Yes, I’m alive and still reading, although you wouldn’t know it from this blog.  I’m weeks – WEEKS – away from being a real librarian, if the Lord is willing and the creeks don’t rise (or whatever that saying is).  Actually, there is a creek nearby that flooded recently, and floods closed off parts of I-5 a few weeks ago and made it tricky for many of my fellow future-librarians to get to residencies in Seattle.  Fortunately I did not have to go up this quarter (100% online classes), and the nearby creek was is no danger of flooding my house.

Hmm, was I going somewhere with that?  I went to all these fabulous mock awards workshops recently (you know how I love mock awards) – a Printz and a Caldecott.  And the real announcements are only a few days away!  And then we can start making predictions for next year!  Just kidding.  If I weren’t exhausted and lazy, I’d get up off the couch and find the lists of what we voted for.  Instead I’ll just try to remember.

Mock Caldecott:

Winner: Silent Music

Honors: A River of Words, What to do About Alice, and Wabi Sabi

Silent Music and A River of Words were very close in points, which would of course not fly in the real committee.  Silent Music didn’t really grab me, but I liked all the others (and swooned a little over various illustrations in Wabi Sabi and A River of Words).

Mock Printz:

Winner: Little Brother

Honors: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and My Most Excellent Year

Frankie was my personal favorite from the bunch we read – although not my favorite for the award – so I was pleased to see she did well.  I certainly liked the others, but I don’t know how well their literary merit would stand up for the committee.  They’re definitely all good books, though, and highly recommendable.

My reading has been pretty sluggish lately – I feel like I’m plodding through things even though I like them – like Eva Ibbotson’s latest, The Dragonfly Pool, and now Evil Genius.  Usually when I’m supposed to be doing classwork, I fly through books and can’t put them down. Very curious.