A Valentine's Day gift for our YA readers.....

..... a list of all those great TEEN NOVELS

 that have bits, chips or chunks of romance mixed in!

Yes, love does make the world go round

(romance provides the primary framework for the story)

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour Morgan Matson

Anna and the French Kiss  / Lola and the Boy Next Door* Stephanie Perkins

Audrey, Wait! Robin Benway

The Big Crunch / What Boys Really Want Pete Hautman

Bone Gap* Laura Ruby

Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series Louise Rennison

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares  / Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist*

 Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Dairy Queen trilogy by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Sarah Dessen (many titles)

Eleanor and Park Rainbow Rowell

The Future of Us Jay Asher

Girl Meets Boy: because there are two sides to every story* ed. by Kelly Halls

Love and Other Foreign Words  Erin McCahan

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda* Becky Albertalli

Six Impossible Things Fiona Wood

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight / This is what Happy Looks Like Jennifer E. Smith

Sway Kat Spears

Undercover Beth Kephart

Winter Town Stephen Emond

What's a good war without a buddy by your side?

(dystopias are no fun without a special friend)

The Chaos Walking trilogy* Patrick Ness

The Delirium trilogy Lauren Oliver

The Divergent trilogy Veronica Roth

The Hunger Games trilogy Suzanne Collins

The Legend series Marie Lu

The Matched trilogy Allyson Condie

The Mortal Engines Quartet Philip Reeve

Rook Sharon Cameron

The Unwind Dystology Neil Shusterman

At Death's door

(characters with fatal conditions)

Before I die* Jenny Downham

Everything, Everything Nicola Yoon

The fault in our stars* John Green

The Game of Love and Death* Martha Brockenbrough

If I stay (with its sequel When she left*) Gayle Forman

Thirteen reasons why Jay Asher

Try it, you’ll like it

(who has time for romance when life gets in the way?)

            Bright Before Sunrise Tiffany Schmidt

Emmy and Oliver Robin Benway

Fangirl* Rainbow Rowell

Geek Girl series Holly Smale

I’ll Give You The Sun* Jandy Nelson

My Life Next Door / The Boy Most Likely To Huntley Fitzpatrick

The Sea of Tranquility* Katja Millay

The Tightrope Walkers* David Almond

Hold on to your hat - and your sweetheart!

(action-adventures with dynamic duos)

Blink and Caution Tim Wynne-Jones

A Girl Named Digit / Double Digit Annabel Monaghan

Insignia / Vortex / Catalyst  S. J. Kincaid

The Scorpio Races Maggie Stiefvater

Sharks and Boys Kristen Tracy

The Tomorrow series John Marsden

Fantastic friendships

 (partners brave imaginary worlds together)

Airborn series by Kenneth Oppel

Book of a Thousand Days */ Books of Bayern series Shannon Hale

Carry On Rainbow Rowell

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown Holly Black

Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy Laini Taylor

The Leviathan trilogy Scott Westerfeld

Feed M. T. Anderson

Graceling and Fire* (The Seven Kingdoms series) Kristin Cashore

The Hunchback Assignments series Arthur Slade

Incarceron and sequel Sapphique Catherine Fisher

Leland Sisters series Marissa Doyle

Seraphina Rachel Hartman

These Broken Stars and other titles in the Starbound series

Kaufman and Spooner

Throne of Glass series Sarah J. Maas

The Twilight series* Stephenie Meyer

Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy Maggie Stiefvater

Life wasn't so different back then

(couples meant for each other don't let history stand in their way)

The Arthur Trilogy plus Crossing to Paradise Kevin Crossley-Holland

The Bloody Jack series* L. A. Meyers

TheMontmaray Journals (trilogy) Michelle Cooper

Friday's Child / Sprig Muslin Georgette Heyer

I Shall Be Near to You Erin McCabe

The Leviathan trilogy / Scott Westerfeld

The Morning Gift / The Reluctant Heiress /A Song for Summer*Eva Ibbotson

Palace of Spies trilogy Sarah Zettel

Revolution Jennifer Donnelly

Shattered Sea trilogy Joe Abercrombie

*for older teens

                                                                                   mhd 2/16

And now to our postgame analysis

On January 11 at the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting – the children's award news was good!

The Caldecott Medal selection was a bit of a surprise, but a nice one: Finding Winnie: the true story of the world’s most famous bear with illustrations by Sophie Blackall and written by Lindsay Mattick. This was one of two books published last year presenting the touching tale of how Winnie the Pooh got his name (from a real little bear).

