Followed by, It's my Sunday

The ALA Youth Media Award will be announced tomorrow morning @ 7:45 Mountain Time from Denver, Colorado and the 2009 midwinter meetings. I always envision the announcement in Groundhog Day terms when the members of the Groundhog Club grab Punxsutawney Phil from his warm dark home to pronounce six more weeks of winter (I think he's a bit spiteful). The committee will emerge from it's dark cave, er meetings, announce the winners, and set off a buying frenzy. Librarians who have not already purchased the titles will be logging in to their book seller of choice placing frantic orders.

Even though the announcement time translates roughly to 9:45 ET, tomorrow is my day off and I am not sure where I'll be. Curiosity will compel me to see if we have any of the winners at some point during the day. I do have a contingency plan in place, I've asked the technical services librarian to monitor the announcements. If we have the Caldecott winner she will pull it from the shelves so it may be placed on reserve for our children's literature class. I do not have any strong feelings about a particular children's book this year, or a prediction of any kind (though I did like three of our recent purchases Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken, Sour Puss and Sweetie Pie, and Too Many Toys) but two different SLJ articles predicted winners in March of 2008 and again in June 2008.

Here are a few of the awards to be announced tomorrow:

• Alex Awards
• Coretta Scott King Book Awards
• John Newbery Medal
• Michael L. Printz Award
• Pura Belpré Award
• Randolph Caldecott Medal
• Theodor Seuss Geisel Award

I need to email the technical services librarian and ask if she'll get the Coretta Scott King Award winner to place on reserve for the same children's literature class.