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The Michael L. Printz Award
2000 marked the debut of the Michael L. Printz Award, which was established to recognize a book that "exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature," according to the Young Adult Library Services Association division of the American Library Association. The Award is named for Michael L. Printz, a former school librarian at Topeka West High School in Kansas. Throughout his career he was a respected colleague and teacher, and an active and dedicated member of YALSA. He passed away in 1996.
The Printz winner and up to four honor books (or runners up) are chosen annually by a committee of nine YALSA members.
This
year's winners are:
2003 Michael L. Printz Winner
 POSTCARDS FROM NO MAN'S LAND
by Aiden Chambers
Dutton
ISBN: 0525468633
320 pages
June 2002
Made up of two parallel stories, this richly constructed novel will keep readers riveted with the tale of the Dutch Resistance during World War II. Jacob, a young man from England, journeys to the Netherlands to learn about the grandfather he never knew. Chambers deftly switches perspectives throughout the novel and alternates between Jacob's adventure in Holland and his grandfather's experiences during the war.
2003 Michael L. Printz Honors
 HOLE IN MY LIFE
by Jack Gantos
Farrar Straus & Giroux
ISBN: 0374399883
208 pages
March 2002
In the summer of 1971, Jack Gantos was an aspiring writer looking for adventure, cash for college tuition and a way out of a dead-end job. For ten thousand dollars, he recklessly agreed to help sail a sixty-foot yacht loaded with a ton of hashish from the Virgin Islands to New York City, where he and his partners sold the drug until federal agents caught up with them. For his part in the conspiracy, Gantos was sentenced to serve up to six years in prison. This is the story of how Gantos, once he was locked up in a small, yellow-walled cell, moved from wanting to be a writer to writing --- and how dedicating himself more fully to the thing he most wanted to do helped him endure and ultimately overcome the worst experience of his life.
 THE HOUSE OF THE SCORPION
by Nancy Farmer
Atheneum
ISBN: 0689852223
400 pages
September 2002
To most people around him, Matt is not a boy but a beast. A room full of chicken litter with roaches for friends and old chicken bones for toys is considered good enough for him. But for El Patrón, lord of a country called Opium -- a strip of poppy fields lying between the U.S. and what was once called Mexico -- Matt is a guarantee of eternal life. El Patrón loves Matt as he loves himself because Matt is himself --- they share identical DNA.
 MY HEARTBEAT
by Garret Freymann-Weyr
Houghton Mifflin Co (Juv)
ISBN: 0618141812
160 pages
April 2002
Ellen loves both her older brother Link and Link's best friend James. They are the only company she ever wants. She knows they fight, but she makes it a policy never to take sides. She loves her brother --- the math genius and track star --- and is madly in love with James. Ellen knows she'll always love James just the way she'll always love Link. Then someone at school asks if Link and James might be in love with each other. Link refuses to discuss it, while James refuses to stay friends with a boy so full of secrets. Ellen's parents want Link to keep his secrets to himself, but Ellen wants to know who her brother really is.
--- Written by Tom Donadio
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2002 winners are:
2001 Printz Winner:
KIT'S WILDERNESS by David Almond
2001 Printz Honor Book:
MANY STONES by Carolyn Coman
2001 Printz Honor Book:
ANGUS, THONGS AND FULL-FRONTAL SNOGGING by Louise Rennison
2001 Printz Honor Book:
THE BODY OF CHRISTOPHER CREED by Carol Plum-Ucci
2001 Printz Honor Book:
STUCK IN NEUTRAL by Terry Trueman
The first-ever recipients are:
2000 Printz Winner:
MONSTER by Walter Dean Myers
2000 Printz Honor Book:
SKELLIG by David Almond
2000 Printz Honor Book:
SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson
2000 Printz Honor Book:
HARD LOVE by Ellen Wittlinger
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