The Best Tweets from the 2023 Youth Media Awards!

In the next few hours, a writer is about to get a surprise phone call, or is already scheduled for an obscure "important Zoom meeting".
All I have to say to that person is, it's okay to ugly cry. Your life is about to change in the most amazing, happy way. 📚🤗🎉 #newberymedal

— Donna Barba Higuera 📚 Updates Only (@dbhiguera) January 29, 2023

#alayma press conference at 8AM today! WOOT!

If you're not at #LibLearnX23, make sure to join us virtually on the @ALALibrary FB page OR here: https://t.co/HBSecwb4nD pic.twitter.com/VvDImbTHuL

— ALSC (@wearealsc) January 30, 2023

This is how I imagine everyone is notified. #alayma https://t.co/xe77o54r0D

— K.A. Holt 🏳️‍🌈 (@karianneholt) January 30, 2023

Good luck to the eventual winners today, it’s the best. When it happened to me, I burst into massive manbaby tears of joy. https://t.co/KDlFBN87TT

— James Yang (@yangmeister) January 30, 2023

Sending so much love to all of the brilliant 2022 children's book creators. Whether you received those phone calls from ALA or not today, your work changes the world.

— Pernille Ripp (@pernilleripp) January 30, 2023

Good morning!!! It’s time for the American Library Association Youth Media Awards! From New Orleans. #alayma pic.twitter.com/GlXz7np9t8

— 🌸 Susan Kusel 🌸 (@susankusel) January 30, 2023

After several years of virtual-only ceremonies, I'm so, so happy to hear all the cheering on the #alayma livestreamt! 👏😭😭

— Carol Hinz (@CarolCHinz) January 30, 2023

2,000 cheers for Jason Reynolds. All of us in publishing are so lucky to be living in the same time period as that genius. #alayma

— Colleen AF Venable (@colleenaf) January 30, 2023

Me getting buried under my TBR during these awards #ALAYMA pic.twitter.com/igZJkQzmxI

— School Librarian #ENOUGH (@TiffanyE) January 30, 2023

overwhelmed (in the BEST way) to learn “The Real Riley Mayes” is a Stonewall Honor Book in Children’s & Young Adult Literature!
🌈Huge thanks to @ALALibrary , @GLBTRT , Donna Bray, @susanhawk , my loving partner, friends & fam, & all YOU who love LGBTQ+ books for young people. pic.twitter.com/VbnEppmNSZ

— rachel elliott 🆗🆒 (@okie_elliott) January 30, 2023

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (make that sound for the next 7 months & that is me)

I will post something coherent in a bit. For now, thank you so much to the Printz Committee. Congrats to all the YMA Winners today. And writers–keep going. You never know what will happen. 😭🏅 https://t.co/0fHS8E6WFU

— Sabaa Tahir (@sabaatahir) January 30, 2023

Last night when I got the call I was in a freezing parking lot wrapping up selling Girl Scout cookies! So you can bet last night we ate our weight in thin mints! Thank you so much to the Committee, to @ALALibrary, to everyone at @Candlewick! pic.twitter.com/GtMAW4HIKI

— Christina Soontornvat (@soontornvat) January 30, 2023

*JOYSCREAM*
The 2023 Newbery Medal winner, FREEWATER: author @AminaLuqman a WNDB mentee, mentor the great @kappelt, and reader, I blurbed it!#alayma #LibLearnX pic.twitter.com/wiNtzoI6F0

— Linda Sue Park SAYGAY (@LindaSuePark) January 30, 2023

So, this happened!!!! 🥹🥹🥹 #alayma #PuraBelpre pic.twitter.com/lrY7k4hMOS

— Stephen –The Notebook Keeper is OUT NOW– Briseño (@stephen_briseno) January 30, 2023

Especially in 2023, when a book with this first word in its title is an inevitable target of school board anger, the recognition of the Printz award committee means so much. Thank you for this honor, which is the sort of credential (1/3) pic.twitter.com/L8dXzhnWc9

— Eliot Schrefer 🌈 (@EliotSchrefer) January 30, 2023

Ok so I’m having a great start to my morning 😆💗 pic.twitter.com/V8AWYpoVXf

— Kat Fajardo MISS QUINCES in stores now!! (@katfcomix) January 30, 2023

La la la la, what's that? Oh, Maizy Chen's Last Chance is NEWBERY HONOR BOOK AND I AM SO EXCITED AND COULDN'T STOP CRYING WHEN I FOUND OUT AND I AM GOING TO EAT CAKE TODAY.

