2019 Newbery Possibilities through August Stars

There’s a ton of new titles to check into with this update because it’s covering three moths of added reviews: June, July and August. Heavy Medal is back in full swing and they actually do some in-depth analysis to identify contenders, so I encourage everyone to check in on the discussions over there – especially if you’re overwhelmed by the amount of titles listed here and want to narrow your reading focus.

For a reminder of the criteria please visit the official Newbery page or you can get a brief overview at my previous Newbery post.

This year my Newbery contender lists are broken down by format: Middle Grade Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comics, Non-Fiction, Picture Books (Fiction and Non-Fiction), and Easy Readers/Early Chapter Books.

I have also included a list of books that I think are ineligible with a brief note of why, but here’s your regular reminder that I am not a member of the Newbery committee and have no information on official committee rulings. A few notes on titles that were added this month: I think  Check, Please!: # Hockey is ineligible because it was originally published as a webcomic, but I’m not at all sure of that. Also, for anthologies I’m currently only looking up editors. If the editors meet the nationality/residence requirements I’m putting them on the contender lists; if they don’t (with some basic searching, I think Elsie Chapman is neither a U.S. citizen nor a U.S. resident sadly knocking out A Thousand Beginnings and Endings) I’m putting them on the ineligible list. If anyone has additional info on eligibility for any of the titles I’ve got on the ineligible list, please let me know in the comments!

With August stars entered, there were 139 titles with three or more starred reviews which means there’s 47 new titles . I’ve noted next to titles if they made the National Book Longlist or were named Kirkus Prize Finalists since that adds a little extra weight to their chances. See where everything ends up after the jump!

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2019 Printz Possibilities through August Stars

For a reminder of the official criteria of the Printz and what I consider traditional contenders vs. outliers, please see my previous 2019 Printz post. You can always find the full policies and procedures here.

Summer ate my time, so we’re looking at three months worth of additions here – 18 new traditional contenders and 13 new outliers. I’ve noted titles which made the National Book Award Longlist and will continue adding award information as it pops up. Now that award season has started, I’m really missing all the insight from the Someday My Printz Will Come team. We must all try to muddle through without them though so lists are after the jump!

August 2018 Starred Reviews

As noted in my last post, the National Book Award Longlist for Young People’s Literature has been announced! A few of them haven’t even been released yet, but all except for A Very Large Expanse of Sea (due out October 16) can be found on the list below. I suspect once reviews start coming in for A Very Large Expanse of Sea, that will also show up on the spreadsheet and probably the three stars or more list. For now I’ve made a note next to each longlist title; I’ll remove that note when I update for September.  Next step will be the shortlist announcement on October 10, but first will come the Kirkus Prize Finalists announcement on Tuesday, September 25.

August 2018 stars tally:

• 987 books published in 2018 have been awarded 1521 starred reviews as of the end of July.  2 books have 6 starred reviews; 15 books have 5 starred reviews, 25 books have 4 starred reviews, 97 books have 3 starred reviews, 195 books have 2 starred reviews, 653 books have 1 starred review.
• 2 books have been added with 4 stars and 17 books have been added with 3 stars

As I was looking at these numbers, I started wondering how it compared to other years. Since I now have monthly data for three years, I made a chart:Mostly the numbers are holding steady this year, except for 4 starred reviews where this year is a little low (25 compared to 44 and 40 in previous years) and 1 starred reviews which have seen a significant increase (653 compared to 548 and 513). Hopefully once the 2018 titles are mostly recorded, I’ll be able to take a look and see how the yearly numbers compare!

For now, let’s move on to the lists of titles with three starred reviews or more!

July 2018 Starred Reviews

Some month I’m going to be able to say that I’m completely caught up. This is not that month. I finally have July stars entered, but still have work to do since it’s already almost mid-September. I need to get the August stars sorted out before I do updated Newbery and Printz posts. But in better news, Heavy Medal is back and starting off their season! If you’re into the Newbery Medal and mock discussions, check out their opening list of titles to watch.

Award season is going to get started pretty soon as well! The first date I have on my calendar is this Wednesday, September 12 when the National Book Longlist for Young People’s Literature will be announced followed by September 25 when the Kirkus Prize Finalists will be announced.

As far as starred reviews go, I can tell the Fall publishing season is being reflected here because books with 3 starred reviews jumped from 66 to 82 titles which is huge compared to what was added in June.

