Comments on: How Many Stars Does it Take to Catch a Printz? http://blogs.slj.com/printzblog/2012/06/26/how-many-stars-does-it-take-to-catch-a-printz/ by Karyn Silverman and Sarah Couri Fri, 26 Apr 2013 01:03:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: AH http://blogs.slj.com/printzblog/2012/06/26/how-many-stars-does-it-take-to-catch-a-printz/#comment-6992 AH Fri, 29 Jun 2012 00:20:21 +0000 http://blogs.slj.com/printzblog/?p=1144#comment-6992 Statistically-minded historians of the field might be interested to note that Printz Honor book REPOSSESSED received a starred review from the late KLIATT. Statistically-minded historians of the field might be interested to note that Printz Honor book REPOSSESSED received a starred review from the late KLIATT.

]]> By: Elizabeth Fama http://blogs.slj.com/printzblog/2012/06/26/how-many-stars-does-it-take-to-catch-a-printz/#comment-6991 Elizabeth Fama Thu, 28 Jun 2012 22:44:42 +0000 http://blogs.slj.com/printzblog/?p=1144#comment-6991 As a matter of fact, Jen B. has sent us all the stars given by the 6 journals (not just the ones bestowed on award winners) for 2011 and part of 2012. That's actually enough data for us to say a lot of things about how liberal each journal is with stars, and more about how their stars ultimately relate to awards. My husband is uncontrollably creating graphs, as we speak. As a matter of fact, Jen B. has sent us all the stars given by the 6 journals (not just the ones bestowed on award winners) for 2011 and part of 2012. That’s actually enough data for us to say a lot of things about how liberal each journal is with stars, and more about how their stars ultimately relate to awards. My husband is uncontrollably creating graphs, as we speak.

]]> By: Karyn Silverman http://blogs.slj.com/printzblog/2012/06/26/how-many-stars-does-it-take-to-catch-a-printz/#comment-6990 Karyn Silverman Thu, 28 Jun 2012 22:35:23 +0000 http://blogs.slj.com/printzblog/?p=1144#comment-6990 So much for the vaunted Kirkus rep as the "hard" journal! Although that number (for total reviews) might be a bit low; for Kirkus, at least, the number tends to fluctuate according to publishing list sizes, so the late summer/early fall issues are probably a bit thicker, as there are so many pubs in the fall season, and summer is generally light. I know Kirkus best, but if any of the others are firmly review the month before pub, they would also likely have higher numbers. I'll see if I can track any real numbers down from any contacts. So much for the vaunted Kirkus rep as the “hard” journal! Although that number (for total reviews) might be a bit low; for Kirkus, at least, the number tends to fluctuate according to publishing list sizes, so the late summer/early fall issues are probably a bit thicker, as there are so many pubs in the fall season, and summer is generally light. I know Kirkus best, but if any of the others are firmly review the month before pub, they would also likely have higher numbers. I’ll see if I can track any real numbers down from any contacts.

]]> By: Elizabeth Fama http://blogs.slj.com/printzblog/2012/06/26/how-many-stars-does-it-take-to-catch-a-printz/#comment-6989 Elizabeth Fama Thu, 28 Jun 2012 16:15:20 +0000 http://blogs.slj.com/printzblog/?p=1144#comment-6989 Jen B: Elizabeth Bluemle has just posted an up-to-date list of "Stars So Far" <a href="http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/shelftalker/?p=8248&utm_source=Publishers+Weekly%27s+PW+Daily&utm_campaign=9b745ab5de-UA-15906914-1&utm_medium=email" rel="nofollow">here.</a> Jen B: Elizabeth Bluemle has just posted an up-to-date list of “Stars So Far” here.

