What a wonderful night! The Booklist Magazine Books for Youth Forum at the American Library Association conference in Anaheim celebrated the very first Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production. Stephanie Zvirin welcomed the standing-room-only audience of 500 or so with the bittersweet announcement that this was her last Forum, as she will be leaving her post as Booklist's Books for Youth Editor after more than 30 years. Sue-Ellen Beauregard, Booklist's Media Editor, served as the event moderator, introducing author & Full Cast Audio's Bruce Coville whose Homeric words proved to be the perfect symbolic Champagne-bottle-smash to set the Odyssey off on its voyage. His ritual shedding of the jacket is now an entrenched part of the finest ALA gala events - as was echoed by Lynn Rutan at the 2008 Printz Award ceremony. Next, I had the honor to thank the awesome members of the Best. Committee. Ever. Those wonderful women made my year as chair of the Odyssey Award the best year ever!
The fantastic ALSC staff coordinated the creation of the Odyssey Honor plaques (equal to the Newbery & Caldecott). I had the privilege to present the Honor recognition to Listen & Live Audio for Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary 'Jacky' Faber, Ship's Boy; Weston Woods for Dooby Dooby Moo; Listening Library for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; HarperChildren's Audio for Skulduggery Pleasant; and Listening Library for Treasure Island.
The highlight of the evening was the standing ovation for 2008 Odyssey Award winner Arnie Cardillo of Live Oak Media as he took the stage to accept the beautiful gold medal for his production of Jazz. He spoke to the audience about the amazing collaboration between author Walter Dean Myers, illustrator Christopher Myers, and the 15-member Live Oak production team that worked for five months to create the 42-minute readalong audiobook. The perfect end to the program were the witty & warm remarks and mesmerizing readings from audiobook narrator extraordinaire Simon Vance, recently honored with the title "Voice of Choice" by Booklist Magazine. Who knew that this was his very first public speaking appearance after over 400 audiobooks & stage, screen, and TV acting career!?! The final touch was an appearance by Harry Potter narrator Jim Dale via recorded DVD, who elicited fan-girl squeals from Odyssey committee members when he gave them his special thanks. When we looked out from the stage and saw Newbery-winning authors sitting on the floor throughout the night, we knew this was a night to remember!
I recorded the event, which will soon be posted as a podcast on the YALSA website. Hopefully, we will also post Jim Dale's video. I'll post links here as soon as possible. I was too busy to take pictures so thanks to goreygirl72 at www.flickr.com for the above image! I will try gather some other pictures & post later.
I'll leave you with this great review of Jazz from the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. It declares that Jazz is the best audiobook for Friday night wind-down with the family and includes the great suggestion "Let kids hear the poems and page through illustrations while parents cook dinner and relax with a cocktail."
Friday, July 4, 2008
Odyssey Award Celebration at ALA Anaheim
Monday, June 23, 2008
Odyssey Award at ALA Anaheim - You're Invited!
Plan to attend the first-ever Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production Celebration!! Join the festivities that will kick off ALA Annual in Anaheim on Friday, June 27 at 8 p.m. The event will take place at Hilton Anaheim in California Pavilion A - there is no charge and tickets are not necessary. You’ll hear presentations by audiobook producers Bruce Coville from Full Cast Audio and Arnie Cardillo from Live Oak Media, along with audiobook narrator Simon Vance. There will even be a special guest appearance, via DVD, by Jim Dale, best known as the reader of Listening Library’s Harry Potter series. The Odyssey Award is sponsored by Booklist, host of the celebration, and co-administered by ALSC and YALSA. Learn more about the award here: http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/odysseyaward/odysseyaward.cfm
The 2008 Odyssey Award winner is Jazz, produced by Live Oak Media. The 2008 Odyssey Honor titles are Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary ‘Jacky’ Faber, Ship’s Boy, produced by Listen & Live Audio; Dooby Dooby Moo, produced by Scholastic/Weston Woods; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, produced by Listening Library; Skulduggery Pleasant, produced by HarperChildren’s Audio; and Treasure Island, produced by Listening Library.
I hope to see you there!
Image from www.ala.org
Friday, June 20, 2008
The mystery of the missing audiobooks
Something new in digital storytelling: The Amanda Project from Fourth Story Media. This venture is a joint project by HarperCollins Children's Books and Fourth Story, headed by Lisa Holton, past President of Scholastic Trade and Book Fairs. The multi-tiered publishing effort combines print, blogs, social networking, games, and online clues in a mystery series that will include eight books. There will be merchandising as well - look for T-shirts, stationary, and more.
This reminds me of Scholastic's The 39 Clues, another combination of mystery series with online content - one that has the added attraction of top-name authors such as Rick Riordan, Gordon Korman, Peter Lerangis, and Jude Watson on board. Not to mention the prizes totaling $100,000 to the readers who solve the mystery! The Amanda Project seems squarely aimed at girls, while The 39 Clues looks to be fairly gender-neutral.
But the publicity of both ventures has no mention of the downloadable, digital content of audiobooks. Yet both Harper and Scholastic have their own children's audiobook publishing divisions. Looks as though a large segment of today's digital natives will be left out - the fast-growing, plugged-in group of audiobook listeners. Both of these ventures have left out the sense of hearing from their multi-sensory plans. A curious mystery indeed!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Do publishers care about audiobooks?
