feel a sudden strange compulsion to hand out awards...It's either that or prune the roses. So, without further ado, I give you the Pistachios (because awards are supposed to have nicknames). Naturally, I mostly ignore the 2010 thing and jump all over the place because hey, Dr. Who and I know how to get around!
GRAND STUFF
Most Iconic Children's Books of All Time—Picture Book: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
—Middle Grade: Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
—Young Adult: The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Books That Redefined the Genre
—The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
—Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems
—The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
—Holes by Louis Sachar
—The Giver by Lois Lowry
—Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy by Sonya Sones
—Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Books That Redefined the Market
—Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
—Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer
—Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney
—The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
AUTHOR CATEGORIES
Authors Who Really "Get" Kids
—Picture Book: Kevin Henkes
—Middle Grade: Dav Pilkey and Jeff Kinney
—Young Adult: Sarah Dessen
Best World Builders
—Philip Reeve, most notably in the Hungry City Chronicles
—Shaun Tan: anything he writes/illustrates
—Scott Westerfeld, Leviathan and sequels
Best Weird/Cool Writers
—M.T. Anderson (with the Pals in Peril series and his Octavian Nothing books, he's got range like Mariah Carey!)
—Mac Barnett, The Brixton Brothers series and Oh No!: Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World (with illustrator Dan Santat, who's also pretty weird and cool)
—Barry Deutsch, Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword (graphic novel; orthodox Jewish girl fighting monsters)
—Neil Gaiman (obviously!), The Graveyard Book
—Adam Gidwitz, A Tale Dark and Grimm (bursting on the scene with gore and snark)
—Emily Gravett, with picture books like Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears
Best of the Trillion YA Paranormal Writers
—Kelley Armstrong, The Summoning and sequels (Darkest Powers)
—Holly Black, Tithe and sequels
—Meg Cabot, The Mediator series and other titles
—Rosemary Clement-Moore, Prom Dates from Hell and sequels (Maggie Quinn books)
—Lili St. Crow, Strange Angels and sequels
—Rachel Hawkins, Hex Hall and sequel (one so far!)
—Maggie Stiefvater, Lament and Shiver
Best Newcomers of 2010
—Erin Bow, author of Plain Kate
—Adam Gidwitz, A Tale Dark and Grimm (see Weird/Cool Writers above)
—Clare Vanderpool, author of Moon Over Manifest (this year's Newbery winner)
NEW MEDIA
Most Innovative PR Ever—James Kennedy, author of the equally innovative book, The Order of Odd-Fish
Best Geek-Chic Brainiac YouTube Star
—John Green, author of Looking for Alaska and other way-intelligent books
Best Publisher's Blog
—Under the Green Willow by, yes, Greenwillow (HarperCollins)
Best Kidlit Video Postings
—Betsy Bird's "Video Sunday" feature at A Fuse #8 Production
BOOK CHARACTERS
Top Ten Literary Families (revised from a mere 5!)
—The Casson family from Hilary McKay's Saffy's Angel, etc.
—The Murry family from Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time and sequels
—The Quimby family from Ramona the Pest and other books by Beverly Cleary
—The Ingalls family from Little House in the Big Woods, etc. by Laura Ingalls Wilder
—The Pevensie family from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
—The Logan family from Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and sequels by Mildred D. Taylor
—The Tillerman family from Homecoming and sequels by Cynthia Voigt
—The Clock family from The Borrowers and sequels by Mary Norton
—The Penderwick family in Jeanne Birdsall's book by the same name and sequels
—The Melendy family in Elizabeth Enright's books, starting with The Saturdays
Top Ten Literary Couples
—Laura Chant and Sorry Carlisle in Changeover by Margaret Mahy
—Meliara and Shevraeth from Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith
—Sophie and Howl in Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
—Ella and Prince Char in Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
—Amy and Perry in The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye
—Dashti and Tegus in Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
—Auden and Eli in Sarah Dessen's Along for the Ride
—Dash and Lily in Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
—Kate and Thomas and Cecilia and James in Sorcery and Cecilia: Or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
—All right, all right! Katniss and Peeta in The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins (or Katniss and Gale if you're feeling cranky about the whole thing)
Note: The next two lists are in alphabetical order.
Top Ten Girl Characters (excluding ones already named in Best Couple!)
—Anne Shirley of the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery—Beka Cooper in Terrier and sequels by Tamora Pierce
—Charlotte (the spider) from Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
—Flavia de Luce from The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and sequels by Alan Bradley (I know, they're books for grown-ups, but get a load of the 11-year-old mad scientist/detective who's the narrator!)
—Frankie Landau-Banks from The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
—Harriet M. Welch from Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
—Lunch Lady from the middle grade graphic novel series by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
—Mary Lennox from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
—Rose Casson from Hilary McKay's Saffy's Angel and sequels
—Tiffany Aching from The Wee Free Men and sequels by Terry Pratchett
Top Ten Guy Characters (excluding ones already named in Best Couple!)
—Bartimaeus (the genie) in The Amulet of Samarkand and sequels/prequels by Jonathan Stroud
—Charlie Bucket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
—Christopher Chant (later Chrestomanci) in The Lives of Christopher Chant and other books by Diana Wynne Jones
—Durango from Black Hole Sun by David Macinnis Gill
—Gen (Eugenides) from the Queen's Thief books by Megan Whalen Turner
—Henry York from the 100 Cupboards trilogy by N.D. Wilson
—Moon Blake from Alabama Moon by Watt Key
—Maniac Magee from the book of the same title by Jerry Spinelli
—Percy Jackson from The Lightning Thief and sequels by Rick Riordan
—Stanley Yelnats from Holes by Louis Sachar
ODDS AND ENDS (MOSTLY 2010)
Best Use of Crazy Little Blue Men—The Wee Free Men and sequels by Terry Pratchett (I Shall Wear Midnight in 2010)
Best Underwear and Snot Jokes
—Manners Mash-up: A Goofy Guide to Good Behavior by Tedd Arnold et al.
Best Use of Metafiction in a Picture Book
—Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
Girliest Homage to Ludwig Bemelmans' Madeline
—Miss Lina's Ballerinas by Grace Maccarone, illustrated by Christine Davenier
Best Alien Invasion
—Pod by Stephen Wallenfels
Best Under-Awarded Book
—The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz, illustrated by Angela Barrett
TOP HONORS
Best Writing in General
—Winner: Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner
—First Runner-up: Granny Dowdel books by Richard Peck
—Second Runner-up: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
—Third Runner-up: Dairy Queen trilogy by Catherine Murdock
Best in Show: a book that's yet to be beat; innovative, iconic, rich, and beautiful
—The Arrival by Shaun Tan (see image to right)
Watch this site next March when I may (a) forget all about this or (b) hand out a whole different set of awards!
Please note your suggestions for awards in these or additional categories in the comments. Because when it comes to the Pistachios, our motto is "Why not?"
