Friday, July 28, 2006

2006 Alex Awards Program

One of the best things about the ALA conference is the number of different areas of librarianship represented. As an academic librarian, even though I purchase the children's and YA collection, I do not always have the opportunity to attend sessions dealing with YA and children's literature often more represented by the public and school libraries. Big conferences such as mid-winter and annual often are geared to accommodate all areas of interest. I try to make time for a session or two that deals with this genre for a couple of reasons; first because it is and always has been an area of literature of great interest to me, and second because as the education liaison at the university I work with the professors teaching children's and young adult literature. When so much of my time is spent with technology (web pages, etc), it is simply lovely to make time for literature sessions.

This photo is from the Alex Awards program that took place Sunday afternoon. Authors participating in this panel had written some of the 2006 Alex Award winni,ng novels. Speaking at the session were (alphabetically) Neil Gaiman, Greg Galloway, A. Lee Martinez, Susan Palwick, and Jeannette Walls. Of the award winning titles I read The Glass Castle by Walls last fall.

Titles written by the panel and recognized at this session were:

  • Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
  • As Simple as Snow - Greg Galloway
  • Gil's All Fright Diner - A. Lee Martinez
  • The Necessary Beggar - Susan Palwick
  • The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls

Since we regularly purchase Alex titles, I'm headed down to the recreational reading area right now armed with call numbers.

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