Prince to Printz

Well we will be going from the Son of the sea god, Poseidon, to the Printz winner and honor books. This month we want you to pick at least one of the Printz award books to read by March 15. Just so you are all knowledgeable in the world of literary awards, the Printz award is basically the Newberry for Young Adult (YA) books. I would jump on placing your requests at your library because Award books can be hard to get at times. Just so you can place your requests and plan ahead, we will be reading the Newberry Award books next.

The Printz books are announced in January, and I actually haven’t read any of these books. However, I do know that when choosing YA books it is important to read the reviews. I prefer cleaner books, so I always have to choose YA books wisely. About half YA books are great and clean, and then there are some others that think YA books need to have some adult type content. I just wanted to forewarn you because I haven’t read any of these. The brief synopsis about each book I got from the ALA website.

The 2010 Printz Award goes to Going Bovine by Libba Bray. This book is well written, quite humorous, and a clean book written about your typical teenage boy. However, this boy is diagnosed with a deadly disease. He seeks out for a cure, but also ends up with a random array of adventures along the way including a jazz musician, time travel, and a garden gnome.

The Printz Honor books are the following:

Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman is a book that is a little bit of a romance, a bit of biography, and a bit of a scientific journey. “Once Charles Darwin sets his rational mind to marry the religious Emma Wedgeworth, they both must take a leap of faith in order to build a life together.”

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey is a horror book, but fascinating nonetheless. “Will Henry, orphan and assistant to a monstrumologist, races against time to save his town (and himself) from the anthropophagi, a pod of monstrous creatures who prey on humans.”

Punkzilla by Adam Rapp is about a “fourteen-year-old runaway Jamie, homeless and strung out, embarks on a harrowing journey to reach his dying brother.”