
368 pages
February 2005

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Ed Kennedy, an underage cab driver and a pathetic card player, lives in a shack with his coffee-addicted dog and is hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. That's when the first Ace arrives --- and Ed becomes the messenger. Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary), but one question still remains: Who is behind Ed's mission?

JOHN LENNON: ALL I WANT IS THE TRUTH: A Photographic Biography
Elizabeth Partridge
Viking
ISBN: 0670059544
Ages 12-up
256 pages
October 2005

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Award-winning biographer Elizabeth Partridge dives into John Lennon’s life from the night he was born in 1940 during a World War II air raid on Liverpool, deftly taking us through his turbulent childhood and his rebellious rock ’n’ roll teens to his celebrated life writing, recording, and performing music with the Beatles. She sheds light on the years after the Beatles, with Yoko Ono, as he struggled to make sense of his own artistic life --- one that had turned from youthful angst to suffocating fame in almost a split second.

A WREATH FOR EMMETT TILL
Marilyn Nelson
illustrated by Philippe Lardy
Houghton Mifflin
ISBN: 0618397523
Ages 12-up
48 pages
April 2005

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In 1955, people all over the United States knew that Emmett Louis Till was a fourteen-year-old African American boy lynched for supposedly whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. The brutality of his murder, the open-casket funeral, and the acquittal of the men tried for the crime drew wide media attention.

Award-winning poet Marilyn Nelson reminds us of the boy whose fate helped spark the civil rights movement.

• Past Winners: 2005, 2004, 2003, 2001

2006 Robert F. Sibert Winner

SECRETS OF A CIVIL WAR SUBMARINE: Solving the Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley
Sally M. Walker
Carolrhoda Books
ISBN: 1575058308
Ages 12-up
112 pages
January 2005

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In 1864, the H. L. Hunley became the first submarine to sink an enemy ship. It then vanished. For 131 years, the Hunley’s fate remained a mystery. Walker has crafted a seamless account of historical and scientific sleuthing to reveal the secrets of the Hunley and her crew, all the while demonstrating the interdisciplinary nature of the problem-solving process in our modern world. Sally M. Walker combines the drama of a wartime shipwreck with compelling scientific writing to create a work of true distinction.

2006 Robert F. Sibert Honors

HITLER YOUTH: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow
Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Scholastic Nonfiction
ISBN: 0439353793
Ages 12-up
176 pages
April 2005

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By the time Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, 3.5 million children belonged to the Hitler Youth. It would become the largest youth group in history. Susan Campbell Bartoletti explores how Hitler gained the loyalty, trust, and passion of so many of Germany's young people. Her research includes telling interviews with surviving Hitler Youth members.

• Past Winners: 2005, 2004, 2003

2006 Coretta Scott King Author Winner

DAY OF TEARS: A Novel in Dialogue
Julius Lester
Jump at the Sun/Hyperion
ISBN: 0786804904
Ages 9-12
92 pages
April 2005

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DAY OF TEARS: A NOVEL IN DIALOGUE is Julius Lester’s masterful fictionalized account of the largest slave auction in U.S. history, held in 1859 in Savannah, Georgia. In a powerfully dramatic format, the voices of enslaved Africans and their masters move between monologues and conversations.

2006 Coretta Scott King Author Honors

DARK SONS
Nikki Grimes
Jump at the Sun/Hyperion
ISBN: 0786818883
Ages 10-14
224 pages
September 2005

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Alternating between biblical times and contemporary Brooklyn, New York, Nikki Grimes masterfully tells the stories of two boys separated by time, geography, and culture who struggle with their fractured families. DARK SONS is a story of love and forgiveness, and the comfort brought by faith in difficult times.

MARITCHA: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl
Tonya Bolden
Harry N. Abrams
ISBN: 0810950456
Ages 9-12
48 pages
February 2005

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Based on an actual memoir written by Maritcha Rémond Lyons, who was born and raised in New York City, this poignant story tells what it was like to be a black child born free during the days of slavery. Everyday experiences are interspersed with high-point moments, such as visiting the U.S.'s first world's fair. Also included are the Draft Riots of 1863, when Maritcha and her siblings fled to Brooklyn while her parents stayed behind to protect their home. The book concludes with her fight to attend a whites-only high school in Providence, Rhode Island.

A WREATH FOR EMMETT TILL
Marilyn Nelson
illustrated by Philippe Lardy
Houghton Mifflin
ISBN: 0618397523
Ages 12-up
48 pages
April 2005

• Click here to buy from Amazon.com

In 1955, people all over the United States knew that Emmett Louis Till was a fourteen-year-old African American boy lynched for supposedly whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. The brutality of his murder, the open-casket funeral, and the acquittal of the men tried for the crime drew wide media attention.

Award-winning poet Marilyn Nelson reminds us of the boy whose fate helped spark the civil rights movement.

