MLA Announces 2009 Thumbs Up! Award and 2008 Mitten Award
2009 Thumbs Up! Award
The Michigan Library Association (MLA) is pleased to announce that Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins and published by Scholastic Press, is the winner of the 2009 Thumbs Up! Award.
In Hunger Games, Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place. "Hunger Games has a multi-layered plot that could be resolved in many different ways. Katniss' story is so compelling it could be told at any point in her life. We really care about her and her struggles to survive," says Patty Goonis, chair of this year's Thumbs Up Committee.
Hunger Games has been named to several prestigious lists, including Cybils Award for YA Fantasy and Science Fiction 2008, 2009 ALA Best Books for Young Adults Top 10, and Publisher's Weekly Best Books of the Year: Children's Fiction.
Collins is hard at work on the third novel in the trilogy and will be unable to accept her award in person at the Michigan Library Association's Spring Institute conference, to be held April 7-9, 2010 in Kalamazoo, MI.
Three honor titles were selected by the 2009 Thumbs Up! Award committee: Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins), Last Exit to Normal by Michael B. Harmon (Knopf), and Venomous by Chris Krovatin (Antheneum).
The Thumbs Up! Award was established in 1986 to recognize the excellence in, and to celebrate the uniqueness of, Teen/Young Adult literature. A committee, consisting of Young Adult and Teen Librarians from all over Michigan, meets several times during the year to determine the winner. Since 2001, the Thumbs Up! Award selection process has included a teen vote. This year, committee members Josh Bernstein, Julie Beukema, Allison Boyer, Edith Burney, Pat Hemingray, Kathy Lane, Katie Mitchell, Deb Motley, Elizabeth Norton, Sherlonya Turner, Kat Werner, and Kevin Yezbick chose this title as their favorite in agreement with the teens.
2008 Mitten Award Winner
The Michigan Library Association is pleased to announce that Diamond Willow by Helen Frost, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, is the winner of the 2008 Mitten Award.
The Mitten Award was established in 1999 by the Children’s Services Division of the Michigan Library Association “ . . . to recognize one children’s book published in the United States within the calendar year that has captured the attention of children’s librarians throughout the State of Michigan for its ability to communicate through literature to an intended audience.”
Diamond Willow is the story of a middle school aged girl living in a remote part of Alaska. Willow feels invisible and unremarkable, as do many kids that age. She convinces her parents to let her take the sled dogs on a solo trip to her grandparents’ house. This trip is a major turning point for Willow in the search for herself and her place in the world around her. It is a very exciting adventure story.The story is told mostly in diamond-shaped poems. Within these verses there are words in bold print that add another dimension to Willow’s thoughts and feelings.
Ms. Frost is an award winning author of many books of poetry and non-fiction for young children. Besides, Diamond Willow, her more recent books are Spinning Through the Universe: A Novel in Poems from Room 214 (2004), The Braid (2006), and Monarch and Milkweed (2008). Her teen novel, Keesha’s House (2003), was a Michael L. Printz Award honor book in 2004.
Four honor titles were selected by the 2008 Mitten Award committee: The Gollywhopper Games by Jody Feldman, Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox, Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls and Other Scary Things by Lenore Look, and Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka.
The selection committee was chaired by Ieva Bates. Other committee members included Jocelyn Baldwin, Megan Goedge, Constance Ilmer, Lisa Martin, Jaclyn Miller, Paula Schaffner, Kathy Thornhill, Robin Linkowski, Carolyn Wheeler.
