2009 Printz Award Winners

The 2009 Michael L. Printz Awards have been announced!
What is the award?
The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a Topeka, Kansas school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association.

2009 Printz Award Winner

Jellicoe Road
by Melina Marchetta

Haunted by the past, Taylor Markham reluctantly leads the students of the Jellicoe School in their secret territory wars against the Townies and the Cadets. Marchetta’s lyrical writing evokes the Australian landscape in a suspenseful tale of raw emotion, romance, humor and tragedy.

2009 Printz Honor Books

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation
Volume II, The Kingdom on the Waves
by M.T. Anderson

Caught in the crossfire of the American Revolution, escaped slave Octavian joins the British army in hopes of finally securing his own freedom.


The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
by E. Lockhart

Can the old-boy network at her elite boarding school survive the mal-doings of Frankie Landau-Banks?


Nation
by Terry Pratchett

Pratchett’s trademark humor leavens this epic tale of ravaged islands, shipwrecked nobles and survival.

Tender Morsels
by Mario Lanagan

In utterly original language, Lanagan re-imagines “Snow White and Rose Red” and explores the brutality and beauty of life.

Interview with author Walter Dean Myers

NPR has a great new interview up with teen author Walter Dean Myers.
You may remember him as the author who wrote the Michael L. Printz award winning book Monster. He just recently released Sunrise Over Fallujah, which you can find at the Cape May County Library.

Click here to check out the interview:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93699480

Walter Dean Myers' website:
http://www.walterdeanmyers.net/

Book Review: "The Body of Christopher Creed" by Carol Plum-Ucci

"The Body Of Christopher Creed" by Carol Plum-Ucci

Review by Sophie
Torey is a typical middleclass high school student in Steepleton, a typical middleclass smalltown in Egg Harbor Township. He's an athlete, the guitarist in a highschool-band, the boyfriend of the prettiest girl in town, a popular kid. He's perfectly normal.

Christopher Creed is the school's weirdo. He has no friends and plenty of classmates who have been picking on him throughout his entire schoolcareer. One day he disappears, leaving behind an mysterious letter to his principal and a chaos of rumours and suspicions. Did he run away? Commit suicide? Or get murdered? As the town searches for somebody to blame, Torey, who hasn't had more to do with Christopher than anybody else in his school, starts to question the world he grew up in. Together with two unlikely allies, punk-girl Ali and the "boon", juvenile delinquent Bo Richardson, he goes on a quest to find Christopher, dead or alive. On the way, his life starts to unravel in front of his eyes, as he discovers the lies, intolerance and hypocrisy of his friends and neighbors. "The Body of Christopher Creed" by Carol Plum-Ucci is a stunning novel about finding yourself and breaking your egg's shell. It portrays scarily accurate the microcosms "high school" and "smalltown". The Author manages to make the plot complicated and numerous turns just as believable as her characters, only the last chapter has a very surprising ending that is unbelievable and maybe a bit over the top. Plum-Ucci manages to amazingly get a grasp on many very delicate topics such as intolerance, criminal injustice, smalltown lies, prejudices, overprotective parents, high school cliques, religion and truth in relatively short novel.

Be warned: This is one of those books that make you get bad grades because you just can't bring yourself to put it down in order to homework. And it's also the kind of book that will stay on your mind, long after you finished it.

Most teenagers will probably be able to relate to this book and recognize a lot of people from school, their neighborhood and maybe even themselves. The fact that it takes place just one county away from Cape May makes it even more interesting, since somebody in say California has no way of ever understanding the magic of hanging out at WAWA on a Saturday night (which happens frequently in this novel). So support a local author and read this book!

Check out "The Body of Christopher Creed" by Carol Plum-Ucci at the library...

"The Body of Christopher Creed" by Carol Plum-Ucci Copy #1

"The Body of Christopher Creed" by Carol Plum-Ucci Copy #2

"The Body of Christopher Creed" by Carol Plum-Ucci Book On Tape

Michael L. Printz Books

Looking for a good book but don't know what to read?

Why not try one of the many Michael L. Printz book award winners?

What is the award?

The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a Topeka, Kansas school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association.

2008

Winner: The White Darkness, by Geraldine McCaughrean

Honor Books

Dreamquake: Book Two of the Dreamhunter Duet, by Elizabeth Knox

One Whole and Perfect Day, by Judith Clarke

Repossessed, by A.M. Jenkins

Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephanie Hemphill

2007

Winner: American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang

Honor Books

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: The Pox Party, by M.T. Anderson

An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green

Surrender, by Sonya Hartnett

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak

2006
Winner: Looking for Alaska, by John Green

Honor Books:
Black Juice, by Margo Lanagan

I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak

John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth, a Photographic Biography, by Elizabeth Partridge

A Wreath for Emmett Till, by Marilyn Nelson

2005
Winner: how i live now, by Meg Rosoff

Honor Books:
Airborn, by Kenneth Oppel
Chanda’s Secrets, by Allan Stratton
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, by Gary D. Schmidt

2004:
Winner: The First Part Last, by Angela Johnson

Honor Books:
A Northern Light, by Jennifer Donnelly
Keesha’s House, by Helen Frost
Fat Kid Rules the World, by K.L. Going
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler

2003
Winner: Postcards from No Man’s Land, by Aidan Chambers

Honor Books:
The House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer
My Heartbeat, by Garret Freymann-Weyr
Hole in My Life, by Jack Gantos

2002
Winner: A Step From Heaven, by An Na

Honor Books:
The Ropemaker, by Peter Dickinson
Heart to Heart by Jan Greenberg Abrams
Freewill, by Chris Lynch
True Believer, by Virginia Euwer Wolff

2001
Winner: Kit’s Wilderness, by David Almond

Honor Books:
Many Stones, by Carolyn Coman
The Body of Christopher Creed, by Carol Plum-Ucci
Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson, by Louise Rennison
Stuck in Neutral, by Terry Trueman

2000
Winner: Monster, by Walter Dean Myers

Honor Books:
Skellig, by David Almond
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
Hard Love, by Ellen Wittlinger