...until the day they figure out how to open cans. Then I'm superfluous.
Mildly disappointing news from the American Library Association. As I mentioned in November, the ALA’s Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) nominated Mom’s Cancer and 231 other books for recognition as the year’s Best Books for Young Adults. Well, at an ALA conference a couple of days ago in Seattle, YALSA trimmed that list to 82 books that became the official honest-to-goodness 2007 Best Books for Young Adults. I didn’t make the cut.
The sting of defeat is somewhat eased by the fact that the honor wasn’t one I expected or sought. In fact, as I said before, I wasn’t even aware I had written a book for young adults (and of course it’s not, although I did deliberately write and draw Mom’s Cancer to be accessible to all readers, including young ones).
In any case, I am genuinely honored to have created one of the year’s Nearly Good Enough Books for Young Adults, still quite an accomplishment when you think about how many thousands of other age-appropriate books were published last year.
I also see that Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese, a graphic novel that has amassed quite a roster of honors including being a National Book Award finalist, not only made the Best Books list but was named one of YALSA’s Top Ten. I haven’t met Gene nor read his book, but his success is rightly seen as a vindication for the disreputable medium of graphic novels in the conservative world of prose. Good for him.
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3 comments:
Awards are nothing. Do good work, and you will be discovered.
But of course, I never won an award, so what do I know?!
Never mind, Brian, it was one of the best books of last year among some Young Adults *I* know :)
p.s. The day they figure out how to open up cans, we're all superfluous and will be shipped in cattle cars to their home planet to work as slave labourers and provide a food source.
You know this is true.
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