The 2011 New Mexico Book Awards!

The 2011 New Mexico Book Award winners have been announced!

The full list of winners can be found on the New Mexico Book Co-op website Congratulations to all the winners!






This year's list of award winners is long, so here's a sample:



Young Readers
Grandpa's magic tortilla
by Demetria Martínez and Rosalee Montoya-Read ; illustrations by Lisa May Casaus ; Spanish translation by Rosalee Montoya-Read.

Juvenile
Tortilla sun
by Jennifer Cervantes.

Young Adult
Split
by Swati Avasthi.

Anthology
Rio Arriba : a New Mexico county
compiled and edited by Robert J. Tórrez & Robert Trapp.

Biography
Open range : the life of Agnes Morley Cleaveland
by Darlis A. Miller.

Biography
Kit Carson : the life of an American border man
by David Remley.

Gardening
Gardens of Santa Fe
by Anne Hillerman ; photographs by Don Strel.

Multi-cultural Subject
Chief Loco : Apache peacemaker
by Bud Shapard.

Nature/Environment
The return of the river : writers, scholars, and citizens speak on behalf of the Santa Fe River
edited by A. Kyce Bello.

Nature/Environment
Raptors of New Mexico
edited by Jean-Luc E. Cartron.

Children and Teen Book Awards

This past weekend, many of our library colleagues converged on sunny San Diego for the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting. A highlight of this annual event is the announcement of award winners in Children's and Young Adult books, including the renowned Newbery and Caldecott medals.

Here is a list of some of the award recipients:

Newbery Medal: Moon over Manifest, by Clare Vanderpool.

Caldecott Medal: A Sick Day for Amos McGee, by Erin E. Stead.

Printz Award: Ship Breaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi.

Coretta Scott King Author Award: One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia.

Pura Belpré Author Award: The Dreamer, by Pam Muñoz Ryan.

Morris Award: The Freak Observer, by Blythe Woolston.

Stonewall Award: Almost Perfect, by Brian Katcher.

YALSA Award for Excellence: Janis Joplin : rise up singing, by Ann Angel.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Award: Tomie dePaola.

Margaret A. Edwards Award: Sir Terry Pratchett

For information about Honor Books (runners-up) and winners for additional medals and awards, check the official press release. For information about the awards themselves, the ALA has these links.

Years of Service

Congratulations to all of our staff who received Longevity Awards from the City.

5 Years
Pat Armijo—Main
Theresa Dominick—Main
Vicky Salgado—Main

15 Years
Susie Sonflieth—La Farge / Southside
Edith Martinez—Community Services

That adds up to 30 years of Library staff time! (Plus 15 for our great Community Services Office Manager).

Mayor Coss and City Manager Robert Romero presented certificates to all the recipients of the Longevity Award.

By PCH @Main
Photo by CF @SS

Finally! The 2010 NM Book Awards!

The 2010 New Mexico Book Award winners have been announced! Also, this year's Friends of New Mexico Books Awards go to Nasario García (Santa Fe), Demetria Martínez (Albuquerque), and Derek Buschman (Albuquerque), for their support of local New Mexico books. The full list of winners can be found on the New Mexico Book Co-op website.

Among the excellent publications are:


Children’s Picture Book
Bad News for Outlaws
by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson & R. Gregory Christie


Anthropology/Archaeology/Science
Geology of Northern New Mexico’s Parks
by L. Greer Price


Anthology
The Essays
by Rudolfo Anaya


Arts Book
The Santa Fe House
by Margaret Moore Booker


Biography & Best of Show
Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power
by James McGrath Morris


Gay/Lesbian (GLBT) Book
My Invented Life
by Lauren Bjorkman


Novel – adventure or drama
The Ghost of Milagro Creek
by Melanie Sumner


Novel – historical fiction
The Sixth Surrender
by Hana Samek Norton


First Book
Dance of the Eggshells
by Carla Aragón & Kathy Dee Saville

&

Gila Country Legend: Life & Times of Quentin Hulse
by Nancy Coggeshall

This Year's Prize

This year's winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature is Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa. At the risk of betraying the Librarian's Code of Impartiality, I must say that he's one of my favorite writers, and this inspires, well, reminds me to read more of his prolific works.

