Comments on: Nonfiction! Finalists!

By: Sondy

Sondy — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 23:39:03 +0000

I’ve read all of these except Bomb (which I will get to soon), thanks to Capitol Choices (a DC-area group) considering all of them for our list. I wasn’t impressed with the Steve Jobs book at all, though I was in the minority, so perhaps there’s something I didn’t see. It just seemed serviceable, but nothing special. I don’t think there was any oversight in not considering it as a Printz contender.

By: Elizabeth Fama

Elizabeth Fama — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 23:55:10 +0000

Hey, sorry to go off topic for a second, but I’m always searching for Jen J’s spreadsheets buried in the comment section of this blog and Liz B’s blog–the spreadsheets where Jen keeps track of all the children’s starred reviews and all the “Best Books” lists–so I decided to put them in a place where I’d never lose them again. Click here!

By: Liz B

Liz B — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 21:36:34 +0000

Wendy, I believe part of the push for YALSA’s Award is to help showcase the YA titles and maybe get more of it. But yes, the year I was on the committee (Benedict Arnold), I noticed a lot of younger titles overall. Since it’s 12 to 18 it gets that old “if its published for 10 to 12….” question.

By: Mark Flowers

Mark Flowers — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 21:05:42 +0000

@Wendy – there is indeed MUCH less nonfiction (especially narrative nonfiction) published for older teens. I suppose I could offer speculations as to why that is, but I have long since stopped trying to understand the publishing industry.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 21:00:00 +0000

It’s MOONBIRD that stands out for me as being perhaps too young. WE’VE GOT A JOB has more layers of sophistication to it, and some teen characters. But all of these (except STEVE JOBS, which I haven’t read and don’t know about) strike me as being on the younger end of the age range, with BOMB and TITANIC stretching to include more readers. Is there less nonfiction published specifically for mid- and older teens than fiction? Do 15-year-olds simply start reading adult nonfiction more often?

By: Jonathan Hunt

Jonathan Hunt — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:36:10 +0000

I think you might make the same argument for 2012, too.

By: Jonathan Hunt

Jonathan Hunt — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:07:16 +0000

Karyn, I actually meant the same thing Mark did–not that the committee can’t come up with a roster as good or better, just that they probably won’t based on past experience. I think you can make a solid arguement that in 2010 the Nonfiction finalists were better than the Printz finalists. You might be able to make a similarly solid argument this year, depending on what the Printz committee picks.

By: Karyn Silverman

Karyn Silverman — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 19:23:21 +0000

@Mark, I didn’t think that was what you were saying, exactly, but I did think it was what Jonathan said in his agreement with your initial point! Thanks for the clarification, though — and how interesting that you agree so whole-heartedly with the NF committee. Now let’s see how the Morris does with the debuts…

Jonathan, I am woefully behind on the NF. I’ve started Bomb, finally, and could see it making my top 5, but I don’t see it outclassing Seraphina or CNV, currently vying for the gold in my opinion; Titanic I like but have some reservations about — I’ll wait til Joy’s guest post goes up to say more (next week). Moonbird is in my near future. A Black Hole and We’ve Got a Job I just don’t think are YA, but we’ve had that fight countless times — maybe safer to agree to disagree and just wait with bated breath to see where the committees and year-end lists all fall with these cusp books? Regardless, even if I did just take them as YA, they wouldn’t be top 5 for me.

By: Mark Flowers

Mark Flowers — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 19:11:13 +0000

@Karyn – that’s not quite what I meant. My own top books (the ones that would win the Printz if I owned the world) are currently BRIDES OF ROLLROCK, ASK THE PASSENGERS, BOMB, THE DIVINERS, and TITANIC. After those come MONSTROUS BEAUTY, SERAPHINA, CNV, CHOPSTICKS, and WE’VE GOT A JOB. So, obviously, I think there could conceivably exist a Printz list that beats the NF list with fiction titles.

What I meant was that I don’t expect that to actually happen. My experience with the Printz list has been that it virtually always includes one or two (or more ) books that I find nowhere near the quality of the best books of the year. So I think it likely that the final list will not be as full of quality books as this NF list.

By: Jonathan Hunt

Jonathan Hunt — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 18:49:05 +0000

Okay, sorry, I read that wrong! I thought you said these books beat our every work of nonfiction. Will respond to your point later.