Monday, May 23, 2011

I Shall Wear Midnight Wins Norton

Let's hear it for the marvelous Terry Pratchett, who, as you may recall, won the ALA's 2011 Margaret A. Edwards award a few months back for his body of work as a YA writer. Now his fourth and final book in the Tiffany Aching quartet, I Shall Wear Midnight, has won the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

In case you missed this book, check out my review from last summer. And in case you've somehow missed all four books (perish the thought!), they are as follows: The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, and I Shall Wear Midnight. Set in the Discworld of Pratchett's adult comic fantasy series, these books star a pragmatic young witch who is trying to figure out how to best use her powers up in the sheep-raising countryside where she lives. (Guest-starring Granny Weatherwax, my favorite Pratchett character! I think you'll be pleased to find that Tiffany has a little Esme Weatherwax in her.)

In these books, while Pratchett's signature humor is present and accounted for, most often in the form of a tribe of little blue men called the Nac Mac Feegle, there is also some amazing character work, especially in his depiction of the yearning and fierce pride of a bright, unique teenage girl.

Update 6/6/11: Read this excellent interview of Sir Terry Pratchett by Jonathan Hunt of School Library Journal. Thanks to Betsy Bird at Fuse #8 for the link.

5 comments:

LinWash said...

I'm really glad for Sir Terry! He's one of my favorite authors. I really love the Tiffany Aching books.

Anonymous said...

And I STILL haven't gotten my hands on it. This is beyond appalling of me. And now it's too close to moving day to Interlibrary Loan it...

kathrynjankowski said...

I think he just won the Nebula Award for this, too!

Kate Coombs said...

Lin--Isn't he great? I read all of his Discworld books some years ago and was so thrilled when he finally developed the chops to write for children and teens. :)

Amy--Oh, you have to have it! Good luck... and good luck with the move.

Kathryn--The Andre Norton Award is given in association with the Nebula awards; i.e, at the same ceremony. Though it's not officially a subcategory of the Nebula awards, a lot of people think of it that way. This is totally understandable, since it's also given by a committee of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, awarded to the best Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy book of the previous year. (And make no mistake: everything I know about this, I learned from Wikipedia!)

Kim Aippersbach said...

Three cheers for Terry Pratchett! Totally well-deserved. Brilliant books.