Interested in reading the new Nobel Laureate but don't know where to begin? The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta is a good introduction, or The War at the End of the World is one that will stay with you for years. We also have many of his books in both English and Spanish, so you'll be able to savor the writing without the nuisance of translation.

Let us know: which are your recommended Vargas Llosa books?


Photograph by: Pierre-Philippe Marcou, AFP/Getty Images

Books? Did someone say books?

A couple of exciting book-related events are coming up in the area. This Friday and Saturday, the Santa Fe Antiquarian Book Show will be held at El Museo Cultural, 1615 Paseo de Peralta. Special guests include local authors Hampton Sides and Jack Loeffler. Admission is $10 for both days, or $6 for Saturday only.

Dates and Times:
Friday, October 1: 4 pm - 9 pm
Saturday, October 2: 9 am - 5 pm.

Also on the horizon is the 2010 New Mexico Book Awards Banquet. This year it will be held on Friday, November 19 at the MCM Elegante Hotel in Albuquerque. Tickets are $48 per person, but if you buy them by October 10 they're $38. You can click here for more information and online ticket purchases.

Can't make the banquet? Check out the list of finalists on the New Mexico Book Co-op website, and stay tuned for the list of winners.

It just takes a sentence

I'd be lying if I said that I wait all year for these. Honestly, I completely forget about them until the annual winners are announced, and then I savor each and every monster morsel of a sentence. And what, you might ask, am I talking about? The Bulwer-Lytton Awards!

While none of them start with "It was a dark and stormy night...", it is that immortal clause that inspires terrible brevity year after year. These sentences all tell a story, hopefully in the worst way possible. This year, the winners in Detective and Science Fiction stand out as gems. But that's enough out of me, lest I accidentally win the Purple Prose award.

And the winners are...

Last week we wrote about the upcoming announcements for various awards for children's and young adult literature. Here is a list of some of the award recipients:

Newbery Medal: When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead.

Caldecott Medal: The Lion & the Mouse, written and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.

Printz Award: Going Bovine, by Libba Bray.

Coretta Scott King Author Award: Bad news for outlaws: the remarkable life of Bass Reeves, deputy U.S. marshall, written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. Vaunda Nelson is Youth Services Librarian at Rio Rancho's Esther Bone Memorial Library.

Pura Belpré Author Award: Return to Sender, by Julia Alvarez.

Morris Award: Flash Burnout, by L.K. Madigan.

For information about Honor Books (runners-up) and winners for additional medals and awards, check the official press release. For information about the awards themselves, the ALA has these links.

Rio Rancho Librarian Wins Prestigious Library Award

Congratulations to Vaunda M. Nelson for winning the 2010 Coretta Scott King Author Book Award for Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshall. Vaunda is Youth Services Librarian at Rio Rancho's Esther Bone Memorial Library.

The American Library Association announced the list of award-winning books at the Mid-Winter Conference in Boston last week, with the big news for Vaunda and New Mexico. Published by Carolrhoda Books and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, the biography relates the story of a slave who grew into one of the most feared and respected lawmen in Indian Territory in the 1800s. During his career, Reeves made more than 3,000 arrests but killed only 14 men.

The Coretta Scott King Book Awards annually recognize outstanding books for young adults and children by African-American authors and illustrators that reflect the African-American experience. The award was designed to commemorate the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and to honor Mrs. Coretta Scott King for her courage and determination to continue the work for peace.

Reposted from the New Mexico State Library website. Stay tuned for a list of other award winners!

It's that time of the year again!

For those of us in the Children's book biz this is an exciting time of the year. Today, the Newbery (yes, that is the correct spelling), Caldecott and other children's and Young Adult book awards will be announced. It is always fun to see if your favorites are winners or completely passed over by the Committee. There are many Mock Newbery blogs to scope out and lots of controversy about what kind of books and how they are picked to warm the heart of any librarian or avid reader. So make your list of your favorite books and vote at the Main Children's Department and see if you can pick the winner.