But oh, were we knocked on our keisters by the winner of the Newbery Medal, which usually goes to a chapter book or novel in recognition of the excellence of the text. It didn’t this year. A picture book won for the first time ever. The book we thought might snag the Caldecott instead reaped the Newbery – Last Stop on Market Street! (It did win a Caldecott Honor.) It is indeed a lovely book, about a boy and his grandmother taking a bus ride to a slightly bedraggled section of their city, and enjoying everything they see and everyone they meet. Nevertheless, it’s a picture book - and worth your time, however many - or few - words it has.  (Our two top choices for the Newbery did win Newbery Honors: The War that Saved My Life, and Echo.)

We felt a little better when the winner of the Printz Award for teen literature was announced; this year it was Bone Gap, by Laura Ruby - our pick, too! This novel is a enigmatic mixture of fantasy and contemporary fiction, with a remarkable use of metaphor and particularly engaging characters.

And here’s the ALA notable books list for 2016, which includes the titles listed above. Enjoy!

Children's Literature 2016: ALA Award Predictions

Looking into our crystal ball on January 3....

The Caldecott Medal goes to the best picture book; this year the competition for the award is wide open. Lisa is rooting for Float by Daniel Miyares, a wordless adventure starring a boy, a boat, and a rainy day. My favorite is pretty wet, too: Water is Water, a beautiful book about the water cycle by Miranda Paul with illustrations by Jason Chin. Lisa also liked The Marvels, another long, extensively illustrated novel by Brian Selznick, who won a Caldecott for a similar book a few years ago. A book we both liked, the poignant Last Stop on Market Street, by Matt Le Pena with pictures by Christian Robinson, has been touted as the title to beat. We’ll see!

Ah, the Newbery, for the most distinguished contribution to children’s literature. This year has been a bit unusual; there is one title that has enchanted every librarian who’s read it: The War That Saved My Life.  A novel by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley set in World War II Britain, it follows the travails and triumphs of young Ada and Jamie. I loved it, Lisa loved it, you’ll love it, it’s a classic in the making – but will the Newbery committee agree?

OK, there were in fact other children’s novels published in 2015 that might snag an award. Standouts were: Echo by Pamela Munoz Ryan, a set of three stories linked by a musical theme; Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai, about an American girl travelling to Vietnam with her grandmother to investigate the mysterious fate of her grandfather; Goodbye, Stranger, Rebecca Stead’s depiction of middle-school social life; and Full Cicada Moon, a novel-in-verse about a black Japanese teenager, raised in Berkeley, now adjusting to life in Vermont in 1969.

Lisa and I are feeling more confident about the Printz Award, given to books exemplifying literary excellence for teens. Lots of possibilities this year, starting with our first choice, Bone Gap by Laura Ruby, a captivating blend of myth, romance, and thriller, seasoned with a soupcon of horror. We also loved The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma, an intense read about three girls linked by violence, and The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz, with its appealing heroine.  Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman provides uncommon insight into schizophrenia, while Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli offers laughs galore with her coming-of-age, coming-out saga. And let’s not forget 2 great nonfiction titles: the riveting history of the Vietnam War recounted in Steven Sheinkin’s Most Dangerous, and the story of the horrendous siege of Leningrad presented in Symphony for the City of the Dead by M. T. Anderson.

Let's see how we do on January 11!

It's award season for books, not just movies!

It’s time to predict the American Library Association’s children’s literature awards, a task we take on with enthusiasm every year (irrespective of our track record)!

Lisa and I agree that the most likely winner of the Caldecott Award for best picture book is Marla Frazee’s poignant THE FARMER AND THE CLOWN. Or perhaps MY GRANDFATHER’S COAT (written by Jim Aylesworth and illustrated by Barbara McClintock) will get the nod. We both loved Oliver Jeffers’ ONCE UPON AN ALPHABET, an amusing collection of 26 short stories based on letters of the alphabet – but will the awards jury?

The Newbery Medal for “the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children” (more simply, the year’s best chapter book or novel) also has a front runner this year: the beautifully-written verse memoir BROWN GIRL DREAMING by Jacqueline Woodson.  Our personal favorite, however, is another story written in verse:  THE CROSSOVER by Kwame Alexander. And there is a third verse tale in contention: THE RED PENCIL by Andrea Davis Pinkney. Not to be ignored are two additional nonfiction candidates: THE FAMILY ROMANOV, a historical page-turner by Candace Fleming, and EL DEAFO, Cece Bell’s graphic memoir of her childhood, which was shaped  by a severe loss of hearing at age 4.

The Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature has at least three likely contenders: I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN, an intense novel about teen twins and the artistic life by Jandy Nelson; GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE, a crazy but appealing mashup of 1950s science fiction and coming-of-age themes by Andrew Smith; and THIS ONE SUMMER, a subtle and superbly drawn graphic novel by the Tamaki sisters, about the summer two young girls are forced to grow up. We loved (or at least liked...) them all.

February 2 is the day of the awards ceremony. Are there surprises in store?  Check back next week!

mhd