2006 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Winner

ROSA
Nikki Giovanni
illustrated by Bryan Collier
Henry Holt & Company
ISBN: 0805071067
Ages 4-8
40 pages
October 2005

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Fifty years after her refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus, Mrs. Rosa Parks is still one of the most important figures in the American civil rights movement. This picture-book tribute to Mrs. Parks is a celebration of her courageous action and the events that followed.

Award-winning poet, writer, and activist Nikki Giovanni’s evocative text combines with Bryan Collier’s striking cut-paper images to retell the story of this historic event from a wholly unique and original perspective.

2006 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honors

BROTHERS IN HOPE: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan
R. Gregory Christie
Lee and Low Books
ISBN: 1584302321
Ages 7-up
40 pages
May 2005

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A young boy unites with thousands of other orphaned boys to walk to safety in a refugee camp in another country, after war destroys their villages in southern Sudan. Based on heartbreaking yet inspirational true events in the lives of the Lost Boys of Sudan, BROTHERS IN HOPE is a story of remarkable and enduring courage, and an amazing testament to the unyielding power of the human spirit.

2006 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Author Talent Award

JIMI & ME
Jaime Adoff
Jump at the Sun/Hyperion
ISBN: 0786852143
Ages 12-up
336 pages
September 2005

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After his father is murdered, Keith and his mother try desperately to pick up the pieces of their lives. But his father’s death has left them devastated --- both emotionally and financially. Forced to leave Brooklyn and move in with his aunt, Keith urgently clings to every last reminder of his dad, discovering comfort in his own music and that of the late legend --- and his father’s idol --- Jimi Hendrix. But just as he begins to get a handle on his father’s death, he discovers the secrets of his father’s life --- secrets that threaten to tear apart what’s left of his fragile family.

• Past Winners: 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000

The 2006 Alex Awards

ANANSI BOYS
by Neil Gaiman
William Morrow & Company
ISBN: 006051518X
September 2005

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Mythology and modern times collide again in this new masterpiece from Neil Gaiman. A work of compelling quality, ANANSI BOYS is equal parts humorous, terrifying, adventurous, and epic in the standard mythological style --- but it is also an intimate story about the beauty, and danger, of family.

AS SIMPLE AS SNOW
by Gregory Gallaway
Putnam
ISBN: 0399152318
March 2005

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This arresting first novel --- a mesmerizing labyrinth of art, magic, cryptic codes, and young love that sparks the imagination and teases the mind --- is about a young man's quest to unravel the puzzle his missing girlfriend may (or may not) have left behind.

GIL'S ALL FRIGHT DINER
by A. Lee Martinez
Tor
ISBN: 0765311437
May 2005

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Duke and Earl are just passing through Rockwood county in their pick-up truck when they stop at the Diner for a quick bite to eat. They aren't planning to stick around --- until Loretta, the eatery's owner, offers them $100 to take care of her zombie problem. Given that Duke is a werewolf and Earl is a vampire, this looks right up their alley. But the shambling dead are just the tip of a particularly spiky iceberg.

THE GLASS CASTLE: A Memoir
by Jeanette Walls
Scribner
ISBN: 0743247531
March 2005

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Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. In her New York Times bestselling memoir, Walls recalls her deeply dysfunctional, nomadic and occasionally homeless childhood.

JESUS LAND: A Memoir
by Julia Scheeres
Counterpoint
ISBN: 1582433380
September 2005

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Sinners go to: HELL. Rightchuss go to: HEAVEN. The end is neer: REPENT. This here is: JESUS LAND.

Julia Scheeres stumbles across these signs along the side of a cornfield while out biking with her adopted brother, David. It's the mid-1980s, they're sixteen years old and have just moved to rural Indiana, a landscape of cottonwood trees and trailer parks --- and a racism neither of them is prepared for. While Julia is white, her close relationship with David, who is black, makes them both outcasts.

MIDNIGHT AT THE DRAGON CAFE
by Judy Fong Bates
Counterpoint
ISBN: 1582431892
April 2005

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Set in the 1960s, Judy Fong Bates’s much-talked-about debut novel is the story of a young girl, the daughter of a small Ontario town’s solitary Chinese family, whose life is changed over the course of one summer when she learns the burden of secrets. Through Su-Jen’s eyes, the hard life behind the scenes at the Dragon Café unfolds.

MY JIM
by Nancy Rawles
Crown
ISBN: 1400054001
January 2005

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Sadie Watson is an ex-slave who schools her granddaughter with lessons of love she learned in bondage. To help her granddaughter confront the decisions she needs to make, Sadie mines her memory for the tale of the unquenchable love of her life, Jim. Sadie’s Jim was an ambitious young slave and seer who, when faced with the prospect of being sold, escaped down the Mississippi with a white boy named Huck.

THE NECESSARY BEGGAR
by Susan Palwick
Tor
ISBN: 076531097X
October 2005

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Lémabantunk, the Glorious City, is a place of peace and plenty. But it is also a land of swift and severe justice. Young Darroti has been accused of the murder of a highborn woman who had chosen the life of a Mendicant, a holy beggar whose blessing brings forgiveness. Now his entire family must share his shame, and his punishment --- exile to an unknown world.