New YALSA Readers’ Choice Booklist Seeking Nominations.
The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) of ALA is seeking nominations of titles for their new annual booklist: Readers’ Choice List. It would be great if teens in Nebraska suggested their favorite titles. Visit this site for information and the nomination forms.
The purpose of this new list, according to the web site, is:
“YALSA’s Readers’ Choice list seeks to engage a wide audience of librarians, educators, teens and young adult literature enthusiasts in choosing the most popular teen titles in a given year, as organized by broad genres. The list will also provide librarians with a timely means of identifying popular teen titles on an ongoing basis. Nominations will be posted monthly, with a final vote taking place each November. Any individual, provided he/she is not the author or an employee of the publisher, or a current member of the Readers’ Choice List Committee may nominate a title via an online form, while only YALSA members are eligible to vote for the final ballot.”
You, your teens, teachers, almost anyone may nominate a title published between November 1, 2010 and October 31, 2011. This could be a great project for your teen group. You could also give them the monthly lists to see which titles they would choose for the overall list at the end of the year (after they are updated).
Back in January I read and blogged about the newest Caldecott Medal winner, A Sick Day for Amos McGee, and found it fun. I finally had the opportunity to read the newest Newbery Medal winner, Moon Over Manifest, by Clare Vanderpool, and greatly enjoyed it. Abilene Tucker (12) is sent to live in Manifest, Kansas, by her father, who is going to work for the railroad in Iowa. Over the summer of 1936 she learns a lot about the town and the people who have lived there, but never hears a mention of her father living there. Frequent flashbacks to 1917 & 1918, as told to Abilene by the local clairvoyant, recount stories of two friends: Jinx and Ned. This book covers a lot of topics with a gentle hand: prohibition, making moonshine, responsibility, labor rights, immigration and acceptance, con men, war, the 1918 flu epidemic, and family love.
(The Nebraska Library Commission receives free copies of children’s and young adult books for review from a number of publishers. After review, the books are distributed free to Nebraska school and public libraries.)
