The Carnegie Shortlist 2010

The list has been published, and what a list it is! 

[caption id="attachment_20" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Shortlisted titles"][/caption]

 I'm very glad I don't have to judge this award, as they'll have some very difficult decisions ahead of them!  Though I haven't read all of the books on the list yet, those I have have been utterly wonderful. 

The Graveyard Book 

One of the most lovely, life affirming stories I've ever read, even though most of its characters are dead! This book tells the story of Bod (short for Nobody) who is raised by the inhabitants of a graveyard after his parents are brutally murdered.  Under the watchful eyes of his mysterious guardian, Silas, he grows up with a strange education from several hundred years of history.  But the threat to his life didn't end with his parents' death, and the man who killed them has never stopped looking for him...  

The Ask and The Answer 

This is a book I find difficult to write about without shrieking such 'OMG, nonono YES!  Woooo! OMG!' etc.  Utterly gripping, heart breaking, gut wrenching novel from a writer who had the power to involve you so utterly that it can be impossible to step back and appreciate just how good it is until you've finished, had several cups of tea, and rested for a couple of days.  The pacing of this novel and its prequel, The Knife of Never Letting Go, is stunning, sending the story rattling forward with such momentum that it is nigh on impossible to find a place to pause. 

My concern with TAATA's nomination is that I'm not sure it stands alone.  The members of our Shadowing group who are tackling TAATA have also requested to read TKONLG (which reminds me, I was supposed to bring in my copy for a Year 11 boy - shoot), partly because I've been raving about it, and partly to make sure that they appreciate it fully.  In hindsight, I should have asked at least one of them to go for it without reading the first in the trilogy, to test its stand-aloney-ability.  

If you'd like to follow the progress of our Shadowing group, you can find us here.  Please vote on our poll!  We're going to be entering our group page into a competition at the beginning of June, the prize of which is tickets to the awards' ceremony for all the group, which would be a fine prize indeed!