Scot Smith, the librarian at Robertsville Middle School, recently served on the Michael L. Printz Award Committee. The Printz Medal is administered by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association. The award recognizes books that exemplify literary excellence in literature for young adults. Smith was elected to the Printz Committee in 2016 and attended ALA conferences in Chicago and Denver as part of his responsibilities. At the Midwinter conference in Denver, the committee selected one title as the Printz winner and four books as Printz Honors. We Are Okay by Nina LaCour received the Medal while Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor, and Vincent and Theo: the Van Gogh Brothers by Deborah Heiligman won Honors. Smith said that “serving on the Printz Committee was an amazing experience. I had to read hundreds of pages every week, but all of that reading and thinking about the best books for teens made me a much better librarian.” You can learn more about the Printz Award by visiting this link: www.ala.org/yalsa/printz-award.
In addition to serving on the Printz Committee for 2018, Smith is co-chair of Tennessee’s Volunteer State Book Award and was recognized as an Outstanding Educator by Humanities Tennessee. He also teaches a course in Young Adult Literature at the University of Tennessee.
