Thank you to those of you who responded last week and helped me promote Joyce’s lovely re-issued books. Once again, I let my daughter pick the lucky winner of Joyce Moyer Hostetter’s TWO amazing historical paperbacks, and she chose . . . Medeia Sharif! Which I think is lucky, indeed, because not only is Medeia an avid reader and book blogger, and, of course, a YA author, she is a high school teacher, so the book is just so PERFECT for her on so many different levels.

I hope so, anyway! 🙂

Medeia, Joyce and/or I will be writing to you shortly.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! 🙂

But I am not done here yet. While we’re on the subject of winners, I wanted to talk to you about this year’s National Book Award.

Here is the list of all the worthy (I am sure!) nominees for 2011 which were announced in mid-October:

Franny Billingsley, Chime (Dial Books, an imprint of Penguin Group USA, Inc. )

Debby Dahl Edwardson, My Name Is Not Easy (Marshall Cavendish)

(Love the title — AND the fact that it’s published by an awesome small publisher!)

Thanhha Lai, Inside Out and Back Again (Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers)

Albert Marrin, Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy (Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books)

Gary D. Schmidt, Okay for Now (Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

What a diverse and interesting-looking bunch! I look forward to reading each one, and probably reviewing my favorites.

But, I wanted to mention one more title, which, in my eyes, is THE National Book Award winner this year. I know many other writers, readers and YA lit afficionados feel the same way. I am talking about “Shine,” by Lauren Myracle.

Set in a small, religious Southern community, the story follows a 16-year-old girl whose gay friend became a victim of a brutal hate crime. The main character, Cat, is on a quest to find the perpetrator. And while the answer to the mystery seemed just a bit questionable to me (but that’s a matter of a personal opinion), the story was executed with beautiful and aching honesty that took my breath away, the setting was rendered exquisitely, and the real complex characters acting under powerful pressures kept me turning pages. I am one of many who believe that this book deserves the highest literary honors for its powerful story.

Enter the National Book Awards. The committee’s representative called the author, Lauren, earlier this month, telling her that she was a finalist. Joy, congratulations and many cheers in YA lit circles followed by the announcement. Until — oops — it turned out the National Book Awards committee made a mistake. You can read about it here, if you don’t know what happened: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/17/lauren-myracle-withdraws-national-book-awards_n_1015649.html

I could rant to you about the unfairness of it, how poorly and disgracefully the whole thing was handled.

Instead, I am going to focus on what everyone else in the kid lit community has been talking about: Lauren Myracle. In her honesty and grace under pressure, Lauren reminded me of “Shine’s” brave protagonist Cat. So, cheers for all the National Book Award finalists! Cheers for Joyce and her wonderful books as well, and cheers for Medeia, the winner of our contest giveaway. And, finally, cheers for Lauren Myracle and her beautiful, important, miraculous book.