I just got back from San Diego, California, where the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting was held this year. 

I was there to meet with my eight colleagues on the Alex Award committee.  We had to determine this year’s winners in time for them to be announced at the annual Youth Media Awards press conference at the crack of dawn Monday morning, January 10, 2011.  We had met once before in person in Washington, DC at the ALA’s Annual Conference during the summer of 2010, but we had been reading and emailing each other about hundreds of possibilities all year.

If you have been reading Indy Theatre Habit from the beginning, you may remember my posts about the 2010 Alex Award winners and the 2009 Alex Award winners.  I also served on the committee that determined the 2008 Alex Award winners but they were announced right before I started this blog.

And yes, yes, I know that this is a theatre reviews blog, not a book reviews blog, but hey, it’s my blog, and this was my last year to serve on the Alex committee, and so I say that I’m going to give you one more list of books that you might enjoy reading on Monday nights when most theatres around here are dark.

The Alex Award is given to up to ten new books that were written for adults but which have potential appeal for teens, too.  Don’t worry if you are not a teenager or, for that matter, a literary snob.  I like to think of the Alex winners as books that hang together well enough for English teachers but which are enjoyable enough for the rest of us to read just for fun.

Here are the ten books that won the Alex Award this year, in order by author’s last name:

The Reapers Are the Angels: A Novel, written by Alden Bell, published by Holt Paperbacks, a division of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

I wept at the end of this unusual adventure story about life, death, and hope.  The main character, Temple, is a feisty young woman who may not know who her parents were and she may not be able to read but she can wield a knife and admire beauty even with blood and guts in her hair.  This is so much more than an apocalyptic “zombie book.”

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel, written by Aimee Bender, published by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.

I didn’t know this was magical realism until someone else called it that.  I bought into it right from the beginning.  The main character in this story tastes people’s emotions when she eats their food.  This is both burden and blessing, but mostly burden.  That’s why she likes to eat only vending machine cookies: all she can taste in them is the specific factory they came from.  But a person can’t live on vending machine snacks forever…

The House of Tomorrow, written by Peter Bognanni, published by Amy Einhorn Books, an imprint of G. P. Putnam’s Sons, a division of the Penguin Group.

This is a funny novel about friendship. A homeschooled boy and his grandmother live an isolated life in a dome-shaped glass house designed by her hero and former lover, futurist R. Buckminster Fuller.  The boy interacts only with tourists until one day his grandmother has a stroke.  At the hospital he meets a very angry boy from a family that is dysfunctional in other ways.  So of course the two boys start a band.

Room: A Novel, written by Emma Donoghue, published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Five-year-old Jack has always lived with his mother in Room.  They play games, watch TV, lie on their backs and look up at Skylight…their days are full.  At night, before Old Nick comes to make noises with his mother on Bed, Jack goes into Cupboard to sleep.  Room is all there is.  Until one day Jack’s mother tells him that there is more, and it is up to him to help them escape.  Yes, this is a nightmarish abduction story but it is also a hope-filled rescue and rehabilitation story, told in Jack’s unique and completely lovable voice.

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden: A Novel, written by Helen Grant, published by Delacorte, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.

“My life might have been so different, had I not been known as the girl whose grandmother exploded.”  Is that a great first line or what?  This creepy-but-not-gory mystery is set in Germany and offers a lot of good food for thought about national stereotypes, bullying, and more.  Also appealing, especially for those of us who love traditional storytelling, are the references to Grimm fairy tales.

The Radleys, written by Matt Haig, published by Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

I thought I would never want to read another vampire book, but oh, my goodness, I loved this quirky one!  The Radleys seem like an ordinary British family until one night at a party, a boy attempts to rape the teenaged Radley daughter.  In defending herself, she sprouts fangs and discovers what her parents have neglected to mention: they are a hereditary family of “abstaining” vampires.   No wonder none of them truly enjoys tea.

The Lock Artist, written by Steve Hamilton, published by Thomas Dunne Books for Minotaur Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press.

I guess one could call this “crime fiction” but as with many of the Alex winners this year, this book is so much more than its genre.  The narrator in this story has not spoken since he was nine years old.  He is a man writing from jail now, flipping back and forth between stories of how he got started as a “box man” for robberies when he was a teen, and the story of how he got caught, and the story of how he fell in love and, maybe, how it saved him.  There is fascinating stuff in his stories about how to unlock safes and how to draw comics, with wonderful food for thought about many kinds of communication and trust.

