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Kicking Things Off (and a LIST)
Labor Day has come and gone. School begins today for NYC. And the awards are only 4 months away.
In other words, we’re back in action!
If you’re stumbling upon us for the first time, remember: we know nothing (Jon Snow). But we’re going to have a blast speculating the &*#$ out of the 2016 Printz Award*, and we’d love to have you join in.
Need more info on who we are and what we’re about? Please poke through the archives and the about sections.
Those of you who have been with us all along really only want one thing: The List.
So here it is.
The usual caveats: We haven’t read all of these yet, so there are probably some duds. Also, we are certainly missing things. Sound off in the comments and let us know what’s what.
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Oh! You might want to know the criteria used to compile this here list. Here you go:
- Books with 3 or more stars from the major review journals (because that kind of critical respect tends to grab the attention of RealCommittee members, and there is some correlation between stars and winners); not every book with three or more stars will be on this list, but most of them are.
- Personal reading (because that’s what RealCommittee members do: read, think, compare, nominate)
- Buzz (because if people are talking, we want in)
- New books from past winners (because sometimes — 7 times, say — lightning does strike twice)
And now, enough blathering.
Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda, Becky Albertalli
The Tightrope Walkers, David Almond (previous winner and honoree)
A Song for Ella Gray, David Almond (previous winner and honoree)
Symphony for the City of the Dead, M.T. Anderson (nonfiction) (previous honoree)
Mosquitoland, David Arnold
Stonewall, Ann Bausam (nonfiction)
The Last Leaves Falling, Sarah Benwell
Tommy: The Gun that Changed America, Karen Blumenthal (nonfiction)
Scorpion Rules, Erin Bow
Lair of Dreams, Libba Bray (previous winner)
A Game of Love and Death, Martha Brockenbrough
Walk on Earth a Stranger, Rae Carson
Audacity, Melanie Crowder
Untwine, Edwidge Danticat
Saint Anything, Sarah Dessen
These Shallow Graves, Jennifer Donnelly (previous honoree)
Fell of Dark, Patrick Downes
Boys Don’t Knit, T.S. Easton
Dime, E.R. Frank
The Sleeper and the Spindle, Neil Gaiman, illus. Chris Riddell
The Dead I Know, Scott Gardner
Conviction, Kelly Loy Gilbert
The Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge
Shadow Scale, Rachel Hartman
Me Being Me Is Exactly as Insane as You Being You, Todd Hasak-Lowy
The Boys Who Challenged Hitler, Philip Hoose (nonfiction)
A Thousand Nights, E.K. Johnston
The Truth Commission, Susan Juby
All American Boys, Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynolds
A School for Brides, Patrice Kindl
I Crawl Through It, A.S. King (previous honoree)
The Archivist Wasp, Nicole Kornher-Stace
There Will Be Lies, Nick Lake
Razorhurst, Justine Larbalestier
Calvin, Martine Leavitt
Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story, David Levithan
The Infinite In-Between, Carolyn Mackler (previous honoree)
Baba Yaga’s Assistant, Marika McCoola and Emily Carroll
The Weight of Feathers, Ann-Marie McLemore
Dumplin‘, Julie Murphy
Juba!, Walter Dean Myers (previous winner)
The Rest of Us Just Live Here, Patrick Ness
All the Bright Places, Jennifer Niven
Shadowshaper, Daniel José Older
The Shepherd’s Crown, Terry Pratchett (previous honoree)
I Am Princess X, Cherie Priest
Ash and Bramble, Sarah Prineas
Show and Prove, Sofia Quintero
Kissing in America, Margo Rabb
Boy in the Black Suit, Jason Reynolds
Carry On, Rainbow Rowell (previous honoree)
Bone Gap, Laura Ruby
The Hired Girl, Laura Ann Schlitz
Orbiting Jupiter, Gary D. Schmidt (previous honoree)
The Ghosts of Heaven, Marcus Sedgwick (previous winner and previous honoree)
X, Ilyash Shabazz and Kekla Magoon
Challenger Deep, Neal Schusterman
More Happy than Not, Adam Silvera
The Alex Crow, Andrew Smith (previous honoree)
When My Heart Was Wicked, Tricia Sterling
Lumberjanes, Vol. 1, Noelle Stevenson
Nimona, Noelle Stevenson
The Walls Around Us, Nova Ren Suma
All the Rage, Courtney Summers
Zeroes, Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan (previous honoree), and Deborah Biancotti
Supermutant Magic Academy, Jillian Tamaki (previous honoree)
Honor Girl, Maggie Thrash (nonfiction)
Black Dove, White Raven, Elizabeth Wein (previous honoree)
Ms. Marvel: Generation Why, G. Willow Wilson
Paper Hearts, Meg Wiviott
MARTians, Blythe Woolston
The Emperor of Any Place, Tim Wynne-Jones
As always, our list skews up (12 and up as the bottom of the range, unless we hear otherwise about a book that skews young but is just astounding, in which case we’ll try to cover it) and heavily towards fiction and big publishers, both biases in our field in general and reflective of what we’ve seen and what gets published and reviewed. We’d love to find the sleepers, hidden gems, and tiny press publications, so speak up if you’re sitting on something.
*Someday My Printz Will Come is a speculation blog which examines YALSA‘s Michael L. Printz Award (“for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature”), usually referred to as the Printz, and tries to emulate, in a public forum, the kind of close reading and in-depth discussion that award committees undertake each year. We are not on the award committee and we have no actual knowledge of books being considered this year. For more information and to find out who’s on the RealCommittee this year — they are heroes! It’s hard work — please visit YALSA’s award page.
Filed under: Contenders
About Karyn Silverman
Karyn Silverman is the High School Librarian and Educational Technology Department Chair at LREI, Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School (say that ten times fast!). Karyn has served on YALSA’s Quick Picks and Best Books committees and was a member of the 2009 Printz committee. She has reviewed for Kirkus and School Library Journal. She has a lot of opinions about almost everything, as long as all the things are books. Said opinions do not reflect the attitudes or opinions of SLJ, LREI, YALSA or any other institutions with which she is affiliated. Find her on Twitter @InfoWitch or e-mail her at karynsilverman at gmail dot com.
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