The winners of various book awards have been trickling out the last few days as the 2009 ALA Midwinter conference has wrapped up. Somehow I managed to not read a single book that won an award (though I've read three of the four Printz honor books). However, as most of my reading over the past six months has been guided by the Best Books for Young Adults nominees, I was most excited to see that list.
Perhaps the best book news for me was seeing that my absolute favorite book of 2008, The Hunger Games was named one of the ten best books for young adults for 2009, along with one of my other favorites, Ten Cents a Dance and Bog Child. And once again, I apparently read a different version of Nation than everyone else, since it made the top ten list, which kind of boggles my mind.
Glancing at the whole list, I see a few books that I would have included aren't there (including the just-reviewed Patron Saint of Butterflies and Gay America), but the books that really stood out to me all seem to have made it, so that's good :-) Perhaps I'll have more insight later when I've had a chance to really compare what I've reviewed so far with what made the list, but for now, work calls.