From: sharon senser <dearanxiety>
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 15:37:38 -0800

I'm chiming in on this topic a little bit late, but wanted to chime in nonetheless. I did find The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing to be a challenging read for me, and at times wondered who the intended audience was. But ultimately I found it to be an outstanding book completely worthy of this award. The fictional setting and story does such a fabulous job of telling a great truth about some pretty dark parts of this country's history.

My other favorite from this list is American Born Chinese. I've been a reader of graphic novels for a long time, and it's so nice to see the truly great ones being recognized. Yang's method of weaving three stories together in such a surprising way made for a really unique reading experience, and the graphic part of the graphic novel was just fabulous. Neither the words, nor the graphics, would have stood so strongly on their own, but together they were just right. And, I think, quite true to the experience of many young Asian Americans who don't see themselves in literature often enough.

So, my two cents!

Sharon Senser

(Hi, Ruth.)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.ad.education.wisc.edu
> [mailto:ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.ad.education.wisc.edu] On Behalf Of Megan
> Schliesman
> Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 11:46 AM
> To: ccbc-net, Subscribers of
> Subject: [CCBC-Net] National Book Award
>
> Today we'll begin our discussion of the 2006 National Book Award Youth
> Literature winner and nominees:
>
> Winner:
>
> The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson
> (Candlewick Press)
>
> Nominees:
>
> Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt (Front Street)
>
> Sold by Patricia McCormick (Hyperion)
>
> The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin (Dial)
>
> American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (First Second/Roaring Brook Press)
>
>
> (For more information on the National Book Award, go to
> http://www.nationalbook.org/nba.html)
>
>
> We welcome your thoughts on one or more of these titles!
>
> Megan
>
>
>
> --
> Megan Schliesman, Librarian
> Cooperative Children's Book Center
> School of Education, UW-Madison
> 600 N. Park St., Room 4290
> Madison, WI 53706
>
> ph: 608-262-9503
> fax: 608-262-4933
> schliesman at education.wisc.edu
>
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-- 
"all land is holy. all people are chosen." --alan senauke

Received on Fri 12 Jan 2007 05:37:38 PM CST