List Season (that is, the end of the year) is my favourite season. Books. Movies. Podcasts. You name it. I love them all.
Head-nodding affirmations. Unheard-of discoveries. Endless debates. Shocked surprises.
One of the (many) joys of List Season is to see how many of the Mighty Smackdown titles have made the lists (and how many of the books on the lists will inevitably make next year’s Smackdown).
This list is by no means exhaustive--I’ve just started keeping track of a few of the Smackdown titles that are making the 2020 lists. Next year I’ll be more of a completist.
But for now…a few of the Smackdown titles are on a few of the many lists out there!
Just in time for last-minute (safe and socially distant) holiday shopping!
Have a great, much-deserved, relaxing break! Filled with words and reading!
Winner of the National Book Awards 2020 for Young People’s Literature:
Kacen Callender
(https://www.nationalbook.org/books/king-and-the-dragonflies/)
(sidebar: how is it possible that the winner of the NBA is already out of Smackdown?!?!?!? Zombie Pick?!?!?!?)
New York Times Best Children’s Books 2020
(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/books/review/best-childrens-books.html)
Everything Sad is Untrue (A True Story)
Daniel Nayeri
They Went Left
Monica Hesse
YALSA 2020 Top Ten Best Fiction
(http://www.ala.org/yalsa/2020-top-ten-best-fiction)
The Field Guide to the North American Teenager
Ben Phillippe
Like a Love Story
Abdi Nazemian
Pet
Akwaeke Emezi
Book Riot’s Best Books of 2020
(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/books/review/best-childrens-books.html)
Elizabeth Acevedo
Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of 2020 for Young Adults
https://best-books.publishersweekly.com/pw/best-books/2020/young-adult#book/book-5
Everything Sad is Untrue (A True Story)
Daniel Nayeri
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-Winning ‘Stamped from the Beginning’
Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
New York Public Library’s Best Books for Kids 2020
(https://www.nypl.org/books-more/recommendations/best-books/kids)
When You Trap a Tiger
Tae Keller
Everything Sad is Untrue (A True Story)
Daniel Nayeri
Fighting Words
Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
New York Public Library’s Best Book for Teens 2020
(https://www.nypl.org/books-more/recommendations/best-books/teens)
Elizabeth Acevedo
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-Winning ‘Stamped from the Beginning’
Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
