And the Winner Is…M.T. Anderson

-- School Library Journal, 11/16/2006

M. T. Anderson, author of The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The Pox Party, is this year's National Book Award winner for young people’s literature.
Anderson’s no stranger to the limelight—his satirical sci-fi story Feed (both Candlewick) was a finalist for the 2002 National Book Award and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for the best young adult novel of the year.

The Pox Party, which takes place during the Revolutionary War, tells the story of the young son of an African slave. Octavian is the subject of a scientific study in

Boston, just before the start of the war. The first part of the novel is narrated in the boy’s highly educated, rational voice. But after Octavian loses his voice 220 pages into the book, the story continues through letters written by those who knew him. The book explores the issue of slavery and what it means to be a patriot and a loyalist.

The 38-year-old Anderson, whose initials stand for Matthew Tobin, beat four other finalists: Patricia McCormick for Sold (Hyperion), about a 13-year-old Nepali girl sold into sexual slavery; Nancy Werlin, for The Rules of Survival (Hyperion), a teen’s exploration of self-reliance and evil; Gene Luen Yang for American Born Chinese (First Second/Roaring Brook/Holtzbrinck), a graphic novel about a Chinese-American boy who is taunted about his heritage after moving to the suburbs; and Martine Leavitt for Keturah and Lord Death (Front Street/Boyds Mills), the story of a young girl who holds off Lord Death with her magic storytelling.

In his acceptance speech, Anderson humorously chided his publisher Candlewick for "showing incredibly poor judgment" by agreeing to publish his rather unorthodox and lengthy (900 page) two volume historical novel. Typically children’s publishers will say no to such a proposal, he said. The audience applauded when Anderson said Candlewick’s decision was a "testament to what a small press can do by taking risks."

Anderson also praised the judges for making Yang's graphic novel a finalist because "there's a lot of dithering that goes on in the blogosphere as to whether graphic novels are literature. I'm really glad they're [the judges] are leading this charge."

Anderson was interviewed by Kathleen Horning in the November issue of SLJ.