Kidsmomo

Yes, the Golden Globes were on Sunday, but who cares about the glitz and glamor of Hollywood? I’m talking about the American Library Association’s annual awards that went out on Monday — including the Newbery Medal.

The Newbery Medal is like the holy grail for children’s book writers. Or if you’re not an Indiana Jones fan, then think of it like the MVP award for the best kids’ book author of the year. Or if you’re not into sports, you can consider it like the Blue Ribbon for, well, for anything that’s super competitive. In other words, the Newbery Medal is a really, really cool thing to get.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

And this year, the Newbery went to… [drumroll, please]… When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead! If you missed my previous blog post about the book, then you missed out on an excellent piece of writing. Whoops, I should probably be celebrating Rebecca Stead, not congratulating myself. So here’s a little rundown of When You Reach Me:

Imagine you’re just going about your life — going to school, hanging out with your best friend, spending time with your mom and her boyfriend — and then all of a sudden you get a message from the future. WHA?! Personally, I’d freak out and hide under my bed covers for a while. But not Miranda, the protagonist in When You Reach Me. And that’s good, because it makes for a much more interesting book!

So if you want to see who won the kidlit world’s version of the Heisman Trophy, check out When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.

And then try out this year’s Newbery Honor books (aka, the runners-up):

• Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose — about a key leader in the Montgomery bus boycott
• The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly — about an 11-year-old struggling to stay true to herself in the face of her mother’s expectations
• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin — about a girl’s magical journey to change her family’s fortunes
• The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick — about a 12-year-old orphan’s (surprisingly funny) adventures during the Civil War

Oh, man, I’m never going to make a dent in my To Be Read list, am I?!

— Karen