CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus

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.

Here’s another terrific free resource from the UK. Everyone’s Reading Plus is a 108-page PDF document listing titles suitable for readers of both genders aged between 11 and 18.  A few Australian authors are included.

This School Library Association publication complements previous free lists Boys into Books 5-11 and Boys into Books 11-14. All are part of the SLA Riveting Reads series.

The titles on the Everyone’s Reading list can also be browsed online in a searchable database on the dedicated website. UK schools can select 15 titles from the list as part of a gifting program.

Everyone’s Reading has recently started on twitter.

Publishers Weekly has listed its best of 2009 (the heads-up came from Monica Edinger via twitter. Monica is aka educating alice).

Whilst the list is mostly North American in flavour, one or two foreigners have crept in, including this comment about a certain Shaun Tan’s Tales:

Tan proves that his prose is every bit as hypnotic as his artwork in this wondrous collection that reveals the banality and strangeness of the suburbs.

The full list is here.

Most of us love reading lists. Lists compiled by people we respect that we can take to the bookshop or library and tick off titles as we work our way through them.

Earlier this week we commented on Newsweek’s choice of Jenna Bush to suggest suitable titles for readers in the northern summer.

The UK Telegraph has gone 22 better, with no fewer than three Children’s Laureates and many other distinguished authors and illustrators creating a terrific reading list for holidays, or any time. And yes, some of ours make the cut. Here’s Meg Rosoff on Margo Lanagan’s Tender Morsels:

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan is a genre-smashing novel. Set in the dark, dark fairy tale world of the Brothers Grimm, it raises questions about the price of living without risk, and how unspeakable trauma can be passed on to children. The sexual content, though not exactly explicit, made me gasp with shock, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone under 15. But everyone else? Definitely.

This is a list ideal for a lazy (northern) summer day that can just as easily be enjoyed in front of a cosy fire in (southern) winter.

Image used under Creative Commons licence.

The current issue of Newsweek has another of those lists – you know, the best 100 books. Best. Books. Ever. Always good for a debate.

If you check the links on the right hand side of the page, you’ll note that nine authors are commenting on their favourite books:

We asked nine authors to tell us the essential books in their chosen areas of expertise.

Patricia Cornwell on True Crime, Bob Woodward on Political Scandal – you get the drift. So far, so good.

Children’s literature gets a mention, too. The expert here? None other than the former First Daughter, Jenna Bush. Well, she has written a book. And her mum was a school librarian, so that’s OK.

The Child_Lit listserv brought this one to our attention. We share their incredulity.

Flickr image used under Creative Commons licence.

Naomi Bates, blogger and contributer to the yalsa-bk listserv, is setting up a creative, collaborative initiative to generate some interesting YA booklists that she is calling YA:A2Z using Web 2.0 application Writeboard.

The idea:

Let’s collaborate and create lists of YA books (no more than five years old) from A to Z. One is by title (ie A is for Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson); one by author (ie M is for Mazer, Norma Fox, author of Missing Girl); one by subject (ie S is for steroids, Raiders Night by Robert Lipsyte).

If you would like to contribute, visit Naomi’s blog, register and start creating.

Classics, classics, classics. When the past five Children’s Laureates were asked to select their top seven children’s books, titles of times gone by prevailed. Not even a Pullman, let alone a Rowling. But, happy to say, Bob Graham gets a guernsey from Quentin Blake.

Here’s the final 35, thanks to The Guardian.

ADDENDUM: Here

Or more specifically, animal classics. From the San Francisco Chronicle, with some nice links.  (Thanks to Jenny Schwartzberg from the Child_Lit listserv for the heads up).

If you are looking for some reading ideas over the forthcoming (Antipodean) summer break, you could do worse than trawl through the long list that was announced this week for the 2009 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. What makes this award different from others is that all nominations come from people like us: librarians from around the world.

It is an eclectic selection with authors ranging from Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee who is now resident in Australia (some other Aussies make the list, too) to populist writer Ken Follett. Delighted to see a personal 2008 favourite, What was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn up there too. (Jane Smiley’s review should convince you to try it).

Pat Pledger is compiling a summer reading list for the OZTLNet listerv, based on titles enjoyed by members this year. We’ll alert you when it is ready.

Library Thing has been around for a while now and many of us make our own lists and peruse those of like-minded readers.

But hats off to Fiona Mackie, a schools library adviser in New Zealand, who has created some great teen lists under all sorts of categories. Appropriately her member name is fabfic-terrificteens and her lists can be found here.

Thanks to Create Readers for the heads-up.