National Book Awards: The Judging Part

Update on my work for the NBA this long summer and fall:  finally got through several hundred (yes) YA novels, along with my four colleagues on the Youth Lit panel.  We met first in New York City to get acquainted, then had our meetings on a Google document/spreadsheet where we reviewed and ranked each novel.  We also had many conference calls.  I will write at length about this process for the HuffingtonPost, then repost that here--so won't go on at the moment.

I'm actually back on my heels and then some.  After all our hard work, there was a public relations fiasco at the very end.  The list of five finalists the committee submitted was announced wrongly on National Public Radio.  Two of the books had a similar name, and the wrong one was announced as a finalist.  The "real" finalist was quickly added to the list, but the damage was done.  Damage control is ongoing by the NBA as I write, and going way too slowly for my tastes.  More to come on this.