Over the Martin Luther King Day weekend, a number of books and authors received some special awards.
At the American Library Association’s Midwinter meeting, the ALA Youth Media Awards – also known as the “Academy Awards” of children’s literature – were announced.
The John Newbery Medal for most outstanding contribution to children’s literature went to Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me, an imaginative novel that draws inspiration from previous Newbery Medal winner A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L’Engle). The Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults was awarded to Libba Bray’s newest novel, Going Bovine, a wild tale about a 16-year-old slacker who ends up taking a dysfunctional, Don Quixote-like journey across the country with a Mexican-American video-game loving dwarf.
In addition, ten books published as “adult books” were designated as Alex Award winners, for having special appeal for teen readers. Among those winners were Lev Grossman’s The Magicians and David Small’s National Book Award finalist, Stitches: A Memoir.
On a slightly related note, the ALA also released its 2010 Notable Books for Adult Readers list and the 2010 Outstanding Genre Reading List (also for adults). I was excited by the genre list, because I don’t often recognize the authors on such lists. This time, however, Julia Quinn snagged the award for the Romance genre.
Meanwhile, in Hollywood, the Critics Choice Awards and the Golden Globe Awards honored some literary-inspired films. The best screenplay award at both ceremonies went to Up in the Air, an adaptation of a 2001 novel with the same name by Walter Kirn. A handful of actors were also honored for their work in movies based on books and literary characters: Meryl Streep (for the Julie and Julia adaptation), Sandra Bullock (for The Blind Side, originally a book by Michael Lewis) and Robert Downey, Jr. (for Sherlock Holmes, a movie based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous literary detective).
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