Looking for Newbery - WooHoo! The Results are In!

The ALA Youth Media Awards were announced this morning, and I'd like to note a couple of things.

First, it was a blast following the announcements on Twitter starting at 7:30 AM. I had to laugh as I was putting makeup on and drying my hair (by the way, for truth in advertising, this part is written by Karen), I kept hitting the "refresh" button every 10 seconds or so. I could not keep my eyes off the Twitter site. It was fun watching what all the kidlit tweeters had to say. I even managed to get 1 or 2 comments of my own in between mascara and blush.

(Bill) ...And while I was not applying make-up, I was sitting in front of my computer watching LIVE as the awards were announced. Not the most exciting of viewing, but still fun to see them as the are announced.

Second, I'd hate to be the employee at Random House who posted about When You Reach Me winning before it was officially announced. Can you say, "Whoops!"

(Bill) ...still gotta figure out this Twitter thing, I'm missing out on all of the fun!

Third, and this is the fun one, WOO-HOO for us here at Literate Lives!! Not to toot our own horns (ok maybe a little bit) between the winner and the four honor books, either Bill or I had read each one of them. That's amazing to us!! We read all 5 books! I actually picked When You Reach Me to take the big prize (ok, me and most of the rest of the world). The two books I now need to read are Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin and The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick.

(Bill) I think we both went 3 out of 5 for the winners, not bad, and, to COMPLETELY toot my own horn, I picked the Caldecott winner and one honor and had read the third. WOO-HOO!

Finally, what a great reason to gather with fellow Central Ohio bloggers at Northstar Cafe for breakfast, chat about the awards and other stuff, and follow that up with a trip to our favorite children's bookstore, Cover to Cover. We started at Northstar with Bill and me, Franki and Mary Lee (A Year of Reading), Lisa and Shelly (Two Learning Journeys), Kristine (best book i have not read), and Tony (Learn Me Sumethin'). We were joined by Katie (Creative Literacy) and Mandy (Enjoy and Embrace Learning) when we got to Cover to Cover.

(Bill) No granola for me, I'm celebratin'! The pancakes were delicious.

I said I wanted bragging rights if I had either read or predicted the Newbery winner this year. I made it! Actually, six of us made it. Check out the picture -- Bill and me with Beth from Cover to Cover in the back row, Franki and Mary Lee, and Sally (Cover to Cover's wonderfully knowledgeable owner) in the front -- we all read When You Reach Me. Who knows if I'll ever be in a picture again, so mark this down as a red letter day!

(Bill) It was an excellent morning and the conversations about books, computers, teaching, libraries, etc., etc., etc. were awesome.

As I told Karen when we left C2C, "12 months to look for the next one!" But until we find "the next one" keep coming back I have a stack of picture books to write about and I know Karen does too.