The Printz Award, like the Newbery Medal or Caldecott Award, is given every year for excellence in young adult literature. Also every year, the Multnomah County Library puts on a Mock Printz workshop so interested parties can read and discuss YA books and vote their own winner. I am an interested party and this is my fifth workshop.
We discuss ten books in small groups and part of the fun is if your group gets to go to the conference rooms on the fifth floor. For the first time since my first year I got to go to the fifth floor. Mt. Hood was beautiful in the distance.
We had nine minutes per book and I was the time keeper. I used a watch, which I find better for these activities than timers on devices. Because those don’t stay on and the end of the time comes as a surprise. This way we could flex a minute or two if the discussion was running hot.
Our ballot. I voted for Story of Owen, Crossover, and (surprisingly and only due to discussion) Noggin.
After small discussion comes large discussion. The small group discussion are reported out in light blue on the right-hand side of the sheet. After large group discussion we voted again and those are the results tallied on the left. We Were Liars was our big winner, followed distantly by Ava Lavender (which I loathed) and Glory O’Brien (which I loved).
Youth attend and discuss too. After, they get to take home ARCs (Advance Review Copies) of books. The young man on the right was in my discussion group. He and four of his friends came from Jefferson County (about 120 miles away). Such dedication.
To find out if we picked correctly (I don’t think we did. We Were Liars is fantastic, but more of an “event read” than a sterling example of Young Adult literature) tune in on February 2 at 8:00am CST to the webcast. Sadly, I will not be listening live as I was last year as I have to work that morning and 6:00am PST is when my entire morning routine happens.
Though it has occurred to me that I could get up at five, do my morning routine from five to six and then listen live to the winners. Hmmmm.
