Hooray for readers everywhere!

The Newbery award winners were announced today and check out this luscious group of winners:

The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman

Honor books:

The Underneath, by Kathi Appelt
Savvy, by Ingrid Law
After Tupac and D Foster, by Jacqueline Woodson
Surrender Tree:  Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle

Did you see right? Yes you did--three fantasy books. THREE! It's rare to have one on the list. Elizabeth Bird pointed out that princess academy was the most recent fantasy to be awarded, and that was three years ago. And now, this year's list has three. Wow. I have a feeling booksellers are very happy. It's a blessed event when the big winners are also commercially viable and hits with kids. The Graveyard Book could very well be the new Holes. How exciting.

The Printz Award for teen books has an equally appealing line-up:

Jellicoe Road by Marlene Marchetta

2009 Honor Books:

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation Volume II:  The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson
Nation by Terry Pratchett
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

M.T. Anderson will be a squeetus exclusive this week, I'm happy to say. That Tobin is a joy and a half. Don't let him fool you with his enormous genius brain, he's laugh-till-you-weep funny too.

2009 Caldecott Award Winner:

The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson and Beth Krommes

2009 Caldecott Honor Books:

A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee
River of Words:  The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet
How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz