Youth Media Awards

The time is coming when the BIG awards for youth literature published in 2017 are going to be announced.  As always, there's a lot of speculation about who is going to win the prizes.  Which prizes, you ask?  The Printz Award - for Young Adult Fiction.  The Newberry Award for Children's Fiction, and the Caldecott for Children's Picture Books.

I've read books that I think are big contenders this year.  I know I'm wrong about which book will win, but I'm going to list my personal favorites:

1) You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
Author: Sherman Alexie

The true story of Alexie's life growing up on the Rez.  This bold, stark tale of life with alcoholic parents in the extreme poverty of life on an Indian Reservation is a look at the different ways we love - and express our love for the people in our lives.

2) The Hate U Give
Author: Angie Thomas

In a story ripped from the headlines, a young teen is shot by police during a traffic stop.  The following he said/she said story brings a community to the edge of violence, and the jury verdict pushes the city over the edge.  Insightful commentary brings the story out of the headlines and into your hands, turning what you thought you knew about these stories upside down.

3) That Inevitable Victorian Thing
Author: E.K. Johnston

In this Alternative History, the Victorian Empire has flourished, and rules the entire globe.  Set in modern day Canada, Margaret Anne, the next in line for the British Throne, has her coming out disguised as a relatively unknown noble person named Margaret Sandwich.   Margaret has the summer of a lifetime, free from the strictures of the court until she discovers love - an unconventional love that could turn the empire upside down.


I'd love to see You Don't Have to Say You Love Me win it all, but I wouldn't be surprised if The Hate U Give is the winner.

What about you?  Do you have any predictions for this year?

The Cruel Prince

Black, Holly.  The Cruel Prince.  2018.  Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Jude is an ordinary girl growing up in suburbia with her parents and sisters when her world is unexpectedly turned upside down.

A mysterious stranger appears at her parents door one day.  He confronts her mother, and slaughters both of her parents before she has a chance to scream.  He explains that he is from the Faerie Kingdom, and is one of the folk.  Their mother had been his wife, and their oldest sister was his child.  He then takes all three of the children back to Faerie to raise as his own. It turns out that her new father is the General to the High King.

Jude is a mortal who finds herself swept into the strange world of Faerie, with all of the political intrigue and anger that accompany her when The Folk are forced to treat Jude and her sister as equals.



The intrigue deepens when the High King of Faerie is to step down and appoint one of his children as the next High King.  As Jude attempts to remain alive when it seems all about her are trying to kill her, she finds herself swept into the intrigue of the high court.  It turns out that not all is as it seems, and that not everything is as clear cut and straight forward as she thought.  There are plots within plots within plots.



Can Jude survive the transition?  Will she continue to have a place in court?  Who is the mysterious suitor that will be asking for her sister's hand in marriage?  What part does her little brother Oak have to play in this drama?



Plots within plots within plots will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last twisty, turny end of the book.


Find this book in a library near you: https://www.worldcat.org/title/cruel-prince/oclc/1039680704&referer=brief_results