Yesterday we reported on the ALA’s Newbery, Caldecott, and King Award ceremony. Today we are excited to highlight some fantasy works and Tor.com authors who were honored with Printz, Schneider, and Alex Awards!
First, the Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature went to Marcus Sedgwick for his book Midwinterblood! The seven stories in this novel all take place on the remote Scandinavian island of Blessed, which hides many secrets beneath its idyllic exterior. You can read a review of the book here, as well as an excerpt. The Printz Honors went to Eleanor & Park, by Tor.com contributor Rainbow Rowell; Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal; Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner; and Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool.
The Schneider Family Book Awards, for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience, honored a fantasy title this year! Handbook for Dragon Slayers by Merrie Haskell tells the story of Tilda, who overcomes a physical handicap and a repressive society to find adventure with dragons and winged horses. Finally, the Alex Awards, honoring books that were written for adults but still have appeal to teens, included two friends of Tor.com! Wesley Chu’s Lives of Tao, which features an IT guy named Roen, the alien who’s hitching a ride in his brain, and an intergalactic war that might destroy Earth, and Lucy Knisley’s Relish, a delectable memoir about food! You can read a complete list of the ALA awards here, and find a list of the Alex winners here.
Finally, the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) has announced its selections for the 2014 Reading List in outstanding genre fiction. V.E. Schwab’s Vicious, the story of a friendly rivalry turned deadly, was the top pick in Fantasy! Take a behind-the-scenes look at the cover art here. The short list includes The Necromancer’s House by Christopher Buehlman; A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan (read an excerpt here!); American Elsewhere by Robert Bennett Jackson; and The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. For Science Fiction, the top selection was Love Minus Eighty by Will MacIntosh, a darkly humorous story of cryogenics. The short-list includes Abaddon’s Gate by James SA Corey; Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton; Tales of Majipoor by Robert Silverberg; and Wool by Hugh Howey. You can see the complete RUSA list here.
Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!
