Award winners: February 2007 Archives
The 2007 Michael Printz Award (for excellence in young adult fiction) was given to American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. (FIC Y22a):
This book "tells the story of three apparently unrelated characters: Jin Wang, who moves to a new neighborhood with his family only to discover that he's the only Chinese-American student at his new school; the powerful Monkey King, subject of one of the oldest and greatest Chinese fables; and Chin-Kee, a personification of the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, who is ruining his cousin Danny's life with his yearly visits. Their lives and stories come together with an unexpected twist in this action-packed modern fable. "American Born Chinese" is an amazing ride, all the way up to the astonishing climax." -- from publisher's description. The National Book Award for young adult fiction was given to The Pox Party (v.1 of The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing) by M. T. Anderson. (FIC A548po):
This book is about "a boy dressed in silks and white wigs and given the finest of classical educations. Raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers, the boy and his mother -- a princess in exile from a faraway land -- are the only persons in their household assigned names. As the boy's regal mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the house scholars with her beauty and wit, young Octavian begins to question the purpose behind his guardians' fanatical studies. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door does he learn the hideous nature of their experiments -- and his own chilling role in them. Set against the disquiet of Revolutionary Boston, M. T. Anderson's extraordinary novel takes place at a time when American Patriots rioted and battled to win liberty while African slaves were entreated to risk their lives for a freedom they would never claim." -- from publisher's description. 2007 Alex Awards include:
Eagle Blue by Michael D'Orso (796.32362 D718e): "The village of Fort Yukon sits eight miles above the Arctic Circle, deep in Alaska's "bush" country. The six hundred men, women and children who live there--almost all of them Athabascan Gwich'in Natives--have little to cheer for. Their traditional Indian ways of life are rapidly vanishing in the face of a modern culture that is closing in on all sides, threatening to destroy their community and their identity. The one source of pride they can count on is their boys' high school basketball team--the Fort Yukon Eagles. "Eagle Blue "follows the Eagles, winners of six regional championships in a row, through the course of an entire 28-game season, from their first day of practice in late November to the Alaska State Championship Tournament in March. With insight, frankness, and compassion, Michael D'Orso climbs into the lives of these fourteen boys, their families, and their coach, shadowing them through an Arctic winter of fifty-below-zero temperatures and near-round-the-clock darkness as the Eagles criss-cross Alaska by air, van, and snow machine in pursuit of their--and their village's--dream." -- from publisher's description.
Blind Side by Michael Lewis (796.33209 L675b): This is an insightful look at professional football and the changing nature of a game now tightly focused on speed, size, and strength. It also follows the career of African American football prodigy Michael Oher, who was homeless in Memphis when he was placed in Briarcrest Christian School and then adopted by a wealthy white family. He went on to play left tackle for the University of Mississippi and seems destined for a stellar career in the NFL because he possesses the necessary combination of speed, size, and agility.
