2007 Printz Award

Winner

American Born Chinese

By Gene Luen Yang

First Second, an imprint of Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrink

Gene Luen Yang has won the 2007 Michael L. Printz Award for his masterful graphic novel “American Born Chinese.” The book is published by First Second, an imprint of Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership. The award announcement was made during the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in Seattle.

Yang draws from American pop culture and ancient Chinese mythology in his groundbreaking work. Expertly told in words and pictures, Yang’s story in three parts follows a Chinese American teenager’s struggle to define himself against racial stereotypes. “American Born Chinese” is the first graphic novel to be recognized by the Michael L. Printz Committee.

Yang, who began drawing comics in the fifth grade, is a high school teacher in the San Francisco Bay area. The annual award for literary excellence is administered by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of ALA, and is sponsored by Booklist magazine. The award, first given in 2000, is named for the late Michael L. Printz, a Topeka, Kans., school librarian known for discovering and promoting quality books for young adults.

Members of the Printz Award Committee are: Chair Cindy Dobrez, West Ottawa Public Schools, Holland, Mich.; Eunice Anderson, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore; Angelina Benedetti, King County (Wash.) Library System; Teresa Brantley, Salem Middle School, Apex, N.C.; Vicki Emery, Lake Braddock Secondary School, Burke, Va.; Jana Fine, Tuscaloosa (Ala.) Public Library; Michele Gorman, Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, N.C.; Jessica Mize, Newark (Ohio) Public Library; Sarajo Wentling, Carver County (Minn.) Library; and Gillian Engberg, Booklist consultant, Chicago.

2007 Honor Books

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation; v. 1: The Pox Party

by M. T. Anderson

Candlewick

An Abundance of Katherines

by John Green

Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.

Surrender

by Sonya Hartnett

Candlewick Press

The Book Thief

by Markus Zusak,

Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books

Back to Michael L. Printz Award homepage