Thank you to the committee and to @ALALibrary!!!!#ALAYMA #MaizyChensLastChance #Newbery @randomhousekids pic.twitter.com/KdkmI1bg8f

— Lisa Yee – MAIZY CHEN'S LAST CHANCE (@LisaYee1) January 30, 2023

And the category is… Must Sit with Chickens Immediately, Breathe Deep Breaths. I'm thrilled for so many fellow authors and illustrators! Congrats all! Extra love to @charlenedraws @trishadeg @agentmjchang @aramkimart and our whole @fsgbooks BYR @MacKidsSL @MacKidsBooks team! 💜 pic.twitter.com/4IKu7nDULh

— Charlotte Sullivan Wild | LOVE, VIOLET out now! (@SullivanWild) January 30, 2023

Tremendous gratitude! My heart is full. Thank you!!! @Scholastic https://t.co/2r2oCn5T4G

— Chana Stiefel (@chanastiefel) January 30, 2023

Good morning! I won a lil award!! Thank you to Nick and the team @LevineQuerido for plucking my unagented ass out of nowhere and giving me a book. Congrats to all the other honorees and winners!!!💖 pic.twitter.com/KoaTtPaRA5

— camille g (a.k.a. Buy High Spirits pls) (@cgomeratavarez) January 30, 2023

GIRL WHAT https://t.co/Cm5AJmMagA

— Vincent is a pen name bro (@v_e_tirado) January 30, 2023

I’m overwhelmed with gratitude, SWIM TEAM has won a #CorettaScottKingAward Honor for Illustration! What an incredible journey. Thanks to everyone at @HarperCollins, my editor Andrew Arnold, my brilliant colorist @Hilzjenkins and to everyone on the committee @ALALibrary pic.twitter.com/TnsxmATc3x

— Johnnie Christmas (@j_xmas) January 30, 2023

Still can’t believe it! 😳🥹😯😀😮🤯😳😲☺️ pic.twitter.com/SXT2BfWsLC

— Vikram Madan (OWL & PENGUIN, 2023 Geisel Honor) (@artbyvikram) January 30, 2023

I woke up very early this morning because our picture book STRONG won a Stonewall Honor from the @ALALibrary! After the announcement, I was in a stupor partly from tiredness and also from the knowledge that LGBTQ+ books >@LGBT_Activist @lbschool @jodiesque @LisaYoskowitz pic.twitter.com/DakGkeNpY6

— 🦈👑 Nidhi Chanani (@nidhiart) January 30, 2023

I AM A SYDNEY TAYLOR WINNER!!! https://t.co/toITB0fYfo

— Sacha Lamb (@mosslamb) January 30, 2023

Congrats to my pal @LisaYee1 for winning a Newbery Honor for Maizy Chen's Last Chance! We can't meet up for lunch so I'm repurposing this photo from 8 years ago for some other thing. #ALAYMA pic.twitter.com/y8rSAEGyYO

— Dan Santat (@dsantat) January 30, 2023

Man, I wrote BDRU while I was working a temp job at Nike, scribbling down ideas in a little notebook during my breaks just to get me through a shift, you wanna tell me a book I wrote for ME got AN AWARD???? MY FIRST BOOK??? MY DEBUT????

— Vincent is a pen name bro (@v_e_tirado) January 30, 2023

It's been quite a day! Feeling blessed, honored and appreciative of all the love and well-wishes that have enveloped me today. Lots of love and thanks to my @diversebooks mentor @kappelt. Amazing editor, @lxhightower @foliojr and to @ALALibrary. pic.twitter.com/JUOhmvCds7

— Amina Luqman-Dawson (@AminaLuqman) January 31, 2023

😮🥹aaaah… no one has ever sent me flowers before!!! Thank you @HolidayHouseBks and @smorgridge 💙💙💙🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽😊😊😊 pic.twitter.com/G6RUj0NRgO

— Vikram Madan (OWL & PENGUIN, 2023 Geisel Honor) (@artbyvikram) January 31, 2023

Sin palabras…. 🤯

Beyond grateful to my agent, @rleskildsen, and to everyone at @randomhousekids who helped bring IVELIZ here (most especially my editor, @triciaelin). Above all, thank you, @ALALibrary – my book will reach so many more kids because of you 😭. pic.twitter.com/vDvcaWTCTJ

— Andrea Beatriz Arango (UPDATES ONLY) (@andreabarango) January 30, 2023

Today was #alayma23 which means today it’s time for #ExtremeCaldecottPlacement!

Now in its 9th year 😳 this asks a VERY SERIOUS question: w such a great award, why stop at putting the sticker on the Caldecott outside of the book? 😉🤷🏻‍♂️https://t.co/10juaYnP0B

— Minh Lê (@bottomshelfbks) January 30, 2023