Girl in Translation, written by Jean Kwok, published by Riverhead Books, an imprint of the Penguin Group.

This is an ultimately feel-good story that reads like a memoir.  It is about a Chinese immigrant girl and her mother.  They live at the mercy of mean relatives in a slum in New York City but they never give up working and hoping for something better.

Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard, written by Liz Murray, published by Hyperion.

Okay, I confess that I have not read this one yet.  What can I say?  I had a hard time getting hold of a copy and there were always a million (it seemed) other contenders that I also needed to read.  However, a majority of the committee members did read this true story and voted it as one of their top ten of all of the books we read, so I am looking forward to reading it, too, as soon as my name comes up on the waiting list for it at my library.

The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep and Never Had To, written by DC Pierson, published by Vintage Books, a division of Random House.

A member of the Teen Library Council at my local public library turned me on to this science-fiction-y novel about (see title) before it ever came up in Alex committee conversations.  When I finished reading it, there were sticky notes all over it, marking language excerpts that had delighted me with their specificity and creativity.  It has an outsider teen protagonist telling his coming-of-age story in a straightforward plot while he is still a teen (as opposed to looking back from middle-age or whatever) and there are no parents around, so I couldn’t figure out why it hadn’t been published as a YA novel…except that the protagonist (and therefore the author and his publisher?) thinks that YA fiction is “dusty” (p. 99.)  I said, “Grr!” when I read that, and I wanted to shout, “How much YA lit have you actually read, buck-o?” But then I thought, “What the heck.  If teens find this through it being an Alex winner, that’s good enough for me.”  It is a fun read.

For the full press kit about the Alex winners and the other ALA youth media awards (e.g. Newbery, Caldecott, Printz, etc.) that were announced Monday morning, please go to:

http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/mediapresscenter/presskits/youthmediaawards/alayouthmediaawards.cfm

For just the press release please go to:

http://ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pr.cfm?id=6048

For the first time this year, the Alex committee also created and shared a “Vetted List of Nominations.”  Unlike last year, this is not a list of all of the books that were nominated.  It is a much tighter list: 25 books that the majority of this year’s committee members think are also noteworthy adult books with potential appeal for teens.  Here is a direct link to that list:

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/alexawards/2011nominations.cfm

Serving on the Alex committee for four years was a mind-boggling amount of work but it was also a pleasure and a privilege.  It was an exhausting and exhilerating experience that I will always treasure.  I wish all new and future members lots of good luck!

Okay, now I’m going back to writing about live theatre in the Indianapolis area.  My next post will be about Broadway Across America’s touring production of “9 to 5: the Musical.”  I saw it Wednesday night; it is at Clowes Hall through this Sunday.  It is a fun show!

‘See you at the theatres…

Hope Baugh – www.IndyTheatreHabit.com

(Photo of the stack of 2011 Alex winners above was taken by me with my trusty iPhone early last Sunday morning, when the Alex committee came back in the room after waiting for our secret ballots to be counted.  We were delighted to learn that we had reached a consensus.  Now ”all” we had to do was write the official annotations for the winners, decide on the titles that would go on the official vetted list of other nominations, and write annotations for those books as well.  Whew!  But somehow it all got done in time for us to meet our deadlines.  Yay!)

1/28/10 update: For the first time, you may also see the list of nominations for this award.  Each book on the “nom list” was nominated by a member of the Alex committee, which meant that she (everyone was a “she” this year) believed it to be a “wow” read, worthy of consideration for the Alex award, which meant that all nine members had to read it.  We did not know until this week that our nom list would be made public, but hey, stuff happens.  I  feel shy, but then delighted, knowing that you, too, can see what we discussed most thoroughly this year.  Because man, it was hard to keep it a secret!

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I am going to take my annual break from writing about Indianapolis-area live theatre and storytelling to tell you about the 2010 Alex Award winners.  (My last year’s Alex post is here.)

 The Alex is a relatively new award given by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), which is part of the American Library Association (ALA.)  It is given to up to 10 well-crafted, readable books published in the previous year for adults but which have potential appeal to teens as well.

This was my third of four years serving on the committee that determines the Alex Award winners.   The committee consists of nine voting members from around the United States, plus one non-voting administrative assistant and one non-voting consultant from Booklist (a book review magazine for professional librarians and other readers.)

