The YA Book Log

2007 PRINTZ AWARD

Just eleven days ago I wrote the winners of the Nassau/Suffolk Young Adult Librarians choice for the 2007 Printz Award. Well, they were not even close. The winner is AMERICAN BORN CHINESE by Gene Luen Yang. This is the first graphic novel to honor. I reviewed this title for the YA BOOK LOG on November 11, 2006. (You might want to check it out.)
Yang’s publisher, FirstSecond, tells about the author on their webpage. Gene Yang began drawing comic books in the fifth grade. In 1997, he received the Xeric Grant, a prestigious comics industry grant, for Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks, his first comics work as an adult. He has since written and drawn a number of titles, including Duncan’s Kingdom (with art by Derek Kirk Kim) and The Rosary Comic Book.
He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his lovely wife, Theresa, and son, Kolbe, and teaches computer science at a Roman Catholic high school.

Four more books were honored in the 2007 selection.
THE ASTONISHING LIFE OF OCTAVIAN NOTHING, TRAITOR TO THE NATION; v.1: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson. With 18th century language this book tells the story of Octavian, the subject of a horritying Enlightenment experiment, who escapes slavery and fights in the American Revolution.
AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES by John Green, last year’s Printz winner. A road trip to the town of Gutshot, Tennessee, offers Colin Singleton, a child prodigy and compulsive boyfriend of girls named Katherine, the opportunity to face his past and find his future.
SURRENDER by Sonya Hartnett. This is a psychological thriller. A troubled young man relives the horrifying events that land him on his deathbed.
THE BOOK THIEF by Marcus Zusak This was the local librarians favorite. Death recounts the journey of Liesel Meminger, a young girl who witnesses the destructive and healing power of words in Nazi Germany.
Mrs. Jackson
Head of Young Adult Services