ALA Thoughts (or, one amazing speech)

I wish I could be in Chicago this weekend.  Actually, I often wish I could be in Chicago.  The city rocks.

But the sentiment is especially true this particular weekend, because the American Library Association is holding its annual meeting in the Windy City.  Thousands of librarians, authors, and other bookish people will congregate to share their love of literature and really good swag.  I went to ALA meeting in DC a few years back -- on a whim, because it was right in my backyard -- and ended up roaming the exhibit floor for hours, astounded at the plentiful displays, free ARCs, and star authors.

Apparently, one item on the ALA's agenda this year is a drastic change to the Best Books for Young Adults list.  It appears there is a proposal to replace that list, heretofore selected by tireless  librarians who scour the landscape for BBYA-worthy titles, with a list generated by a poll of readers.  Nothing against democracy here, but I'm leery about this idea at best, given the inevitable tendency of a popular poll to overlook hidden gems.

My own opinion on the matter is less important than that of Cindy Dobrez and Liz Rutan and author Alex Flinn.  Both of the posts explain, quite convincingly, why it would be wise to keep the BBYA list as is.  Well worth reading.

On the topic of ALA, congratulations to Melina Marchetta, who will be accepting the Printz Award for Jellicoe Road.  I'm about a quarter-way through it right now, and it's sort of blowing me away. 

And finally, on the topic of ALA, things worth reading, things that have blown me away recently, and Printz Awards, I direct you to John Green's 2006 Printz Award acceptance speech.  My God.  Just read the thing, seriously.

I realize that singing the praises of John Green is not exactly a novel endeavor, but I also noticed that his blog post with his 2006 speech has only six comments underneath it.  I hope it's not lost among the vast repositories of jokes, provocative thoughts on publishing, and dubious home-cooking videos that the inimitable Mr. Green has filed away on the Internet. Because this 2006 speech is amazingly good.  To anyone who values YA literature, writing, libraries, or articulate thinking about the above, it's a treasure.