It's fascinating to me how people react to different books, esp. re: awards. So easy to see that we all bring diff. things to the table as readers or prefer diff. reading experiences.
You can count me in the "liked Okay For Now much better than Wednesday Wars" camp. My only exception is that I didn't like ONE twist of Okay For Now toward the end--if you've read it, you might be able to guess which one I mean-- because I felt it was just one twist too many. It's a beautifully written book and everything I want to do in my own writing. I do feel it's older MG, but not quite YA. Or maybe young YA with a MG sensibility--either way, that's usually the age range my own writing lands in.
Sometimes I find the sort of books that win these awards deadly dull reading (I'm sorry to say, usually historical fiction turns me right off, for instance). But Okay For Now made me stop several times from pure admiration of a perfectly-crafted sentence. I could also relate to the narrator, big time. And to be honest, it made me cry real tears more than once, which is more than I can say for most books.
If we are talking younger to middle MG, I have to give a shout-out to my friend Linda's Hound Dog True, which of course I think is lovely and understated and so neatly crafted, as all her writing is. Though I read this ms. many times in a variety of forms (Linda being a crit. buddy), I STILL found myself sniffing over one page in particular when reading it in book form. Linda never fails to touch my heart and mind and puts her finger on why I love and write MG.