The finalists for the 2006 National Book Award in the category of Young People’s Literature are:

M.T. Anderson, author The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party (Candlewick Press);

Martine Leavitt, author of Keturah and Lord Death (Front Street Books/Boyds Mills Press);

Patricia McCormick, author of Sold (Hyperion Books for Children);

Nancy Werlin, author of The Rules of Survival (Dial/Penguin);

and Gene Luen Yang, American Born Chinese (First Second/Roaring Brook Press/Holtzbrinck).

Congratulations on the finalists! Read recent Cynsations interviews with M.T. Anderson on Whales on Stilts (Harcourt, 2005) and Nancy Werlin on The Rules of Survival (Dial, 2006).