June 2017 Starred Reviews

For a variety of reasons June and July got away from me this year: Summer Reading at work along with training two new hires, my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary in July (Congrats again Bob and Monica!) which included a party at my home – the list could go on, but that’s not why we’re here. We’re here for the stars, so without further ado….

June 2017 stars tally:

•  699 books published in 2017 have been awarded 1151 starred reviews as of the end of June.
• 2 books have 6 starred reviews, 15 books have 5 starred reviews, 31 books have 4 starred reviews, 71 books have 3 starred reviews, 147 books have 2 starred reviews, 433 books have 1 starred review.

OK – just a slight more ado before we get to the lists – in case you didn’t see the update to my previous post, Kelly Jensen kindly let me know that I had incorrectly recorded Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World as two separate books with two stars each. It actually has four starred reviews! My apologies and thanks to Kelly for pointing it out. And if you hadn’t picked this one up before, you really should. It is part of my vacation reading this week and I can assure you it should not be missed!

May 2017 Starred Reviews

I had a wonderful time at ALA seeing friends and checking out the latest books from publishers; many thanks to those I saw – especially Beth from Bloomsbury who had some very kind words about this  blog! Since it’s the last day of June and I’ve just finally finished the May stars update, I’m going to skip the May Newbery and Printz posts and go right into adding the June starred reviews.

ETA: The numbers below have been updated to include Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World as a 4 star title rather than two 2 star titles. My thanks and apologies go to Kelly Jensen who noticed and pointed out the error to me.

May 2017 stars tally:

•  593 books published in 2017 have been awarded 1003 starred reviews as of the end of May.
• 2 books have 6 starred reviews, 15 books have 5 starred reviews, 24 books have 4 starred reviews, 65 books have 3 starred reviews, 138 books have 2 starred reviews, 349 books have 1 starred review.

ALA Annual

Just a quick post to say May starred reviews are entered and next week I’ll update the list I post here. This weekend though I’ll be wandering the exhibits at the ALA Annual conference in Chicago. If you see me say hi! Here’s what I look like today:

Newbery Possibilities Updated for April Stars

Brief reminder of the basic Newbery qualifications:

• Children are defined as being up to and including the age of 14.
• Books must be published in the U.S. first; titles originally published elsewhere are not eligible.
• The author must be a U.S. citizen or resident.

Here’s how the four lists break down:

• List one: Novels solidly in the age range
• List two: Everything else solidly in the age range: graphic novels, non-fiction, picture books, poetry collections, etc.
• List three: YA titles that technically hit the age range, but are probably too old.
• List four: What I think are ineligible titles – mostly due to nationality of the author, but there’s a few listed there for other reasons.

DIsclaimer: I am not affiliated with the Newbery committee and I have no knowledge of their official rulings on eligibility – I’m making my best guesses based on the terms and criteria and internet searches regarding citizenship/residency.

Also – please remember starred reviews do not have the same criteria as the Newbery. There are plenty of titles not on this list that the committee will likely be looking at for a variety of reasons. This is just one way to focus your reading.

As of the end of April there were 87 titles with three or more starred reviews.

Printz Possibilities Updated for April Stars

See the Early Printz Possibilities post for information on criteria and how I’m dividing the lists. Titles new to the list since the April stars have been entered are marked in bold. We have five new traditional contenders with three or more stars and six more outliers.

I do want to remind everyone that the criteria for starred reviews varies significantly from the criteria for the Printz – there are plenty of books out there that the real committee members will be looking at that aren’t on this list and some that are on both of these lists that they’ve probably already judged unworthy of serious consideration.

April 2017 Starred Reviews

Hello, my reading friends and fellow book nerds! I’m making lemonade from my lemons today – home sick with almost no voice, so I had time to write a blog post before a much-needed nap. I haven’t noted where titles have moved up this time around (say from 5 starred reviews to 6 like Vincent and Theo), but anything that is entirely new to the list is marked as such in the citations.

April 2017 journals have been entered; here’s the tally:

•  510 books published in 2017 have been awarded 852 starred reviews as of the end of April.
• 2 books have 6 starred reviews, 9 books have 5 starred reviews, 23 books have 4 starred reviews, 53 books have 3 starred reviews, 121 books have 2 starred reviews, 302 books have 1 starred review.

On to the list of titles!

Early Newbery Possibilities

The Newbery Award is given by the Association for Library Service to Children to

“the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published by an American publisher in the United States in English during the preceding year.” – Newbery Medal Terms and Criteria

Additional criteria notes:

• Children are defined as being up to and including the age of 14.
• Books must be published in the U.S. first; titles originally published elsewhere are not eligible.
• The author must be a U.S. citizen or resident.

The Newbery committees as of late have been delightfully wide-ranging in their choices including everything from picture books to graphic novels to poetry to memoirs to non-fiction. So this year, I’m breaking up my lists a little differently. Looking at everything with three or more starred reviews from the six journals I track, I’m dividing titles into four lists. The first list is novels since even with the titles noted above, this is what makes up the majority of past Newbery winners and honors. The second list is everything else solidly in the age range: graphic novels, non-fiction, picture books, poetry collections, etc. The third list is YA titles that technically hit the age range, but are probably too old. The fourth list is books that I think are ineligible – mostly due to nationality of the author, but there’s a few listed there for other reasons. To be clear: I am not affiliated with the Newbery committee and I have no knowledge of their official rulings on eligibility – I’m making my best guesses based on the terms and criteria and internet searches regarding citizenship/residency.

As of the end of March there were 71 titles with three or more starred reviews.

ETA 5/10/17: Please see the note towards the bottom of this post for some additional links and commentary on The Secret Project and Undefeated.

My Mock Printz To-Read Goals January-April

As noted in my previous post, looking at starred reviews through the end of March there are 21 traditional Printz contenders and 23 outliers. Throw in your books from previous winners and honorees plus buzz books and dark horses and that’s a LOT of books.

Thinking about my reading habits, I know I’m never going to be able to read all of those. I’m already behind on where I wanted to be for my mock award-prep reading, so I thought I would try setting some goals. Therefore, I’m picking three books published in each month to try to read to be at least semi-informed in the mock discussions. Read on to see what I picked from January through April to be added to my TBR pile. Descriptions are from the Palatine Public Library catalog except for where noted.

Early Printz Possibilities

Now that the first quarter of starred reviews have all been entered let’s start breaking it down by award. First up, the Printz.

The Michael L. Printz Award annually honors the best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit, each year. – YALSA Website

Two additional eligibility notes:

• Must be published between January 1 and December 31 by a United States publishing house. Works previously published in other countries are eligible the year they are published in the U.S.
• Must have been designated by the publisher as a young adult book or within YALSA’s stated audience range of 12-18 years.

Given these criteria, when I make my Printz list, I include anything that hits the 12-18 year age range in at least one review and has three or more starred reviews. For why I stick with three or more stars, see How Many Stars Does It Take to Catch a Printz? over on Someday My Printz Will Come However, given what historically is honored most of the time (novels in the upper part of the age range), I divide the list into two parts. The first part is “traditional” contenders and the second part is outliers with reasons why noted. Ignore the outliers at your own risk *cough*NavigatingEarly*cough*. Read on to see this year’s first list.

2017 1st Quarter Starred Reviews

First quarter 2017 journals are all entered finally. 447 books published in 2017 have been awarded 730 starred reviews. That’s a lot of good books to look at already, so let’s dive right  in!