Here are the top "star" YA books so far this year:
| Title | Author | # Starred reviews | Other info to consider |
| Between Shades of Gray | Sepetys | 6 | |
| Chime | Billingsley | 6 | Horn Book Honor |
| Anya's Ghost | Brosgol | 5 | Graphic novel |
| Blink and Caution | Wynne-Jones | 4 | Horn Book Winner |
| Jasper Jones | Silvey | 4 | |
| Paper Covers Rock | Hubbard | 4 | |
| A Monster Calls | Ness | 4 | Due out 9/27/11 |
| Queen of Water | Resau | 4 | |
| Okay for Now | Schmidt | 4 | Middle Grade level? |
| Berlin Boxing Club | Sharenow | 3 | |
| Karma | Ostlere | 3 | Prose in verse |
| I am J | Beam | 3 | |
| Daughter of Smoke and Bone | Taylor | 3 | Due out 9/27/11 |
| Tall Story | Gourlay | 3 | Middle Grade level? |
| Strings Attached | Blundell | 3 | Horn Book Short list |
If starred reviews determined the winners, creating our Mock Printz book list would be easy. Take this list, drop off the books we think are really middle level books and our reading list would be the remaining thirteen. But take a look at the stars given to last year's award winners.
| Title | Author | # Starred reviews | Last year's Award Winners/Honor Books |
| Ship Breaker | Bacigalupi | 3 | Printz Award winner; National Book Award YA finalist |
| Please Ignore Vera Dietz | King | 3 | Printz Honor |
| Nothing | Teller | 4 | Printz Honor |
| Stolen | Christopher | 1 | Printz Honor |
| Revolver | Sedgwick | 4 | Printz Honor |
| Mockingbird | Erskine | 2 | National Book Award YA Winner |
| Lockdown | Myers | 1 | National Book Award YA finalist |
| Finnikin of the Rock | Marchetta | 5 |
It is obvious, if we look at last year's results, that starred reviews do not necessarily help determine if a book will win an award. Stolen and Lockdown had only one starred review each. Hmmm..... What do you think? Should we focus our list on "star-heavy" books or just pick the books we like for our Mock Printz list?
I've always been more interested what a book is about and if it sounds interesting than whether everyone else is reading it and raving about it. Of course, I'm not one to read a book just because it won an award either.
ReplyDeleteMy choice from that list is Between Shades of Gray, which I thought was just wonderful. It will be fun to see what wins
ReplyDeleteYou know, we used to think starred reviews were really important, but lately we're finding that we don't always agree with them -- whereas we do tend to agree that the Printz, Newbery, etc. nominees are fabulous. So while stars might point you in a decent direction, we definitely don't think they should be your only focus. As a blogger, you have a great insight into what people are actually reading and enjoying and being impacted by. That might be useful information too.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I feel that the starred reviews are what *adults* really like and not necessarily reflect upon the targeted audience. I loved "Chimes" writing style but I don't think it appeals on a wide level which is probably why it hasn't been checked out much at my library. I absolutely loved "Stolen" and am surprised to see that it only got 1 starred review. A lot of books on the first list on my tbr pile and I haven't gotten to them yet so I can't really comment on them.
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