CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus

Must admit to feeling a tad confused about how the whole YALSA BBYA (Best Books for Young Adults) process works.

Earlier this month, in this post, we congratulated all the Australian authors who had been nominated. The list that these were extrapolated from is here. Nominations only. That was clear enough and reason enough to rejoice. There was no Margo, no Melina.  We did wonder, but ours is not to reason why.

Now this undated list has popped up, which appears to be the final goods, and yea, both appear on it. Good news indeed. So does Juliet Marillier, but we’ve lost all the other Aussies we were so warmly applauding only 10 days ago. No Michelle Cooper, no Alison Goodman, no Steven Herrick, no Catherine Jinks, no Justine Larbalestier, no Shaun Tan.

So congratulations Margo, Melina and Juliet – wonderful news, but why weren’t you on the original list of nominations? And commiserations to all who didn’t make the final cut.

Ah, awards. Can’t please everyone.

That would be Best Books for Young Adults, the list published annually by YALSA, the Young Adult arm of the American Library Association.

Earlier this year there was considerable debate about the future of this popular list, which, like the Carnegie Medal nominations (see previous post) provides a terrific source of titles for keen readers. It’s difficult to find the final decision without being a member of YALSA ; this post in response to the SLJ article suggests that none had been made, certainly at the time of writing, but this post refers to a proposed readers’ choice award, possibly taking BBYA’s place at some future date.

No matter for now. We have a 2009 list of nominations and we are delighted to see the following titles on it:

• Michelle Cooper – A Brief History of Montmaray
• Alison Goodman – Eon : Dragoneye Reborn (aka The Two Pearls of Wisdom)
• Steven Herrick – Cold Skin
• Simmone Howell – Everything Beautiful
• Catherine Jinks – The Reformed Vampire Support Group
• Justine Larbalestier – Liar
• Shaun Tan – Tales from Outer Suburbia

Selections for the final BBYA 2009 list will be made at the January 2010 YALSA Midwinter meeting to be held in Boston.