Recently, two major publishers released reports that summarized the habits of readers. But although the surveys tracked print usage as well as the digital formats of ebook and online reading, one format was glaringly missing - audiobooks.
In the Random House / Zogby poll of 8,218 adults, a vast amount of information about reading and book buying is presented - including what book respondents would recommend to the President at 3:00am. However, if you search for the terms audio or audiobook in the thirteen-page document, you'll find one reference - 2% of the adults responded "audio books" when asked "What book format do you most often buy?" No questions in the survey specifically targeted the audiobook format. Amazingly, the sponsor of the survey, Random House, is the parent company of both Books on Tape and Listening Library, two of the largest audiobook publishers.
Scholastic Publishing released a report titled "2008 Kids & Family Reading Report: Reading in the 21st Century: Turning the Page with Technology." The study focuses on comparing print vs. digital reading - and yet the terms audio or audiobook are found NOWHERE in the sixty-four page report! This from a company that has long published audiobooks and recently acquired Weston Woods, a major producer of audiobooks. The report included a large section on the "Harry Potter" effect. yet completely ignores the sale of over five million copies of Harry Potter audiobooks!
True, the Harry Potter audiobooks were produced by Listening Library, not Scholastic. But the huge success of the HP audiobooks was ignored in the Random House survey as well! It is clear that the data gathered by the Audio Publishers Association is all the more important, such as the most recent 2007 sales survey.
But the question remains: Why have the parent companies of today's audiobook publishers ignored audiobooks in their recent marketing surveys?
Saturday, May 31, 2008
2008 Audies winners - with a focus on youth
The wait is over! I’ve posted about the Children’s and YA literature titles that were nominated for the 2008 Audies Award. Now we know the winners announced on May 30th during a gala celebration in LA, hosted by the Audio Publishers Association, sponsors of the awards. Here are the winners, focusing on youth productions:
In the Children – Ages Up to 8 category, the winner is More About Paddington, narrated by Stephen Fry from HarperAudio. The other nominees were In Aunt Giraffe’s Garden (HarperAudio), Goodnight Hawaiian Moon (Banana Patch Press), Ogre in a Toga (Bolinda Audio), and The One and Only Shrek! (Macmillan Audio).
In the Children – Ages 8-11 category, the winner is Clementine, narrated by Jessica Almasy, from Recorded Books. The other nominees were The Great Christmas Kidnapping Caper (Full Cast Audio), Rosa (Weston Woods), Skulduggery Pleasant, a 2008 Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production Honor title (HarperAudio), and The Wednesday Wars (Scholastic Audio).
In the Children – Ages 12 and up category, the winner is Bloody Jack, narrated by Katherine Kellgren, from Listen & Live Audio, a 2008 Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production Honor title. The other nominees were Interworld (HarperAudio), A Mango Shaped Space (Recorded Books), M is for Magic (HarperAudio), and Slam (Penguin Audio).
Youth titles also made a splash in other Audie categories by being nominated or winning:
The Audiobook of the Year winner was the adult title The Chopin Manuscript, besting youth titles Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (youth title and 2008 Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production Honor title), The Invention of Hugo Cabret (youth title from Scholastic Audio), and two adult titles I Am America (and So Can You!), and Inspired by…The Bible Experience (Old Testament).
The Inspirational/Spiritual category winner is Inspired by…The Bible Experience (Old Testament) from Zondervan. The nominees were Ana’s Story (youth title from HarperAudio), Finding Home, The Great Omission, and Vienna Prelude.
In Solo Narration – Male, the winner is Jim Dale for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, from Random House/Listening Library (youth title). The other nominees were Catch-22 (Jay O. Sanders), The Coldest Winter (Edward Herrman), and The Long Walk (John Lee).
In the Classic category, the 2008 winner was a youth title: Treasure Island, narrated by Alfred Molina from Random House/Listening Library, a 2008 Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production Honor title, competing against 1984, Catch-22, and A Clockwork Orange.
In the Audio Drama category, Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls from Blackstone Audio is the winner. The nominees were Princess Academy (youth title from Full Cast Audio), Radio Theater’s Amazing Grace, Star Beast (youth title from Full Cast Audio), and Vienne Prelude.
In the Package Design category, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows wins (youth title). The other nominated titles were The Christmas Hope Collection, Inspired by … The Bible Experience (Old Testament), The One and Only Shrek (youth title), and Speak in a Week – Latin American Spanish Street Smart.
For Achievement in Production, Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls from Blackstone Audio is the winner. The other nominees were Dune, Inspired by … The Bible Experience (Old Testament), The Invention of Hugo Cabret (youth title), and Radio Theater’s Amazing Grace.
Want to check out the entire list of winners & nominees, complete with links to audio clips and reviews? Check out the Audies Award website. Looking for a great listening experience? You just can't miss by choosing ANY of the winning or nominated titles. Congratulations to all of the hundred of people who worked on creating the best in audiobooks in 2008!
And here’s a report from David Michael Bruno, who attended the gala last night and reflects on his lone Twitter-ing at the Audies Award ceremony: http://www.guynameddave.com/2008/05/was-that-a-twee.html
