So, last Thursday morning an assorted cast of literary figures, media types and Melbourne intelligentsia congregated at the space-formerly-known-as-CBWI (Pronounced "ka-BWEE"), and officially named the Wheeler Centre, after the founders of Lonely Planet, Tony and Maureen Wheeler.
Whilst this was all well and good, there was another exciting event unfolding literally metres away inside the State Library of Victoria. Over three months, Australian teens were given the opportunity to read and vote for the best Australian and International young adult literature, publishing in Australia over the last financial year.
And, from what I've heard, votes for each book went into the hundreds, and every vote certainly counted - at one point, there were only a handful of votes difference between three of the shortlisted books for the Golden Inky (for best Australian YA book).
So, as you can imagine, waiting to hear the results were excruciating. All shortlisted books were thoroughly deserving. I remember first reading Sherman Alexie's Absolutely True Story of a Part-time Indian, and thinking, "This will win the Inkys next year." But then John Green's Paper Towns came out, and after the 2007 Inky Awards, he was always going to be a strong contender. Mal Peet's Guardan-winning Exposure blended his South American football world with Shakespeare's Othello, and Mariko and Jillian Tamaki's stunning Skim is a unique YA graphic novel. But the Silver Inky went to Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games - a fast-paced adventure set in a dystopian world where teenagers are annually picked to fight in a televised arena deathmatch, where there can only be one winner. It sounds a little cheesy, and potentially unoriginal, but Collins never fails to keep the tension high, and her characters are so engaging that the reader can't help but dread their impending fate with the turn of the page. I've just finished the second book in the trilogy, Catching Fire, and it's equally as compelling - if not moreso. This book takes all the winning elements of The Hunger Games, then raises the stakes again. The story runs at a breakneck pace, careering for doom and disaster. And it doesn't disappoint. Like Patrick Ness's The Ask and the Answer, Catching Fire is a superb second-in-the-trilogy novel, which both satisfies, and leaves us hanging on, nay, begging for the final book, to put us out of our misery.
But I digress. Back to the Inkys.
It was time to announce the Golden Inky winner. Like John Green, 2007 Golden Inky winner Simmone Howell's Everything Beautiful was definitely in the running. Adrian Stirling's compelling debut Broken Glass and Richard Harland's steampunk fantasy Worldshaker both depict very different but cruel and complex worlds. David Metzenthen's Jarvis 24 is a rare treat that delivers an inexplicably honest boy's story of venturing beyond one's comfort zone and learning about the world. Funny, and down to earth, it was a perfect match to Everything Beautiful. But the Golden Inky went to Randa Abdel-Fatah's Where the Streets Had a Name. I read this when it first came out a year ago, and I was struck by how powerful the story was - of a girl living in Israel-occupied Palestine. And yet, not once whilst reading this, did I ever feel that Fattah was using the book as a political platform. And this is where the true strength of this book comes - the human factor - about families living in adverse conditions, and their dreams, joy, love and tragedy. It's not about blame - it's about people getting on with their lives as best they can, because they have to. It has laugh-out-loud moments, as powerful as its eye-dabbing tissue box moments, and a worthy winner of the 2009 Golden Inky Award.
And reflecting on the Inkys for a moment, I'm not only struck by the amazing standard and range of YA literature that's come out in the past year, but by the fact that these books were read and voted for by many hundreds of teenagers across Australia. It's proof that, despite what some people might say about "young people these days", there are still a LOT of teenagers who are passionate about reading, and about sharing their passion with others. Teenagers who are prepared to take a list of books, read them, and then vote for their favourite book - not because a teacher or parent told them to, but because they WANTED to. A friend of mine recently challenged the legitimacy of Young Adult literature as its own category, and she sort of had a valid argument - basically that most young adults are capable of reading adult literature, and that much of it deals with young adult protagonists - why shouldn't it just all be put together with the adult fiction? Surely YA is just a marketing tool to sell books to teenagers and parents who don't know what to read? Surely teenagers should learn to read "good" literature, rather than "age-specific" literature? And I can see where she's coming from. But there's something about YA literature that specifically captures the passion, and the hopes and dreams of young adults - because it was written specifically for them, and at the same time reminds older people like myself of where I came from, and perhaps to draw me back to the path that I started on, to realise my own dreams.
Okay, again I'm digressing, so I'll wrap this up before I get too sentimental and wishy-washy. Congratulations to the winners, shortlisted and longlisted titles for the Inkys. Extra congratulations to the winners and finalists of the Creative Reading Prize. Kudos to the Centre for Youth Literature and the judges for another awesome Inky Awards. And finally, thanks to everybody who read and voted for their favourite book. It's times like these when I know I did the right thing by becoming a librarian, because without programs like this, the world would be a slightly less awesome place.
