In case you might have missed the drama from last week, here is a short recap. On Wednesday, the National Book Awards announced the top five finalists for Young Adult fiction, including Lauren Myracle's powerful new book, Shine, about a hate crime against a gay teen. All five finalists were congratulated.
About an hour later, the National Book Awards announced they had made a mistake - it wasn't Myracle's Shine that made the top five; Franny Billingsley's Chime was intended in Shine's spot. The National Book Foundation apologized for the mishap and said that they would use all six books for finalists this year.
However, word hit the news that the National Book Foundation later called Myracle and asked her to pull her title from the running, "to preserve the integrity of the award and the judges' work." Myracle obliged, and then also requested that $5,000 be donated to the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which supports LGBT youth. The Foundation agreed and strongly emphasized that the mistake with the two finalists "won't happen again."
Read the full story at the New York Times website.
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