2021 Printz Possibilities through February Stars

Printz Update! For information about criteria please see the January Printz post or the official criteria straight from YALSA.

41 books published in 2020 have three starred reviews or more as of the end of February 2020 reviews. That’s 15 new titles to look at this month. 7 of those are picture books, poetry collections or novels with an audience that doesn’t fit the Printz age range. Adding that to last month’s 12 gives us 19 titles that aren’t mentioned here at all. Break down of those that are listed: 4 young adult novels, 3 young adult comics; 2 young adult non-fiction; 10 younger novel outliers and 3 other outliers.

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. 

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. 

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.

2020 Printz Possibilities through May Stars

You’ll notice there’s no April Printz update – I just didn’t get to it and it seems irrelevant at this point. Honestly, this May post almost feels irrelevant, but so many books were added to the May starred reviews list that I think it will be easier for me to do this one than skip it and add more with the June reviews! For information about criteria please see my first Printz post for this year or check out the official Printz criteria page.

90 (38 new between April and May) books have three starred reviews or more as of the end of May 2019. 40 (19 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. 24 (10 new) are young adult novels, 2 (1 new) is a young adult comic; 5 (1 new) are young adult non-fiction; 13 (4 new) are younger novel outliers and 6 (3 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.

2020 Printz Possibilities through March Stars

“The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.” I’m really feeling Carroll’s White Rabbit and this quote this Spring, but here’s the March update for Printz contenders based on starred reviews. For information about criteria please see my first Printz post for this year or check out the official Printz criteria page.

52 (11 new this month) books have three starred reviews or more as of the end of March 2019. 21 (5 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. 14 (2 new) are young adult novels, 1 is a young adult comic; 4 (1 new) are young adult non-fiction; 9 (2 new) are younger novel outliers and 3 (1 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.

2020 Printz Possibilities through February Stars

Time to update the list of Printz contenders for February starred reviews. For information about criteria please see my first Printz post for this year or check out the official Printz criteria page.

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.

41 books have three starred reviews or more as of the end of February 2019. 16 of those are picture books or novels with an audience that doesn’t fit the Printz age range so aren’t mentioned here at all. 12 are young adult novels, 1 is a young adult comic; 3 are young adult non-fiction; 7 are younger novel outliers and 2 are other outliers.

2020 Printz Possibilities through January Stars

Time for a new crop of Printz contenders! Here’s your annual reminder of the Printz 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.

I’m taking a page from how I’ve been organizing my Newbery posts and breaking contenders down by format: Novels, Comics, Non-Fiction. Now 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 going to include 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. Maybe I’ll have a chance sometime this year to revisit that data, but in the meantime lists are after the break!

22 books have three starred reviews or more as of the end of January 2019. 9 of those are picture books or novels with an audience that doesn’t fit the Printz age range so aren’t mentioned here at all. 7 are young adult novels, no young adult comics; 3 young adult non-fiction; 1 outlier of a younger novel and 2 other outliers.

2019 ALA Youth Media Award Results

On Monday, January 28 various sections and affiliates of the American Library Association gave out some of the biggest awards for children’s and young adult books from the previous year at the Youth Media Awards. Due to some unfortunate weather here in the Midwest, my program that was originally scheduled during the Youth Media Awards presentation was rescheduled and I got to watch live after all!

Some new awards were added this year – the American Indian Youth Literature Award (awarded only in even years so no new announcement this year); the Asian/Pacific American Literature Award, and the Sydney Taylor Book Award. When this was announced last year, I started adding these awards to my Award Winners spreadsheet so I knew they traditionally had named honor books. To my surprise, during the ceremony only winners were named and when I went to the links mentioned in the live webcast, I found the Sydney Taylor Awards had indeed named honors and notables as usual. I couldn’t locate the Asian/Pacific American Literature Award information for this year (it’s up now), but eventually found the honors via Twitter later in the day. I was disappointed to not see the honors included in the ceremony. An ALA representative has since responded to the criticism citing time constraints as the issue and noting the involvement of representatives from the affiliate organizations in the choice to only recognize the winners in the ceremony, but I still think it was the wrong decision. These awards deserve equal recognition – if they’re including honors for other awards, include the honors for these and trim time from the opening remarks or call for shorter blurbs or make the ceremony longer and adjust the conference schedule accordingly. I understand that some of these aren’t easy changes to make, but doing the right thing here is worth the effort.

