Last Monday, the American Library Association announced its annual Youth Media Awards at its Midwinter conference, held this year in Dallas. The 2012 John Newbery Medal went to author Jack Gantos for Dead End in Norvelt (FSG), a semiautobiographical story set in the town of Norvelt, Pa. The Randolph Caldecott Medal went to Chris Raschka for A Ball for Daisy (Random House/Schwartz & Wade), a wordless picture book about a dog and its beloved red ball. And the Michael L. Printz Award was given to first-time author John Corey Whaley for Where Things Come Back (S&S/Atheneum), about the disappearance of a teenager and the possible reappearance of an extinct woodpecker; Whaley also won the William C. Morris Debut Author Award.