Every year we look at hundreds of books and discuss them for hundreds of hours via email and in person.  Every year, the task of identifying ten “wow” books seems impossible to me, especially since reading is, ultimately, a very personal thing, and the committee members often disagree passionately about whether a book is worthy or not.  Yet somehow every year the list comes together.  Every year, I feel proud and privileged to have been part of the process.

The Alex Award winners are announced as part of the Youth Media Awards Press Conference that is held during the ALA’s annual Midwinter Meeting.  The location is different every year (this year it was in Boston) but the press conference is always held at 7:30 a.m. on Monday morning.  More famous awards, such as the Newbery (for best children’s book), Caldecott (for best illustration in a children’s book), and Printz (for best book published for young adults, aka teens), are also announced at this event. 

Hundreds of librarians drag themselves out of their hotel beds, line up outside the conference center’s ballroom doors, and pour in when the doors open.  The announcements and book covers appear on huge screens at either side of the vast space.  Committee members have reserved seats near the front.  I save the “Reserved for Alex Committee” sign from my seat to put on my home office bulletin board when I get home.

Thousands of librarians, publishers, authors, and others follow the announcements through web streaming, Twitter, and other online resources from home as well.  People leap to their feet to cheer and jump up and down and hug each other if their favorites win.  More than one youth services librarian has called this hour-long event “our Super Bowl.”  Others call it “our Academy Awards.”  We do get pretty excited about it, I agree.  And why shouldn’t we?!

But even more enjoyable are the books themselves.  Here are this year’s Alex Award winners, in order by title:

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope, by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. This nonfiction book is about a boy who grew up in impoverished Malawi, Africa.  When he was 13 or 14 years old, William found a way, using books from his tiny local public library (yay!) and a little help from his friends, to build a large windmill from his rubber flip-flops and other stuff he found lying around.  Power from that windmill helped first him, and then his family, then his whole village improve their quality of life.  Mind you, he doesn’t start talking about the windmills until halfway through the book, but the first half is interesting because of the personal glimpse it gives into Malawi village life, culture, and politics.  I love William’s joyful-serious voice.

The Bride’s Farewell, by Meg Rosoff, published by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group.  This is a short but layered, sweetly feminist novel that feels sort of like a folk tale.  It is a Hero’s Journey about a strong but imperfect girl who runs away from home rather than marry the wrong boy, but who does not run away from the people she loves.  I love the giving-and-releasing, the driving/resting, patterns in her story.

Everything Matters! by Ron Currie, Jr., published by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group.  There have been voices in Junior’s head since before he was born, first warning him about the umbilical cord tightening around his neck, and then letting him know that he won’t actually die until a precise date 36 years later, when a comet will destroy the Earth.  It’s up to him to decide what to do with the information while he grows up in a dysfunctional family.  The chapters in this fast-paced novel count down until “the” day, making for an unusually engaging structure.  One friend told me that she stayed up until 3 a.m. because she couldn’t sleep until she found out how it ends.  And then she said, “D*mn!”

The Good Soldiers, by David Finkel, published by Sarah Crichton Books, an imprint of Farrar, Strause and Giroux.  This nonfiction book by a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter about an American battalion on a 14-month tour in Iraq during 2007-2008 is dispassionate and balanced, yet/and therefore it made me weep, once I got into it.  I confess that I resisted reading this Alex nomination for a long time because I usually find nonfiction war books dreary.  However, I think that no matter where you stand on war books or the war itself – for, against, indifferent – you will agree that this is a powerful, respectful account of one group of soldiers’ experience of it.

The Kids Are All Right: A Memoir, by Diana Welch and Liz Welch with Amanda Welch and Dan Welch, published by Harmony Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House.  I packed this four-voiced memoir in my suitcase and read it at the speed of light the night before the committee’s final vote in Boston, then had to leave it behind to be photographed with the other winners because mine was the only copy available.  I enjoyed it, and I am glad it is on the list of winners, but I need to re-read it when it comes back to me before I can write much about it.  ‘Sorry.  I can tell you that it is about four siblings whose dazzling, larger-than-Hollywood-life parents died, leaving them to grow up as best they could.  They go through some ROUGH times but ultimately are able to write a book with this title.

