Well, that was unexpected!

So, the Youth Media Awards are out.  If you're interested, you can read the complete list of winners at www.ala.org/yma.  The Youth Media Awards press conference always holds a few surprises, and this year was no exception.

There was no love for my picture book favorites, but I'm pretty happy with the Caldecott honors -- Blackout, Grandpa Green, and Me . . . Jane are all books that I read, though none of them were particular favorites with me.  I had also read the winner, A Ball for Daisy, but Chris Raschka's illustration style just doesn't do anything for me.  I do like A Ball for Daisy better than Raschka's earlier winner, The Hello Goodbye Window (after all, it's hard for me to really hate a dog book).

The Newbery award and honor books are all books I'd heard about, but haven't read yet.  I've already placed holds on them, so you'll be hearing about them here over the next few weeks and months.

As for the Printz, I was pleased to note that I had actually heard of most of them this year!  As a bonus, The Scorpio Races got an honor, as did Why We Broke Up (which I blogged about not long ago).

Some of the smaller awards were also exciting -- kudos to The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred for its Pura Belpré honor, Drawing from Memory for its Sibert honor, and I Want My Hat Back for its Geisel honor (people were talking about it for the Caldecott, but I think Geisel, the Easy Reader award, is much more fitting).

And Ready Player One did get an Alex award -- it's good to have been dead right about one prediction, at least!

What about you?  I'd love to hear your thoughts on this year's crop of awards.