2021 Newbery Possibilities through January Stars

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

Some additional parameters that the committee must consider:

• 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.

You can read the full criteria here.

I collate a list of titles that have three or more starred reviews (4 of the titles honored this January met this criteria – only Scary Stories for Young Foxes had fewer than 3 starred reviews) and break them down into these categories: Middle Grade Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Comics, Non-Fiction, Picture Books (Fiction and Non-Fiction), Easy Readers/Early Chapter Books, and Ineligibles. This year, to save some time, I’m not including the publication date here and just copying the citation from the January Starred Reviews post. You can, of course, still find the publication date on the Starred Reviews spreadsheet.

Standard 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 or content (wordless picture books or reprinted material). For a prime example of this – I wasn’t sure if The Undefeated would be eligible and clearly it was!

Heavy Medal, SLJ’s Mock Newbery blog, is soliciting mock field nominations monthly and you can check out their first list.

As of the end of January there were 26 titles with three or more starred reviews. I haven’t had a chance to review any of these yet, but I was able to grab copies of several before my library closed and am hoping to get to them over the next couple of weeks.

2021 Printz Possibilities through January Stars

My library has closed to the public for a time to promote social distancing and help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Currently staff will still be reporting for work in order to answer phones and email and fill holds via our drive-up window. Since I’m staying home as much as possible in my off-work time, I figured I might as well bring back some of my award winner posts – although I’m also hoping to spend some significant time reading and listening to books as well as catching up on some TV with my hubby. Obviously starred reviews and book awards will not be the topics at the top of many people’s minds right now and I encourage you all to do what you can to social distance yourselves and be safe and focus on whatever you need to and what helps, but I need to keep my mind occupied for my own mental health and for now this works for me.

Since this is my first Printz post looking at 2021 contenders, let’s take a brief look at the criteria:

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.

You can find the full policies and procedures here.

Each year’s honors and winners chip away at the concept of 3 starred reviews being the limit of what to look at, so while the main lists will still be covering titles with three starred reviews or more, I’m going to try highlighting other titles at the bottom of the lists occasionally as well.

26 books published in 2020 have three starred reviews or more as of the end of January 2020 reviews. 12 of those are picture books, poetry collections or novels with an audience that doesn’t fit the Printz age range so aren’t mentioned here at all. 3 are young adult novels, 3 are young adult comics; 2 are young adult non-fiction; 5 are younger novel outliers and 1 is an other outlier.

Contenders are organized by format: Novels, Comics, Non-Fiction. There’s two outliers lists – one for younger novels and one for anything else (essay collections, short stories, younger comics, etc.). I’m still not including titles that end at age 12 for their review ranges (i.e ages 8-12 or Grades 3-6) unless I’ve heard Printz buzz about them. 

January 2020 Starred Reviews

Just a couple changes to the 2019 list, but a lot of movement on the 2020 list including our first book with 6 starred reviews already!

January 2020 stars tally:

• 1094 books published in 2019 have been awarded 1793 starred reviews as of the end of January.
• 2019: 5 books have 6 starred reviews, 18 books have 5 starred reviews, 58 books have 4 starred reviews, 102 books have 3 starred reviews, 224 books have 2 starred reviews, 687 books have 1 starred review.
• 245 books published in 2020 have been awarded 369 starred reviews as of the end of January.
• 2020: 1 book with 6 starred reviews; 1 book with 5 starred reviews; 8 books with 4 starred reviews; 16 books with 3 starred reviews; 59 books with 2 starred reviews; 160 books with 1 starred review.

December 2019 Starred Reviews

Not a ton of movement with the December reviews, but I went ahead and kept the 2019 titles because there were a few additions to the three starred reviews.

December 2019 stars tally:

• 1072 books published in 2019 have been awarded 1759 starred reviews as of the end of December.
• 2019: 5 books have 6 starred reviews, 17 books have 5 starred reviews, 57 books have 4 starred reviews, 101 books have 3 starred reviews, 221 books have 2 starred reviews, 671 books have 1 starred review.
• 162 books published in 2020 have been awarded 227 starred reviews as of the end of December.
• 2020: No books with 6 starred reviews; no books with 5 starred reviews; 4 books with 4 starred reviews; 8 books with 3 starred reviews; 37 books with 2 starred reviews; 113 books with 1 starred review.

November 2019 Starred Reviews

Obviously I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus lately, but it was for a fun reason. This year, for the first time, I served on the reader panel for Illinois’ Lincoln Award – the reader’s choice award for grades 9-12. It was a fascinating process – the best part was hearing the teen reading panel voice their opinions on the titles up for consideration. The final list for 2021 should be released in late February or early March. Now that I’ve been through the process once, I’m super excited for next year. I already have plans on how to improve managing my reading and note taking while still keeping this blog going.

While I was gone, the ALA Awards were announced. Check out the complete list of winners here. Unfortunately, since I’m so far behind, I’m going to be focusing on catch up rather than analyzing the winners and how they compare with starred reviews and best book lists. Luckily Anne over at My Head is Full of Books has you covered on the starred reviews for the young adult titles at least!

I’m still including 2019 titles on this November post because there were several new additions. The December reviews post might switch over to just 2020 titles – we’ll see how much movement we get in 2019 titles once I’ve entered the December information.

