ALA Youth Media Awards

Tomorrow is the big day when the Youth Media Awards are announced. I hope to watch them live, but that means I will have to get to school extra extra early. Or take the morning off. You can watch them live here.

There are many books I hope to see honored at the ALA YMA and I think today is a good day to share a few of  them with you, in no particular order.

 The Story of Owen by E. K. Johnston

 Poisoned Apples  by Christine Heppernan

 The Right Word: Roget and his Thesaurus by Jen Bryant

 The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher by Dana Alison Levy

 El Deafo by Cece Bell

 Gaston  written by Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by Christine Robinson

 I Kill the Mockingbird by Paul Acampora

 Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

 Going Over  by Beth Kephart

 The Farmer and the Clown by Marla Frazee

 Nuts to You  by Lynne Rae Perkins

 Audrey (Cow)  by Dan Bar-El (this can;t win a Newbery because Bar-El is Canadian)

 Gabi A Girl in Pieces  by Isabel Quintero

 Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Channeling Clementine

I have been a huge Clementine fan from her first appearance. In fact, when I adopted Fiona, who came with the unfortunate name of Yo-yo, I almost renamed her Clementine, just because of the books. She is very bassety. Clementine is frequently “distracted” by things when she is supposed to be doing what others want and then explains ” I was paying attention” and then says what she was paying attention to. If you’ve ever walked with a basset, you know that you might want to be moving forward, but they are frequently sidetracked and pay attention to things you don’t even see. I try to channel Clementine when I walk the girls.

I just reread Clementine for the 2013-14 Battle of the Books season (more on this later)

and then I read Clementine and the Spring Trip which came out earlier this year, but I’m finally getting to it.

And I am happy to say that this, the 6th book,is wonderful! And I love Margaret, who is the perfect OCD foil to Clementine’s ADD.  I love their interactions and how they have to negotiate their friendship.  In this book, a new girl named Olive arrives and Clementine is no longer the only student with a food name. Having just reread Clementine,  I can see how much she has grown up since that first book, but she is still sweetly naive and genuine as she tries to find her place in the world.

As always, Marla Frazee’s illustrations capture all the emotion & hilarity.