Here’s a link to the press release with winners for all of the many awards named and the honors for most. My spreadsheet has been updated with this year’s information. Much gratitude goes towards the many, many committee members for each of these awards who serve without compensation and dedicate uncounted hours to reading and evaluating and discussing the books.

I’ve also added a link on the right to my spreadsheet of the 2018 Best Books lists from the six journals I track. Some year, I’ll finish that in time to help predict award chances, but this was not that year. Since I track Newbery and Printz contenders based on starred reviews, let’s see how the 2019 winners and honors fared with stars and best book lists.

Newbery Award:

Winner: Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina
Starred reviews – 5: Booklist, Horn Book, Kirkus, PW, SLJ
Best lists – 4: Horn Book, Kirkus, PW, SLJ

Honors:

The Book of Boy by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Starred reviews – 3: Booklist, Horn Book, Kirkus
Best lists – 4: Booklist, Horn Book, Kirkus, PW

The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
Starred reviews – 3: Kirkus, PW, SLJ
Best lists – 2: Kirkus, SLJ

Printz Award

Winner: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Starred reviews – 4: Horn Book, Kirkus, PW, SLJ
Best lists – 4: Horn Book, Kirkus, PW, SLJ

Honors:

Damsel by Elana K. Arnold
Starred reviews – 2: Booklist, SLJ
Best lists – 1: Booklist

A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti
Starred reviews – 4: Booklist, Bulletin, Kirkus, PW
Best lists – none

I, Claudia by Mary McCoy
Starred reviews – 2: Booklist, Kirkus
Best lists – 2: Booklist, Kirkus

Some notes of interest:

• I feel like I heard a fair amount of surprise online for Merci winning, but with 5 starred reviews, 4 best lists and being named a Kirkus Prize Finalist, this shouldn’t have been that big of a shock.
• No one was surprised when The Poet X was announced – it’s been rolling through awards season picking up more and more acclaim. It was already the Teen Walter Award Winner, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Fiction Winner, the National Book Award Winner, and a Kirkus Prize Finalist. On Monday it not only picked up the Printz medal, but was also named an Odyssey Honor and the Pura Belpré Author Winner. That book is going to be covered in award stickers!
• For only the second time, the Printz committee didn’t pick a full slate of honor books (they’re allowed up to 4) and what they did pick were some under the radar titles that hadn’t been getting tons of chatter. Booklist was the only journal to give stars to all three honors, but interestingly they didn’t star The Poet X!
• As of the end of December there were 196 books with 3 starred reviews  or more. Not all of those 196 were eligible for either award, but even reducing that number based on eligiblity, I would never be able to read all of those in year and keep up with other pleasure reading. So, assuming you’re choosing from those 196 books to try and predict awards, combined with buzz, chances are that you would have read the Newbery books. For the Printz though, you would only be at half of the books named. I’m in awe of the number of books committee members must read (and re-read for the final discussions!) to come to these decisions.

I haven’t read any of the 2019 Newbery and Printz books yet although The Poet X is currently on my bedside table and Merci Suárez Changes Gears will be my next audiobook listen. I have read a smattering of the books honored by other committees. The award I was most delighted with was Sadie winning the Odyssey. That audiobook was amazing and destroyed me in the best possible way. When they had named the Odyssey honors, I sat at my desk quietly chanting “Sadie, Sadie, come on, be Sadie” and actually cheered when it was announced.

So that’s a wrap on this year’s awards. Stay tuned, 2020 contender talk will be coming soon!

2019 Printz Possibilities through December Stars

The American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards are happening Monday, January 28 at 8am PST. For the first time in several years I am scheduled to work during the announcements (I’ll be hosting an outside presenter at the library whose program will start right when the awards do – what was I thinking???), but those who have managed their schedules better can watch live.

This will be my last Printz roundup for this award year. We have 19 new traditional contenders to make 68 overall and 11 new outliers to make 40 overall. That means there are 108 books with 3 or more stars that are eligible for the Printz award. There are undoubtedly many many more books that the committee has looked at – props to all those who take the time to serve on the committee and read widely and carefully to identify the best.

I’ve noted the number of starred reviews each title received and those  which have been named to the following Award lists: the Walter Award from We Need Diverse Books; the Boston-Globe Horn Book Award; the Kirkus Prize; the National Book Award, the Morris Award shortlist and the YALSA Excellence in Non-Fiction shortlist. Please do keep in mind the criteria for each of these awards varies – sometimes there’s overlap with the Printz; other times, not so much.

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.

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!