Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashi was translated from Japanese into English by Cathy Hirano. I want that to win the Batchelder!

What do you think will win the Morris Award? :D

I put my Newbery druthers in a post on my blog titled "Thoughts on Newbery: Appeal" and came to a different conclusion from you re The Hunger Games. I also have a bunch more suggestions for the Sibert: The Lincolns (Fleming), Ain't Nothing But a Man (Nelson/Aronson), River of Words (Bryan/Sweet), and Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Through the Gates and Beyond (Greenberg/Jordan).

I agree with Tarie about Moribito for the Batchelder. Unless the committee, following similar logic to the Caldecott scenario you mention above, decides they don't want to honor two Japanese books with related manga in a row. In which case I'll say Valerie Zenatti's A Bottle in the Gaza Sea, if only because of the timeliness of the subject.

So fun to read your predictions!

Your comments re why We Are the Ship won't win the Caldecott remind me of the year a nice Mormon girl whose talent was playing the harp won Miss America. Following Vanessa "Penthouse" Williams.

Aw, shoot. I forgot about "River of Words". That was actually going to be a Wild Card choice. I may have amend the list accordingly. Thanks for the reminder. And Moribito. I too forgot about that. It would be delightful if it won. Fingers are now firmly crossed.

I still fail to understand what's distinguished--remotely--about The Willoughbys.<br><br>

You probably noticed that Chains didn't get much love over at Heavy Medal's mock Newbery. I think the concerns you mention had a bigger effect on voting than might be expected. Will that hold true on the real committee?...<br><br>What to Do About Alice, with all its starred reviews, is probably a serious contender for the Caldecott, don't you think?

Indeed yes. I didn't give it much credit, but in the Mock Caldecotts around the country Jim Averbeck's spreadsheet shows that it's won some serious love. Personally I think it may have a better shot at the Sibert.

Ah! The Great Yellow Room Debate continues. Some people have said that's what they find intriguing, others have said "huh?"
My own thoughts are on my blog at
www.jimaverbeck.blogspot.com/2008/10/pas-de-deux-mais-oui.html
I think in the end there are so many good, deserving books. I don't know how anybody could pick just one!---Jim

Fascinating thoughts. (I'm just impressed that I've read a good number of books on that list this year...) It'll be interesting to see how right/wrong you are. ;)

What? No Eric Rohmann kitten book? This is what happens when people give us good stuff in February: it's all forgotten by the following year...

What about the Pura Belpre? Any predictions there?

Is there a Pura Belpre this year? I thought they gave it out last year and this year there wasn't anything. Mind you, I could be wrong about that. And I didn't exactly forget about the kitten book Tim . . . I dunno. It's a great book. I'm just not sure about its staying power. Then again I showed it to my homeschooler bookgroup and they all agreed that it was far superior to many other titles up for contention. So there's that . . .

I would add "One Boy" to the mix. Written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, it garnered three starred reviews for starters and is brilliant.

<p>I predict that the Caldecott will go to "We Are the Ship."</p><br>
<p>United Tweets of America is hilarious. Hope it gets something.</p>

Abe's Honest Words illustrated by Nelson interacts better with the text than the images in We Are Ship, thought they are both amazing. His work in Moses should have earned him a Caldecott last year, but Hugo Cabret was so different. Also this is the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth. I don't think that will go unnoticed by the committee, but who knows for sure.
Wabi Sabi is either the winner or an honor book.

Do you think the books that won't win but should have a chance at an honor?
I still have my fingers crossed for We are the Ship and How I learned Geography. What about Shooting the Moon by Frances.

My 11 year old LOVES Hunger Games with a passion - apparently, it is the best book ever and he has pressed it into the hands of every sixth grader he can find. It feels that sometimes people who categorize things as strictly "teen" and ignore the pre-teens haven't met either recently.