The Magicians, by Lev Grossman, published by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group.  This fantasy is about a boy from a dismal background who discovers he has been admitted to a secret school for wizards.  Now, wait!  Before you yawn, let me tell you that this is very different from The Boy Who Lived (aka Harry Potter.)  It is a dark, snarky, pseudo-coming-of-age novel that is full of insider references to all kinds of famous fantasy series.  If you love Harry Potter, you may or may not love this, I’ll admit, but if you love fantasy in general, and if you love angsty, bizarre, boarding school reads, you might want to give this a try.  I loved the imaginative details in this book’s plot, settings, and characters.

My Abandonment, by Peter Rock, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This little novel is based on a true story about an anonymous homeless girl and her father(?) who were found living in a nature preserve in Oregon.  It is DISTURBING.  It messed me up bad.  The morning I finished reading it, I went in to my day job and was basically useless to my co-workers and customers all day because my mental and emotional wheels had to just keep spinning for a while about what I had read.  It is told from the point of view of the girl, and the author’s delivery of her stunted yet highly intelligent voice is brilliant. 

Soulless: An Alexia Tarabotti Novel,” by Gail Carriger, published by Orbit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group.  This funny, sexy (but not explicit) steampunk supernatural fantasy romance mystery romp resists easy labels.  It features a feisty young English woman whose literal absence of soul allows her to neutralize ghosts, werewolves, and other supernatural beings with her touch.  She also wields her parasol quite handily as well.  I loved her gossipy gay vampire friend and the Scottish alpha werewolf that prefers Alexia over the younger and more fashionable ladies that would like to marry him.

Stitches: A Memoir,” by David Small, published by W. W. Norton & Company.  This black-and-white graphic “novel” is the nonfiction (true) story of this award-winning illustrator’s childhood.  His parents were abusive and neglectful to the point of ignoring a cancer diagnosis for more than three years before taking him in for treatment.  This book sat on the “to read” end of my sofa for months because I just did not want to read it.  I would probably never have read it if I hadn’t had to for the Alex committee.  However, it was very moving, and ultimately inspiring, so I’m glad I did.

Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, by Kevin Wilson, published by Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins.  This collection of delightfully odd, short(ish) stories is an eclectic mix of “wow’s.”  There’s a cheerleader who would rather stay home and put together model sports cars.  A man who earns his living by figuring out worst case scenarios.  A museum of people’s detritus collections.  And more.  Even if you are not usually drawn to short story collections, this one is so bizarre – and yet so consistently satisfying – that it is worth a look.

A list of all of the ALA’s Youth Media Awards winners that were announced last Monday morning can be found here on the ALA’s website.

And now back to theatre reviews…

Hope Baugh – www.IndyTheatreHabit.com

Follow @IndyTheatre on Twitter.com for day-of-show comments.

 (Photo of stack of Alex winners, above, taken by me with my trusty iPhone in the committee’s hotel meeting room, just moments after we came back from voting and realized we had our list of winners.  Yay!)

Nick Hornby calls the Alex Award the “not boring” book award.  It is given to ten good books that were published in the previous year for adults but which have special appeal to teen readers as well.  If you could take only ten new books with you for recreational reading on a deserted island, the Alex ten would make a satisfying bundle.

Here is the official press release from this morning.  I’d like to tell you just a quick, tiny bit about this year’s winners, too, because I am one of the nine committee members from around the country who selected them.  I am very proud of our list.  They are all “wow” reads.  They are all worth your time.

After this, I promise I will return to reviewing live theatre shows here on Indy Theatre Habit.

City of Thieves, by David Benioff, is an adventure story about two young men in war-torn Leningrad who must accomplish a ridiculous mission to save their own lives.

The Dragons of Babel, written by Michael Swanwick, is a deliciously intricate fantasy.  Military dragons are just one layer of it.  The world-building in this book is amazing.

Finding Nouf, by Zoe Ferraris, is part mystery, part romance, set in Saudi Arabia.  A terrorist-free story about Muslims.

The Good Thief, by Hannah Tinti, is about an orphan boy struggling with the big moral questions while he struggles to help his “rescuers” rob graves for a living.  Like Dickens, sort of, but without the padding.

Just After Sunset: Stories, by Stephen King, is a fresh collection of creepy, short page-turners.  It made me remember why I first thought of King as a storyteller rather than a horror writer.  (But I did keep all the lights on as I read this.)

Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan, is a novel about families and race relations in the south during World War Two. It has a very personal feel to it.

Over and Under, by Todd Tucker, is about two best friends growing up in a small town in Indiana where there’s a strike at the local coffin factory.  One boy is from a union family; the other is from a management family.  I dare you to not gasp out loud during the snake scene.

