I found out yesterday that Do You Know the Monkey Man is on children’s choice award lists in New York (the Charlotte Award) and Wyoming (the Soaring Eagle award). I don’t think I have a prayer of winning the Soaring Eagle award…Ark Angel, Lightning Thief, Maximum Ride: the Angel Experiment, Harry Potter 5, Pretties are just some of the other books on that list. My own child would probably vote for two or three of those other titles over my book.
But then the awards person at Peachtree told me that they can’t send books to any nominating committee in Wyoming because KIDS nominate the books for that award! They choose the winner AND they choose what gets on the list (which, considering it’s a CHILDREN’S CHOICE award, seems like a good way to do it). So getting on the Soaring Eagle list means even more to me than getting on some of the other lists. (I don’t even know any kids in Wyoming! I’ve never done a school visit there.)
BTW, I did ask Junior High Kid last night if Do You Know the Monkey Man was on the Iowa Teen Award list with an Alex Rider book, Lightning Thief and one of Cornelia Funke’s books, which book would he vote for? (I do have another book on the Iowa Choice Award list this year, but he’s too old to vote on that one.) He said he didn’t know. So I said, “you probably wouldn’t vote for Do You Know the Monkey Man, though, would you?” He said, “Well, those other books are REALLY GOOD books!” The kid is nothing if not honest. And that’s good…I’m glad I’ve raised honest children.
