Annal:2008 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature

From AwardAnnals

Results of the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award in the year 2008. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:

2008 Mythopoeic-Children winner
Score: 10.58

Say you’ve spent the first 10 years of your life sleeping under the stairs of a family who loathes you. Then, in an absurd, magical twist of fate you find yourself surrounded by wizards, a caged snowy owl, a phoenix-feather wand, and jellybeans that come in every flavor, including strawberry, curry, grass, and sardine. Not only that, but you discover that you are a wizard yourself!

Thus, the Harry Potter series begins. Join Harry in his first year at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, and you won’t be able to resist reading the whole series. Each book is a 1-year-long adventure, and with each year of growth Harry’s adventures become more complex and dangerous.

Dusssie

Nancy Springer

2008 Mythopoeic-Children finalist
Score: 6.58

Dusie always knew puberty was going to be confusing, but she never realized it was going to be catastrophic—until she wakes up one morning to find that her hair has turned into a writhing mass of slithering snakes and discovers the real truth about her family: her mother is a Gorgon—right out of Greek mythology—and she was named after her mother’s younger sister, Medusa. Her mother had hoped that Dusie’s being half-mortal would protect her from inheriting the family curse.

Still reeling from this revelation, Dusie tries to keep her snakes under wraps. But after a boy she likes in school almost exposes her, she discovers another family secret—just one look from Dusie’s snakes has the power to send someone right into his own personal Stone Age. Talk about “if looks could kill”!

Dusie better figure out how to control her snakes and her rage, and find a way to get her life back—before anything else disastrous happens.

Modern Faerie Realm series

Holly Black

2008 Mythopoeic-Children finalist
Score: 6.58

Welcome to the realm of very scary faeries! Holly Black spins seductive tales at once achingly real and chillingly enchanted, set in a dangerous world where pleasure mingles with pain and nothing is exactly as it appears.

The New Policeman

Kate Thompson

Who knows where the time goes? There is never enough of it in Kinvara, or anywhere else in Ireland for that matter. When Helen Liddy is asked what she wants for her birthday, she says, “Time. That’s what I want. Time.” When JJ sets out to buy his mother some time he discovers the answer as well as some truly remarkable things about music, myth and magic. And more.