Ricks says:

San Antonio is strangely quiet tonight. The Rickettes left this morning after spending the weekend steeping in literature and librarians. Alene dragged them out of bed this morning for one last hurrah. We all went to the Youth Media Awards in the morning, where a number of major Teen and Children’s book awards from ALA (like the Caldecott, the Newbery and the Printz) are announced. It is not an exaggeration to say that the event is the Academy Awards of the library world. Ballroom C seats about 1,000 people and it was standing room only. TV cameras were set up to broadcast the announcement live. The room was quiet with breathless anticipation while people waited for the awards to be announced. Basically, it was nerd central and I was proud to be in the thick of things. I would have had a weird perma-smile if I hadn’t been biting my fingernails.

Lots happened, but this was the important stuff, in my opinion:

The Printz Award is given to a book published for teens based on literary merit. BBYA Committees are always a little excited to see who will win the Printz or be named as honor books since these titles will automatically be placed on the BBYA list. I was happy to discover that John Green’s Looking for Alaska won the Printz Award, since it was one of my favorites of the year. It was also one of the STAB’s favorites as well. When they announced he had won I screamed like a teenage girl, probably since I’ve been spending too much time with a bunch of them lately. The teenage girls, on the other hand, just sagely nodded their heads. Whatever professionalism I had was pretty much thrown out the window. It was worth it though.

The honor books were also some great picks. They were John Lennon: All I want is the truth, The Messenger, Black Juice and A Wreath for Emmett Till. I’m so happy with my friends who were on the committee who made such wonderful decisions. So happy, in fact, I’m going to name them: Kim Payone, Jennifer Hubert-Swan, and Deborah Taylor. Great people, smart and oh so fashionable.

The other big excitement at the awards ceremony was that some of my favorite adult books of the year were also honored. The Alex awards are given to books that are published for adults but have high teen appeal. My personal favorites from their list of 10 were Gil’s All Fright Diner, As Simple As Snow, and Anansi Boys. My friend on the committee, Holly Koelling, no doubt had a lot to do with such great choices.

After the Youth Media awards the Rickettes made their way back home to Shoreline. I have to admit, having an entourage was a lot of fun. There was always someone to hang out with and chat with and to laugh at my stories/goof ups. One of my colleagues at ALA referred to me as an “A-Lister” while in San Antonio. I told them that I still felt like I was on the “C-List”. Of course, when a group of people see you and immediately begin screaming and running up to you it sure feels like “A-List’ treatment. This actually happened when the teens first met me at the Exhibits on Saturday morning. But I was quickly brought back to reality as one of my committee members, who was close behind the teens, discovered it was me that they were so excited to see, she stated quite directly, “Oh. I thought it was somebody important.” Definitely a C-Lister. Maybe D.

On the BBYA front, today was our last day of discussions. Tomorrow we will have our final vote to determine what will make the final list. We will try and narrow our 217 titles down to a mere 70-80. Some tough choices will have to be made by the committee tonight. But, before we do our final we can make one final plea for a particular book. My problem is, I have at least 4 books that are short of votes. I’m not sure what I’ll do at this point, but I have a feeling the answer lies somewhere at the bottom of a tube of Pringles.