Eh, I think the Siebert's more likely to go to Candace Fleming's new book about the Lincolns, David Macaulay's <i>The Way We Work</i>, Gina Capaldi's <i>A Boy Named Beckoning</i> (awesome use of primary source material!), or even possibly the Nic Bishop/Ellen Jackson <i>The Mysterious Universe</i> (eh, at least for an honor. They've gotten one together before, for <i>The Tarantula Scientist</i>). Nelson's work has all the charm, but I think it runs into the same problem as <i>The Trouble Begins at 8</i>: the vernacular tone makes it difficult to separate fact from anecdote, and also to tell when things happened. Which, to me, seems to be the kinda thing that would irk the Siebert committee.
As for the Printz: I think that <i>The Hunger Games</i> will fall through the cracks completely in the face of <i>Tender Morsels</i>, <i>Paper Towns</i>, <i>The Knife of Never Letting Go</i>, and <i>The Direputable History of Yadda Yadda Yadda</i>. It's the same problem that a lot of books-aimed-at-junior-high-readers are going through: considered too teen for the Newbery, and not YA enough for the Printz. (See: <i>A True and Faithful Narrative</i>, <i>Book of a Thousand Days</i>, etc.) Which is too bad, I think.

I'm going with Boycott Blues or Piano Starts Here for illustration in the Coretta Scott King Awards. Bird or Stitchin' and Pullin: A Gee's Bend Quilt for author.

I've given up on guessing the Newbery Awards, though I thought Chains was great and The Underneath was amazing/interesting/odd - which means too divisive to win.

I commented before but I don't see my post. Please disregard this one if it end up to be a repeat.
Yes, the Pura Belpre used to be every two years, but as last time I heard it had gone annual.
Is the American Indian Youth Literature Award annual too? Any predictions there?

That's good to know! I hadn't heard of the annual change. These will bear consideration then. I'll give them some thought. Does anyone else have a suggestion?

Diamond Willow! Why does the ancestors-as-animals sink it? Is that bad? I thought it added another layer to an already multi-layered story. And We Are The Ship NOT getting the Caldecott? I think you could put that book on every list and it has a shot!
Thanks for your predictions - very intriguing as always...

I always love reading your predictions!

What is the point of having these awards if not to reward the ambition and scale of achievement it takes to make a book like We Are the Ship? I realize that there's a set of rules here - and a near-Talmudic body of exegesis on them - but honestly: is there really a picture book published last year that we'd rather see in every library in America? And thanks, Brooke (a few comments back) for remembering Candace Fleming's Lincoln book, which I think is good, accessible, reader-friendly history that doesn't seem watered-down. I can't imagine how long it took her to get permissions lined up for all those images...

I can't resist a shameless plug here. If you like Candace Fleming's book, then why not see her live and in person at my Children's Literary Cafe on Saturday, February 7th at 2:00? She will be presenting for us in the South Court auditorium, talking about "The Lincolns" and what she did to get those permissions you mentioned. At the Humanities and Social Science Library.

United Tweets of America--who'd have thought a book about the state birds could be so much fun. Not me, until I read this a couple of months ago.

Thanks for the predictions--fun!

Is Neil Gaiman allowed to win? Is he American? I thought there was some silly rule regarding that . . .

The stipulation is that you have to be an American resident. And I believe he is currently located in Minnesota, so there you go. By the same token, Cornelia Funke could win something since she's in L.A. And Oliver Jeffers could now someday win a Caldecott . . . you see how it goes.

Then by all means, Give the Gold to Gaiman!

Are these announced Monday?

Monday, yep. Monday Monday Monday.

Isn't the difficulty with The Graveyard Book that one of the chapters was published previously as a short story in "M is for Magic"? My understanding is that disqualifies it for the Newbery.

I agree about Carole Boston Weatherford and Sean Qualls for the CSK - I'd also love to see Andrea Davis Pinkney's "Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks inspired a nation" get some love.

That's entirely up to the decision of the committee chair. If they're hardcore then yes, it could be disqualified for that very reason. But there's a precedent for similar books of this nature, and it all comes down to how exactly the chair wants to interpret the rules. My vote is that they don't disqualify, but I could be completely wrong.

Wow, you are reall off on predictions.

I have good and bad years. I had no idea they'd go with Engle, though. I mean, she's great but below 14?