November 2019 stars tally:

• 1061 books published in 2019 have been awarded 1741 starred reviews as of the end of November.
• 2019: 5 books have 6 starred reviews, 17 books have 5 starred reviews, 56 books have 4 starred reviews, 99 books have 3 starred reviews, 221 books have 2 starred reviews, 663 books have 1 starred review.
• 108 books published in 2020 have been awarded 123 starred reviews as of the end of November.
• 2020: No books with 6 starred reviews; no books with 5 starred reviews; 1 book with 4 starred reviews; 6 books with 3 starred reviews.

October 2019 Starred Reviews

2020 starred reviews are starting to come in, but nothing has three starred reviews yet.

Five of the Best lists that I track have been announced – just waiting on the Bulletin’s list to arrive. In the meantime, you can see the five lists on the Best Books 2019 spreadsheet.

October 2019 stars tally:

• 1022 books published in 2019 have been awarded 1666 starred reviews as of the end of October. 2 books have 6 starred reviews, 15 books have 5 starred reviews, 56 books have 4 starred reviews, 97 books have 3 starred reviews, 212 books have 2 starred reviews, 640 books have 1 starred review.
• 34 books published in 2020 have been awarded 39 starred reviews as of the end of October.
• No new books with 6 starred reviews; 3 books move up to 5 starred reviews from 4 and 1 book moves up to 5 starred reviews from 3; 7 books move up to 4 starred reviews from 3 starred reviews and 2 books with 4 starred reviews are entirely new; 9 books have been added with 3 starred reviews.

September 2019 Starred Reviews

So. Far. Behind. That’s the story here and it means that unfortunately, I’m not going to be adding Printz and Newbery posts anytime soon. I need to get caught up on starred reviews first! Plus, I have started my spreadsheet tracking 2019 Best Books lists from the same six journals I track for starred reviews. Right now it has Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal and Horn Book titles listed (although I’m missing a few age ranges on the Horn Book titles – I’ll fill those in when I find them). I’ll fill in the best lists from the other three journals as they are released and I have time.

September 2019 stars tally:

• 977 books published in 2019 have been awarded 1574 starred reviews as of the end of September. 2 books have 6 starred reviews, 11 books have 5 starred reviews, 50 books have 4 starred reviews, 96 books have 3 starred reviews, 201 books have 2 starred reviews, 617 books have 1 starred review.
• 7 books published in 2020 have been awarded 7 starred reviews as of the end of September – no duplicates yet, but I expect 2020 reviews to pick up with the October journals.
• No new books with 6 starred reviews; 1 new book with 5 starred reviews and 1 book moves up to 5 starred reviews from 4 and 1 book moves up to 5 starred reviews from 3; 11 books move up to 4 starred reviews from 3 starred reviews and 2 books with 4 starred reviews are entirely new; 25 books have been added with 3 starred reviews.

August 2019 Starred Reviews

It’s book award season once again! The National Book Foundation has announced its longlist and finalists for Young People’s Literature. The winner will be announced at a ceremony on November 20. The Kirkus Prize Finalists have also been announced with winners to be announced on October 24. Heavy Medal is in full swing and SLJ’s Pondering Printz column has returned.

In other news, this blog is now an IndieBound Affiliate. All that means is that if anyone purchases books at IndieBound after following a link from here (starting with this post and going forward), I get a small commission.

August 2019 stars tally:

• 892 books published in 2019 have been awarded 1403 starred reviews as of the end of August. 2 books have 6 starred reviews, 8 books have 5 starred reviews, 38 books have 4 starred reviews, 83 books have 3 starred reviews, 189 books have 2 starred reviews, 572 books have 1 starred review.
• No new books with 6 starred reviews; no new books with 5 starred reviews; 5 books move up to 4 starred reviews from 3 starred reviews and 1 book with 4 starred reviews is entirely new; 14 books have been added with 3 starred reviews

2020 Newbery Possibilities through July Stars

Heavy Medal is back so head over there to discuss some of these contenders. Once again I’m covering two months worth of added contenders; both June and July books are listed here.

For this blog’s purposes, contenders have three or more starred reviews and are broken down into these lists: Middle Grade Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Comics, Non-Fiction, Picture Books (Fiction and Non-Fiction), Easy Readers/Early Chapter Books, and Ineligibles.

Standard 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. For a more thorough breakdown of the criteria you can see my first Newbery post of the year or just go read the official word from ALSC.

As of the end of July there were 116 titles with three or more starred reviews which means there are 26 new books listed here. Lists are after the jump.

2020 Printz Possibilities through July Stars

Once again there is a month missing – no June update; this one covers reviews through July. For information about criteria please see my first Printz post for this year or check out the official Printz criteria page.

116 (26 new between June and July) books have three starred reviews or more as of the end of July 2019. 51 (11 new) of those are picture books, poetry collections or novels with an audience that doesn’t fit the Printz age range so aren’t mentioned here at all. 32 (8 new) are young adult novels, 2 (0 new) are young adult comics; 7 (2 new) are young adult non-fiction; 16 (3 new) are younger novel outliers and 8 (2 new) are other outliers.

The organization paragraph that repeats each month: This year I’ve organized contenders by format: Novels, Comics, Non-Fiction. There’s two outliers lists – one for younger novels and one for anything else (essay collections, short stories, younger comics, etc.). I’m still not including titles that end at age 12 for their review ranges (i.e ages 8-12) unless I’ve heard Printz buzz about them. To see why I stick with three starred reviews despite this year’s winners not justifying that, see this old Someday My Printz post.