CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus

It’s good to see two YA books popping up on the nomination list for the Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing, awarded by the Crime Writers Association. The stories don’t have to be about Ned, but the two YA contenders certainly cast a nod in his direction.

Under consideration are:

• Game as Ned, by Tim Pegler, which is also a CBCA Notable Book for Older Readers this year
• Ned Kelly’s Jerilderie Letter, edited by Carole Wilkinson, also shortlisted for the Eve Pownall Award for Information Books

Another terrific little book from last year, Crime Seen by Jenny Pausacker, seems to have missed out.

Yes, we thought we’d done this because, when the list was announced last week, all the titles were so familiar. And that’s because they have (nearly) all been reviewed in Fiction Focus. Been there, done that we thought … but no. So here is the 2008 shortlist for the prestigious Carnegie Medal, won last year by Meg Rosoff for Just in Case.

2008 Carnegie Medal shortlisted books

• Kevin Crossley-Holland - Gatty’s Tale
• Linzi Glass - Ruby Red (not yet reviewed, but we loved The Year the Gypsies Came, her 2006 title)
• Elizabeth Laird - Crusade
• Tanya Landman - Apache
• Philip Reeve - Here Lies Arthur
• Meg Rosoff - What I Was
• Jenny Valentine - Finding Violet Park

Also announced were the Kate Greenaway Medal shortlisted titles, which are also reviewed in our Resource Bank. Go to the Primary Focus blog to read more about these.

The shortlists for the various categories of the NSW Premier’s Awards have been announced.

The Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature is worth $15 000 to the eventual winner, who will be selected from:

• Lollie Barr for The Mag Hags
• David Metzenthen for Black Water
• Robert Newton for The Black Dog Gang (review coming soon)
• James Roy for Town
• David Spillman & Lisa Wilyuka for Us Mob Walawurru and
• Lizzie Wilcock for GriEVE

Scroll down to the judges’ comments on the announcement to see just why they have selected these particular titles.

The NSW Premier’s Literary Awards were instigated by Neville Wran in 1979.

The finalists have been announced for New Zealand’s premier awards - The New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.

Fiction Focus has reviewed all finalists in the Young Adult section:

• Salt, by Maurice Gee
• The sea-wreck stranger, by Anna Mackenzie
• Tomorrow, all will be beautiful, by Brigid Lowry (also a Notable Book in the CBCA Awards)
• The transformation of Minna Hargreaves, by Fleur Beale
• Zillah, by Penelope Todd (Issue 1, 2008)

The awards ceremony will be held in Wellington on 21 May.

The countdown to Book Week has begun, with the announcement this morning of the Notable Books in all categories of the Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards. Short lists drawn from these notable titles contain the eventual winners, to be announced during August Book Week celebrations.

The Notable Books are in effect a long list of the very best titles presented to the judges from all the books published in 2007, so are definitely worth considering for your library collections. Reviews of most titles on the Notables list can be found on the CMIS Resource Bank.

Book Week 2008 runs from 15-22 August, with this year’s theme ‘Fuel Your Mind’.

The short list for each category usually produces disappointment, with titles missing out that many consider worthy. The judges can’t please everyone, even with their final notables lists, so comment here about titles that made it and those that didn’t is certainly encouraged.

Older Readers Shortlist 2008

• Jackie French - Pharaoh : the boy who conquered the Nile
• Sonya Hartnett - The ghost’s child
• John Heffernan - Marty’s shadow
• Meme McDonald - Love like water
• David Metzenthen - Black water
• Leonie Norrington - Leaving Barrumbi

We are delighted that Matt Ottley’s Requiem for a Beast, our cover book for Issue 3, 2007, has been short listed in the Picture Book of the Year category.