Happy Valentine's Day and I'm back!

I've been battling a respiratory infection since the beginning of February and it finally got the best of me.  Now, as I emerge from my Robitussin haze, I see that February is already half way over and it's Valentines Day.  And so from me to you

But the last two weeks were all sleep and Robitussin for me.  First, last week, the Bank Street Children's Book Committee announced the 2015 Children's Book Committee Awards.  They are

2015 Josette Frank Award for fiction:

For older readers::

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Dial Books, 2014, 384 pages

For younger readers:

Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin

Feiwel and Friends, 2014, 240 pages

2015 Claudia Lewis Award for poetry

For older readers:

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014, 336 pages

For younger readers:

Winter Bees and Other Poems of the Cold by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014, 32 pages

2015 Flora Stieglitz Straus Award for nonfiction

Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin

Candlewick Press, 2014, 192 pages

Congratulations to all the winners!

Next up - the Cybils!