The view from the floor

Wonderful surprises! And really I’m so pleased to be surprised…over this weekend everyone’s been saying what a wide open field this has been, and if there hadn’t been surprises I’d have been gravely disappointed.

Hooray to ONE CRAZY SUMMER and DARK EMPEROR, which so many of you have appreciated here.

And hooray to those of you who said it over and over: MOON OVER MANIFEST, TURTLE IN PARADISE, and HEART OF A SAMURAI.  I like Beth’s “whew” post, and actually am having the same “whew.”   I think that this year’s publishing showcased such a variety of kinds of distinguished writing, we had to see some outliers.   Some key people, offline, told me to check out MOON OVER MANIFEST, and I did.  And I didn’t finish reading it. And that’s what makes horse races. ..or, rather, award discussions.

Though I’m missing seeing a bunch of the distinguished nonfiction we talked about, I’m really thrilled about the Sibert selections, and hope people take a look.

And the CSK winners for writing AND illustration showed up on the Newbery and Caldecott honors: wonderful parallels.

My computer’s been kaputing on me this conference, so I haven’t been as present online as I’d hoped (thanks Jonathan!)…My copy of MOON is back at work, so it’ll be the end of the week before I can finish.  I look forward to reading what you all have to say about it!

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