July 2018 stars tally:

• 858 books published in 2018 have been awarded 1322 starred reviews as of the end of July.  2 books have 6 starred reviews; 15 books have 5 starred reviews, 21 books have 4 starred reviews, 82 books have 3 starred reviews, 167 books have 2 starred reviews, 571 books have 1 starred review.
•  A Big Mooncake for Little Star jumps on to the list all the way up at 5 stars, 1 book has been added with 4 stars, and 18 (!) books have been added with 3 stars

6 starred reviews:  2 books

June 2018 Starred Reviews

June 2018 stars tally:

• 726 books published in 2018 have been awarded 1114 starred reviews as of the end of June.  2 books have 6 starred reviews; 13 books have 5 starred reviews, 19 books have 4 starred reviews, 66 books have 3 starred reviews, 137 books have 2 starred reviews, 489 books have 1 starred review.
•  Drawn Together jumps on to the list all the way up at 5 stars, 1 book has been added with 4 stars and 6 books have been added with 3 stars

Since I’m once again running behind, I’m going to move right on to entering July information. Once I have the July reviews done, I’ll update the Newbery and Printz contender lists for both months combined.

6 starred reviews:  2 books

2019 Newbery Possibilities through May Stars

As of May starred reviews, here’s my lists of books with three or more stars that are eligible for the Newbery. For a reminder of the criteria please visit the official Newbery page or you can get a brief overview at my previous Newbery post. This year my Newbery contender lists are broken down by format: Middle Grade Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comics, Non-Fiction, Picture Books (Fiction and Non-Fiction), and Easy Readers/Early Chapter Books. I have also included a list of books that I think are ineligible with a brief note of why, but here’s your regular reminder that I am not a member of the Newbery committee and have no information on official committee rulings.

With May stars entered, there were 92 titles with three or more starred reviews which means there’s 12 new titles . Lots of new picture books this month, but not a ton of other stuff. See where everything ends up after the jump!

2019 Printz Possibilities through May Stars

For a reminder of the official criteria of the Printz and what I consider traditional contenders vs. outliers, please see my previous 2019 Printz post. You can always find the full policies and procedures here.

Not too much movement here this month – most of the new titles with 3 or more starred reviews are picture books or middle grade. There were no new traditional contenders leaving that list at 31 titles; 2 titles have been added to the outliers list for 16 titles total. Lists are after the break!

May 2018 Starred Reviews

Books with 6 starred reviews; books with 6 starred reviews! We have our first two! Here’s the list of starred reviews up through May.

May 2018 stars tally:

• 630 books published in 2018 have been awarded 982 starred reviews as of the end of May.  2 books have 6 starred reviews; 11 books have 5 starred reviews, 18 books have 4 starred reviews, 61 books have 3 starred reviews, 122 books have 2 starred reviews, 416 books have 1 starred review.
•  1 book has been added with 4 stars and 11 new books have been added with 3 stars

Drum roll, please!

6 starred reviews:  2 books – Baby Monkey, Private Eye moves up from 5 stars and Dread Nation moves up from 4 stars

2019 Newbery Possibilities through April Stars

As of April starred reviews, here’s my lists of books with three or more stars that are eligible for the Newbery. For a reminder of the criteria please visit the official Newbery page or you can get a brief overview at my previous Newbery post. This year my Newbery contender lists are broken down by format: Middle Grade Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comics, Non-Fiction, Picture Books (Fiction and Non-Fiction), and Easy Readers/Early Chapter Books. I have also included a list of books that I think are ineligible with a brief note of why, but here’s your regular reminder that I am not a member of the Newbery committee and have no information on official committee rulings.

As of the end of April there were 80 titles with three or more starred reviews which means there’s 36 new titles . See which lists they ended up on after the jump.

2019 Printz Possibilities through April Stars

Even though I’m behind, before I add the May starred reviews, I wanted to revisit my Printz and Newbery lists. Today it’s the Printz; hopefully my Newbery update will be up by the end of this week. For a reminder of the official criteria of the Printz and what I consider traditional contenders vs. outliers, please see my previous 2019 Printz post. You can always find the full policies and procedures here.

14 titles have been added to the traditional contenders list for 31 titles total; 5 titles have been added to the outliers list for 14 titles total. Lists are after the break!