The First Second blog has word out of this weekend’s American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in Seattle that Gene Yang’s American Born Chinese has received the prestigious Michael L. Printz Award, which recognizes excellence in young-adult literature.
It’s the first graphic novel to win the award.
Those are all the details I can find at the moment. The ALA conference is still going on, so apparently press releases haven’t been issued yet. Let’s call this “developing,” and I’ll update the post as I get more information.
Update (8:47 p.m.): The Associated Press story is making the rounds now.
Updated 2: The official ALA press release (thanks, Kat Kan)
(First Second link via Loren Javier.)
January 22nd, 2007 at 12:40 pm
The Printz Award is selected by a committee of librarians, half of whom are appointed by the President of the Young Adult Library Services Association, half of whom are elected by the YALSA membership. I had the privilege of serving on the Printz committee (I was elected) 5 years ago. The members read HUNDREDS of books and skim through hundreds more to find the books that seem to meet the criteria of strong story, good characters and settings and high literary quality. That American Born Chinese was even considered by this year’s committee was a milestone. That it won the award, which is saying that this book is the BEST book published for teens in 2006, is a huge milestone. When one considers that the committee basically had to look at the entire publishing output of books for teens in 2006, this particular accomplishment is amazing.
January 23rd, 2007 at 12:09 am
The press release is now up at the YALSA website. Go to http://www.ala.org/yalsa, and the link is right there on the page. You’ll also find information about the award there, and who Mike Printz was (only one of THE best school librarians that ever lived). And on Tuesday, the very first Great Graphic Novels for Teens list will debut at the YALSA website. How much more evidence do people need to see that libraries and librarians have accepted graphic novels and comics with open arms and minds?