Newbery pwns Pulitzer

If you work in a library, likely you’ve experienced this: you place holds on many books. Some sound good when you read the review, and so you give it a try. By the time these books actually get to you,  you’ve forgotten why it sounded so good at the time. This happened to me recently. I had not read Neil Gaiman’s  The Graveyard Book when it won the Newbery Award, and we only had one copy, which of course, was checked out. So I placed my hold and had to wait. In the meantime, a recent Pulitzer Award book came in for me. I rarely read “big people” books, so they really have to catch my eye or win some kind of major award. I figure Pulitzer is pretty major. I tried to like it, I really did. I read through the first few chapters, and I kept going. And then….. The Graveyard Book appears on my desk. At lunch break, I started reading. I took it home, I read all evening. Pulitzer forgotten;  Newbery wins again. I never did finish that book, because now I have 3 YA books on my pile of to-be-reads, and that Pulitzer just didn’t grab me. Perhaps it does say something about my tastes in literature, but right now, I don’t care. I just want a good story to pass these winter days.