The story of the National Book Foundation’s flip-flops on whether Lauren Myracle’s Shine (Amulet/Abrams, 9780810984172) would be included on the list of finalists for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature is being called everything from a “mix-up” to a “debacle” and has been covered in a wide range of publications, from the author’s hometown paper, The Denver Post, to the Hindustan Times.

Myracle spoke to NPR’s All Things Considered last night and, earlier, to Vanity Fair. While she says the NBA’a request that she withdraw Shine from consideration made her feel like “the rug had been pulled out” from under her feet, one good thing has come from it. The National Book Foundation agreed to her suggestion that they donate $5,000 to the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which fights against hate crimes.

Fellow YA author Libba Bray posted a self-described “rant” on her blog, saying, “a classy, kind, wonderful person and writer was subjected to a week of anguish in full view of the world in order to preserve somebody’s overweening ego.” She urged readers to “order Shine from your local bookstore or request it from your local library today. And if you’re tweeting this, please use the hashtag #ISupportShine.”

On Twitter, an additional hashtag, #BuyShine has also emerged.

The book has risen to #534 on Amazon’s sales rankings, higher than any of the titles on the official list:

• # 1,936    Gary D. Schmidt  – Okay for Now – Clarion/HMH, 9780547152608
• #2,326    Debby Dahl Edwardson  – My Name is Not Easy – Marshall Cavendish, 9780761459804
• #3,981    Franny Billingsley – Chime – Dial Books, 9780803735521
• #3,987    Thanhha Lai – Inside Out & Back Again – Harper, 9780061962783
• # 5,899    Albert Marrin –  Flesh & Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy – Alfred A. Knopf, 9780375868894

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 20th, 2011 at 9:11 am and is filed under Awards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.