The Oxford Project, created by Peter Feldstein and Stephen G. Bloom, is a huge, coffee table book.  Twenty years ago, Feldstein took a photo of each of the 600 or so people in his small Iowa town.  Twenty years later, he took their photos again AND hired a writer (Bloom) to collect and distill their stories.   It is fascinating to see how they have changed and stayed the same.

Sharp Teeth, by Toby Barlow, is a verse novel (which usually annoy me, but this one is good, and gritty) about werewolves in Los Angeles.  It is also about life, love, sex, and friendship.

Three Girls and Their Brother, by Theresa Rebeck.   Instant fame does not mean instant happiness.  This novel offers intriguing glimpses into the worlds of modeling, Hollywood, and live theatre.

And hey! That last book brings us back to live theatre!  We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging.  As always, thanks for reading.

Hope Baugh – www.IndyTheatreHabit.

I’ve been updating my syllabus for the graduate-level class on storytelling that I will teach for the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) on the Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus next semester. 

I am excited because five students have already signed up.  I’m sure the university would like there to be more than five students in order to pay the bills, but from a teaching point of view, five is not bad.  Students get to hear four other telling styles besides mine, yet they still get a lot of chances to tell themselves. 

The smallest group I ever taught had three students in it.  I liked all three of those students just as people, so the challenge that year was making sure that we continued to explore storytelling in a scholarly way rather than spend each class just gabbing. 

The largest group I ever taught had twenty-four students in it. I thought I was going to die on the last day of class, trying to evaluate twenty-four tellers sharing twenty-four different stories.  It was too many “worlds” to take in at once.  I went home after that story listening marathon and just lay on my bed and quivered for a day or two.  If I ever have that many students again, I will structure the course differently.  

Five-ten students is ideal for me, but in any case I will tweak my syllabus according to the number of students I have when the semester begins.

I have decided to use Liz Warren’s new book, The Oral Tradition Today: An Introduction to the Art of Storytelling, as our textbook.  Even though she wrote it to use with the more general, undergraduate class on “The Art of Storytelling” that she teaches at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix, Arizona, I think it will work well for my graduate-level workshop on storytelling in libraries, especially when supplemented with library-related articles.  I like the way each chapter in Warren’s book includes a few teaching stories as well as instruction and theory.

Early on in the book (page 6), Warren addresses the question, “What is the difference between storytelling and theatre?”  I love her answer:

Although many modern storytellers have a background in theatre, there are some fundamental differences between being a storyteller and an actor, and between a storytelling event and a play.

• First, most storytellers do not memorize a script as actors do. They prefer to learn (but not memorize) a story – thoroughly and deeply – so that when they are telling it, they can respond freely to the particular audience in attendance. This provides dynamism, unpredictability, and freshness to storytelling that is very satisfying for both the teller and the listener.
• A storyteller does not maintain the persona of a single character. The teller portrays all the characters in the story while remaining herself.
• Actors generally relate to other actors on the stage rather than directly to the audience. In the theatre, there is the concept of the fourth wall, an invisible wall through which the audience witnesses the events on stage. In storytelling there is no fourth wall, or if there is, it is behind the audience. Storytellers seek to establish a relationship with the audience, at least for the duration of the story, and believe that the stronger the connection between them and the audience, the stronger the impact of the story. In some storytelling events, a high degree of participation from the audience is expected and encouraged.
• Storytellers do not use directors. In theatre, the director is responsible for interpreting the text and directing the actors in fulfilling the vision. In a storytelling event, the teller is responsible for the interpretation of the story, its development and delivery. Storytellers do, however, often use coaches who help them interpret and actualize their vision of the story.
• Storytellers do not use sets, props, or costumes. A storyteller seeks to create a world inside the listener’s mind. It is her job to communicate this with words and her body rather than with objects. In this sense, the story is co-created by the teller and the listener in the moment of the telling. Many storytellers believe that props, sets, and costumes can interfere with this process.

Of course, there are exceptions to every single one of the above points.  Some storytellers use directors, some use props and costumes, some portray a character while telling, and some memorize.  Nonetheless, the distinctions above would apply to most tellers.

Thank you, thank you, Liz, for articulating this!  And thanks for taking a sabbatical to write the whole book.  I am looking forward to teaching with it.

Hope Baugh – www.IndyTheatreHabit.com