]]> By: Jen B. http://blogs.slj.com/printzblog/2012/06/26/how-many-stars-does-it-take-to-catch-a-printz/#comment-6976 Jen B. Wed, 27 Jun 2012 15:35:17 +0000 http://blogs.slj.com/printzblog/?p=1144#comment-6976 A little more data since Elizabeth brought up the point that the amount of stars each journal gives could influence things a little. Below are the number of starred reviews for books that each of the journals gave in 2011 (assuming my data is good, of course). Booklist: 202 stars; Bulletin: 82 stars; Horn Book: 64 stars; Kirkus: 340 (!) stars; PW: 267 stars; SLJ: 275 stars The number of titles reviewed by each journal is trickier; I don't track that so I don't have data ready at hand and I don't currently have time to go back through the 2011 journals and count. So let's estimate! I counted the number of reviews in a single journal (except for PW where I counted two) - for SLJ and Booklists in particular if they reviewed a non-fiction series together I counted that as one review, so remember these are gross estimates: Booklist (3/1/12): 97 reviews x 20 issues a year=1,940 reviews a year - percentage starred: 10% Bulletin (April 2012): 88 reviews x 11 issues a year=968 reviews a year - percentage starred: 8% Horn Book (Mary/June 2012): 87 reviews x 6 issues a year=522 reviews a year - percentage starred: 12% Kirkus (6/1/12): 77 reviews x 24 issues a year=1,848 reviews a year - percentage starred: 18% PW(5/21/12 and 6/11/12): 30 and 35 reviews averaging 32.5 reviews x 51 issues a year=1,657.5 reviews a year - percentage starred: 16% SLJ (February 2012): 273 reviews x 12 issues a year=3,276 reviews a year -percentage starred: 8% Again a reminder that this sample size is much too small to actually be statistically relevant, but for quick and dirty estimating I figure it works. What's interesting about this to me is Kirkus and PW give a much higher percentage of their reviews stars than anyone else. You could probably compare this to Elizabeth's graphs regarding how well each journals' stars "predict" Printz honoring and come up with some interesting hypotheses or correlations as well, but I'm out of time for today. I hope to be back by the end of the week with updates on starred titles through June, but we'll see how it goes. A little more data since Elizabeth brought up the point that the amount of stars each journal gives could influence things a little. Below are the number of starred reviews for books that each of the journals gave in 2011 (assuming my data is good, of course).

Booklist: 202 stars; Bulletin: 82 stars; Horn Book: 64 stars; Kirkus: 340 (!) stars; PW: 267 stars; SLJ: 275 stars

The number of titles reviewed by each journal is trickier; I don’t track that so I don’t have data ready at hand and I don’t currently have time to go back through the 2011 journals and count. So let’s estimate! I counted the number of reviews in a single journal (except for PW where I counted two) – for SLJ and Booklists in particular if they reviewed a non-fiction series together I counted that as one review, so remember these are gross estimates:

Booklist (3/1/12): 97 reviews x 20 issues a year=1,940 reviews a year – percentage starred: 10%
Bulletin (April 2012): 88 reviews x 11 issues a year=968 reviews a year – percentage starred: 8%
Horn Book (Mary/June 2012): 87 reviews x 6 issues a year=522 reviews a year – percentage starred: 12%
Kirkus (6/1/12): 77 reviews x 24 issues a year=1,848 reviews a year – percentage starred: 18%
PW(5/21/12 and 6/11/12): 30 and 35 reviews averaging 32.5 reviews x 51 issues a year=1,657.5 reviews a year – percentage starred: 16%
SLJ (February 2012): 273 reviews x 12 issues a year=3,276 reviews a year -percentage starred: 8%

Again a reminder that this sample size is much too small to actually be statistically relevant, but for quick and dirty estimating I figure it works. What’s interesting about this to me is Kirkus and PW give a much higher percentage of their reviews stars than anyone else. You could probably compare this to Elizabeth’s graphs regarding how well each journals’ stars “predict” Printz honoring and come up with some interesting hypotheses or correlations as well, but I’m out of time for today. I hope to be back by the end of the week with updates on starred titles through June, but we’ll see how it goes.

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