Anyway...

I feel like I'm the only person in the kidlitosphere that is apathetic about the Youth Media Awards. Even my friend Sara who doesn't blog outside of once a year dedicated our daily email thread to them. Am I the Grinch that stole the Awards Ceremony? Granted, I did not fashion my aged dog and myself in spiffy outfits and take the correspondences into a red sack, all the while laughingly maniacally. This much is true, but I still am all bah-humbug! about this stuff.

When I was a kid Newberry books were something you had to read for school over and over again, and therefore sucked. Now that I'm a librarian I'm supposed to get giddy about it? I can still see that strained look when kids come into the library with their Newberry assignments, so I know this hasn't changed much in the past decade. I know there are kids out there that get excited about the award books, but from my personal experience they are younger and care about the Caldecott. I honestly tried to be proactive about them the summer before library school started and ... fail. The books I read were enjoyable but that nagging feeling that I was reading a Newberry clouded my brain. Prejudices die hard.

So, Kidlitters, I implore you to show me why I should care about this. Yeah, it's a bit of a demand and yeah, I'm aware 2 people read this but still... IMPLORE!

Note: What do I know? I'm not even a for-real librarian yet, what with that pesky graduation 4 months away. Also: I love Animorphs which should serve as several grains of salt in and of itself.