It’s time for some 2020 Printz Award Predictions! Not only is January award season for movies, it’s also award season for books! This Monday at the ALA Midwinter Meeting, winners for a number of book awards will be announced. The ones I’m most excited for are the Newbery Medal, Caldecott Medal, and the Printz Award. All the youth media awards, naturally. There’s a lot of great ones out there!
While the Newbery and the Caldecott are awesome, the award I’m always most invested in is the Printz Award. Started in 2000, each year the committee chooses the best young adult book of the year. Not an easy choice, I’ve gotta say! There are so many great YA novels published each year, it can’t be easy to choose the best of the best.
Traditionally, a winner is picked with four honor books. I’ll do the same! However, it likely won’t be close to what the committee picks. Or maybe it will! We’ll see on Monday.
2020 Printz Award Predictions
Winner: Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson
After seeing Anderson talk about this book way back last March, I think this book is a strong contender to win it all. It’s a timely topic, the poems included in the book are beautifully composed, and it deserves all the praise. Speak was one of the first honor books back in 2000, and it’s time for Anderson to win one.
Honor: Frankly in Love by David Yoon
This book completely blew me away! I thought it was going to be another fluffy teen romance, but it was way more than that. Yoon looks at family expectations, the intersection of cultures, and what it means to navigate these as a teenager. Seriously, an amazing book.
Honor: Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden
I don’t think anyone else is including this book on their list, but I am. Tillie Walden crafted a beautiful story in this book, supplemented with gorgeous artwork. Graphic novels have been nominated and won before; I would be amazed and immensely happy if this book did.
Honor: On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
Thomas’s second book is set in the same place as The Hate U Give and is just gut-punching as her first book. An examination of hip hop culture, I read this book in basically one plane ride last year. Her voice and writing style is just as authentic as her first book and I can’t wait to see what she does next.
Honor: Brave Face by Shaun David Hutchinson
There are so many great books that came out last year and I feel like I’m not covering even a small sliver. I haven’t seen this one on many lists, but I think it deserves to me. A memoir about Hutchinson’s own struggle with depression as a teen (which I got the chance to review), it’s strong and powerful and immensely important for teens. Hutchinson is a huge advocate for mental health online, and this book just furthers his advocacy.
Honorable Mentions
This is based on books that people have mentioned being up for the award that I never quite got around to reading. Some of them were already on my radar, some of them are surprises! Definitely adding most of them to my future TBR.
- Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki
- Lovely War by Julie Berry
- With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo (she won last year for Poet X)
- Dig by A.S. King
- Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby
- Pet by Akwaeke Emezi