Monday, January 26 was the ALA Youth Media Awards (ALA YMA), the award event I look forward to all year, the way I imagine other people look forward to the Oscars, Grammys, Tonys, Superbowl… because late January is when the new Caldecott, Newbery, Sibert, Geisel, Sydney Taylor, Schneider, Coretta Scott King, Pura Belpré, and other awards are announced, and we get to celebrate the medal and honor books. 

This year, there wasn’t an annual Midwinter conference, but some people did get together in person in Chicago (in a very fancy room, if you measure by number of chandeliers) for the announcements, and over a thousand people watched the livestream (I’m surprised it wasn’t more!). So, you could still hear cheering for the books, authors, and illustrators in each category (even if some of the pronunciations were mangled. I know the results are secret till the last minute, but it does seem reasonable to expect them to pronounce names, titles, and publishers correctly!).

I was pleased that so many committees chose lots of Honor books – I’m always disappointed when there are only one or two, but they were generous with Honors this year! I was thrilled that Every Monday Mabel by Jashar Awan and Stalactite & Stalagmite by Drew Beckmeyer got Caldecott honors, and not at all surprised to see Angie Kang’s Our Lake there as well, and Fireworks as the winner. I ordered Sundust for our library but didn’t get to read it yet, and it’s checked out now, so I’ll see it when it gets back.

No real surprises for the Newbery either; those awards are well deserved. Most were discussed over on the Heavy Medal blog in the lead-up to the awards. For the Sydney Taylor, I was thrilled to see a board book get the medal – pretty rare! – and happy for Laurel Snyder’s The Book of Candles, which my family enjoyed during Hanukkah this year. 

As always, there are so many worthy books published in any given year, and just because a book wasn’t recognized officially by one of these committees doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its place on the shelf and in readers’ hands. As the laws of library science say, Every book its reader, every reader their book. I would have loved to see recognition for Shawn Harris’ Let’s Be Bees, Kate Messner’s The Trouble with Heroes, and Daniel Miyares’ How to Say Goodbye in Cuban, but it was not to be. However, I’m sure Let’s Be Bees will remain popular in toddler storytimes for years, and here in Massachusetts I wouldn’t be surprised if Heroes and Goodbye popped up as MCBA titles in the future.

Now, on to my January reading recap! I’ve decided I’ll do them monthly this year instead of bi-annually or quarterly, so as to highlight more books, and make less of a huge job for myself at the end of the year.

Children’s Books

• Who Ate the Little Bug? by Hector Dexet: I’ve never had a board book get a reaction the way this one did at baby lapsit storytime.
• The Forest of a Thousand Eyes by Frances Hardinge: A haunting story with swift and effective world-building, a strong main character, and illustrations by Emily Gravett.
• Bat and the Case of the Yips by Elana K. Arnold: A little unfair of me to include this as it hasn’t been published yet, but I love Bat, and this addition to the series shows how he is growing.
• Bad Badger: A Family Story by Maryrose Wood: Likewise, not published yet, but this sequel to A Love Story has all the charm of the original, plus a larger cast of characters and a bit more action.
• Wildfire by Breena Bard: This graphic novel set in the Pacific northwest looks at what happens when families (and their animals) are affected by wildfires fueled by climate change.
• Blood in the Water by Tiffany D. Jackson: Jackson’s first middle grade novel is set on Martha’s Vineyard, and the island setting increases the tension and claustrophobia as the narrator investigates a murder. 
• A Sea of Lemon Trees by María Dolores Águila: A novel in verse about a Brown vs. Board of Education-style case brought by Mexican-Americans in California, two decades before the landmark “separate is not equal” ruling.
• Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate: I’m late to the party on this 2017 title, which beautifully expresses the precarity of the narrator’s family situation, and his desire for information, even if that doesn’t increase his control. 
• Junius Leak and the Spiraling Vortex of Doom and The Vanishing of Lake Peigneur by Allan Wolf: This pair of books – one traditional novel, one nonfiction graphic novel – looks at the astonishing 1980 event from a variety of perspectives.

Young Adult

• Everything Is Poison by Joy McCullough: in 17th century Rome, desperate women know they can go to La Tofana’s apothecary for any kind of remedy – especially the kind denied to them as second-class citizens because of their gender.
• Death in the Jungle by Candace Fleming: Is the Jonestown tragedy really material for teen readers? In Candy’s capable hands it is. Fascinating, appalling, and a warning to be alert to charismatic leaders who peddle misinformation.
• Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout: Set in Amsterdam during WWII and in 2011, this story pulls the reader deeply into the resistance movement and its very real effects on people then and now, including Jewish children who were adopted into non-Jewish families.
• The Secret Astronomers by Jessica Walker: I love a novel in letters (or notes, or texts, or emails), and this one includes one of the characters’ art as well, as two high school students in a small West Virginia town get to know each other and work to solve a mystery that occurred in their parents’ time.

Adult Books

• Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke: This speculative novel is told entirely in the form of a Slack chat, and it is very, very funny. (I’m just a bot, though!)
• A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers: Human Dex and robot Mosscap continue their adventure in this sequel to A Psalm for the Wild-Built.
• A School Lunch Revolution by Alice Waters: Of course it would be lovely if every school had a working kitchen, a garden, and a relationship with local farmers…unfortunately, we’re pretty far away from that reality, but these recipes are a wonderful reminder of how to eat seasonally.