I just read an article about a young adult readers book selection that was “accidentally” nominated for the National Book Award. It was read aloud and included in a list of top five books for Young People’s Literature, but then the committee said they were sorry and they had the wrong book. The book that was named was titled “Shine” by Lauren Myracle, but it was supposed to be “Chime” by Franny Billingsley. I feel so bad for the author that was excited about the award nomination and then had it taken away. It looks to be a good book though (from reading reviews on Amazon), so I’m going to get it and read it. Maybe I’ll get both and compare the two and see which I like better and which I would have nominated.
What do you think about the mix-up? What do you think the committee should have done? How do you think both authors feel? To read the article I saw about the book mix-up, click HERE.
Here is a list of the National Book Award Nominations (winners to be announced in November):
2011 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALISTS ANNOUNCED
Andrew Krivak, The Sojourn
(Bellevue Literary Press)
Téa Obreht, The Tiger’s Wife
(Random House)
Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic
(Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House)
Edith Pearlman, Binocular Vision
(Lookout Books, an imprint of the Department of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington)
Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones
(Bloomsbury USA)
Fiction Judges: Deirdre McNamer (Panel Chair), Jerome Charyn,
John Crowley, Victor LaValle, Yiyun Li
Deborah Baker, The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism
(Graywolf Press)
Mary Gabriel, Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution
(Little, Brown and Company)
Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
(W. W. Norton & Company)
Manning Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
(Viking Press, an imprint of Penguin Group USA)
Lauren Redniss, Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout
(It Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers)
Nonfiction Judges: Alice Kaplan (Panel Chair), Yunte Huang,
Jill Lepore, Barbara Savage
Nikky Finney, Head Off & Split
(TriQuarterly, an imprint of Northwestern University Press)
Yusef Komunyakaa, The Chameleon Couch
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Carl Phillips, Double Shadow
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Adrienne Rich, Tonight No Poetry Will Serve: Poems 2007-2010
(W.W. Norton & Company)
Bruce Smith, Devotions
(University of Chicago Press)
Poetry Judges: Elizabeth Alexander (Panel Chair), Thomas Sayers Ellis,
Amy Gerstler, Kathleen Graber, Roberto Tejada
Franny Billingsley, Chime
(Dial Books, an imprint of Penguin Group USA, Inc. )
Debby Dahl Edwardson, My Name Is Not Easy
(Marshall Cavendish)
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)
Young People’s Literature Judges: Marc Aronson (Panel Chair),
Ann Brashares, Matt de la Peña, Nikki Grimes, Will Weaver
This story breaks my heart. A few years ago a girl friend of mine received an acceptance letter to Physical Therapy school. The school was only accepting 30 applicants out of a few hundred. She was ecstatic. A week later she receives another letter from the school informing her she was not accepted and there had been a mix up. What a let down.
Great read, Kristin!
Great job Kristen. I have never heard of this. Now, I am very intrigued. thank you!
How terrible, I feel so bad for the first author. =( Thanks so much for stopping by my blog, following you back!
Stumbled you from Kelly’s Lucky You Stumble Tumble.
Would love a stumble back…
http://www.ashbeedesigns.com/2011/10/august-and-september-monthly-blog-list.html
I haven’t read any of these books yet. Thanks for the list!
Thanks for the stumble too. Stumbled you back. 🙂
The thing that absolutely kills me about this story is that someone from the committee spoke to the author and confirmed all the information including title and publisher before the announcement was even made. I don’t have a link right now but I know there is an article from Lauren Myracle detailing her feelings about the situation including feeling humiliated.
I Stumbled your post. Mine is at http://librarygirlreads.blogspot.com/2011/10/otl-shutterfly-holiday-cards.html
Stumbled back…thanks for stumbling my post…they sound like good books…I will be sure to take a look…thanks
I feel bad about it. The committee should double check everything before releasing the nominees. If the titles sound or look the same, they can check the author`s name instead.
I stumbled you, my post is No More Saying, “If Only”!