The winner for the 2007 Newbery Award was announced on Jan. 22. The winner is A Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron. The cover is attractively upbeat and the story sounds upbeat as well. The Newbery Award recognizes excellence in children's literature.In “The Higher Power of Lucky,” Patron takes us to the California desert community of Hard Pan (population 43). Ten-year-old Lucky Trimble eavesdrops on 12-step program meetings from her hiding place behind Hard Pan’s Found Object Wind Chime Museum & Visitor Center. Eccentric characters and quirky details spice up Lucky’s life just as her guardian Brigitte’s fresh parsley embellishes her French cuisine.
“‘Lucky’ is a perfectly nuanced blend of adventure, survival (emotional and physical) and hilarious character study... as well as a blueprint for a self-examined life,” said Newbery Medal Committee Chair Jeri Kladder. “Through Lucky’s experiences, we are reminded that children support one another just as needy adults do.”
Winners of other prestigious literary awards were also announced by the ALA yesterday. Including the Caldecott Medal to Flotsam by David Wiesner. The Caldecott is for the most distinguished American picture book for children.
The Printz Award is for excellence in literature written for young adults. This year's winner is American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. There were four honor books in this category which bear noting: The Astonishing Life of Octavaian Nothing by M.T. Anderson; An Abundance of Katherines by John Green; Surrender by Sonya Hartnett; and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
For Lifetime achievement in writing for young adults, the Edwards Award went to Lois Lowry, author of The Giver.
There were at least 22 honors awarded. You can view them all at ALA Awards and Scholarship page. I thought there was one more award worth mentioning. The Alex Awards go to the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences. I am surprised by some of these.
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig (really???)
Eagle Blue: A Team, A Tribe, and a High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska by Michael D'Orso
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Color of the Sea by John Hamamura
The Floor of the Sky by Pamela Carter Joern
The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell (I would think this one would be challenging for most teens)
The World Made Straight by Ron Rash
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
12 comments:
I have read the Giver 23 times in the 24 years that I have been alive. Can you believe it? I would give her the award myself if it meant anything. The Giver is just THE BEST.
I think I'll be putting The Higher Power of Lucky on my TBR list. Those Newberry Award winners are usually worth reading!
I'm still in the middle of Octavian Nothing, but not making much progress. Maybe I'll take it with me to the Social Security office tomorrow as I'm sure I'll be waiting a couple of hours at least.
The Higher Power of Lucky does sound appealing! I love reading both children's and YA books.
Thanks, Cheya, for the update!
The Giver is a fabulous book! One of my all-time favorites. I'm surprised The Book Thief didn't win The Printz Award (I see it got an honorable mention). Guess I should give the others a read.
Nessie, that is amazing! I love it, too, but have only read it once. It's time for a reread. Have you also read the 2 companion books to Giver: Gathering Blue and The Messenger? They are really good, too.
Alyson, my interest in Ocatavian is definitely piqued from what I know of it. I'm a little surprised it received an award.
Jenclair, every year I try to read one Newberry. Of course, with a teenage daughter still at home, we read and discuss several YA books, too. There are some really great books for younger readers, arent' there?
Les, I can't believe The Book Thief didn't win, either. In my opinion it should be getting all kinds of awards. I still don't understand why it was classified as a YA.
Well, I have five of the books you mentioned on my list. And there are several more titles that are calling out to me. I guess I could give up sleeping.
This is a really helpful and interesting post, booklogged, thank you! My daughter collects the Newbery Award books, so she'll be happy to know she can go pick up a copy of "A Higher Power of Lucky"
I didn't know about the Alex Awards - I'm intrigued! If there were awards for YA books that appeal to adults, I'm sure "The Book Thief" would head the list!
i love childrens books. that section of the bookstore tempts me with its colors and illustrations! i'll have to look at these books next time i'm there.
The cover for the Power of Lucky book is so charming, I'll be on the lookout for this one.
Thanks for posting the Newbery Winner! It's the first I've heard of it. I'm enjoying the Newbery's now more than the winners from years ago. Starting with Walk Two Moons by Creech, I've really agreed with the winning books.
I bought A Book of Lost Things for my son for Christmas. I may get to it before he does!
I don't know if you know this or not, but your page is not appearing correctly on internet explorer. When I used Safari at home it looked just fine but here at work I have to scroll down past all the stuff on the left-hand side before I can see any posts. Just an FYI!
I confess that I'm probably one of the few readers who's never read The Giver. I've read other stuff by Lowry but for some reason never got around to that one.
I love children's books! Makes me wish I had some of my own just so I could be justified in buying books from that section of the store.
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