Apparently I wasn’t the only one who loved Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. Gaiman’s latest novel is the latest recipient of the ALA Newberry Medal and he’s pretty damn excited about it.
From Gaiman’s blog post:
It was 5:45 in the morning. No-one had died, though, I was fairly certain of that. My cell-phone rang.
“Hello. This is Rose Trevino. I’m chair of the ALA Newbery Committee…” Oh. Newbery. Right. Cool. I may be an honors book or something. That would be nice, “and I have the voting members of the Newbery Committee here, and we want to tell you that your book…”
“THE GRAVEYARD BOOK,” said fourteen loud voices, and I thought, I may be still asleep right now, but they probably don’t do this, probably don’t call people and sound so amazingly excited, for Honors books….
“…just won…”
“THE NEWBERY MEDAL” they chorused. They sounded really happy. I checked the hotel room because it seemed very likely that I was still fast asleep. It all looked reassuringly solid.
You are on a speakerphone with at least 14 teachers and librarians and suchlike great, wise and good people, I thought. Do not start swearing like you did when you got the Hugo. This was a wise thing to think because otherwise huge, mighty and fourletter swears were gathering. I mean, that’s what they’re for. I think I said, You mean it’s Monday?
“You can tell your agent and your publisher, but no-one else,” said Rose. “And it will be announced in about an hour.”
And I fumfed and mumbled and said something of a thankyouthankyouthankyouokaythiswasworthbeingwokenupfor nature.
A big congrats to Neil and all the other folk involved in The Graveyard Book! You know an award’s a big deal when a grizzled veteran ( *snicker*) like Gaiman gets excited about it. Now get out there and read The Graveyard Book, it’s that bloody good!
The book is on my list for 2009.