CC-licensed image by Flickr user ideonexus
It’s Pyrite time! Did you think we weren’t doing it this year? Nah, we just wanted to wait until we’d covered as much as possible of the year’s best.
Voting will happen in the comments. We’ll be doing our best to adhere to the RealPrintz voting procedures, as follows:
- Any officially nominated book is eligible; in our case, that means anything that’s been written up this season, plus the handful of books we’ll be posting in the next week*
- Voting for the winner books takes place first (the honor book vote will follow, and all books other than the winner will be eligible for the honor vote, regardless of whether they received votes in this round)
- Votes are weighted, 5 points for first place, 3 for second, 1 for first — Be sure to number your votes! You don’t have to vote for three books but you can’t skip positions – if you vote for two books, they get 5 and 3 points, not 5 and 1 or 3 and 1.
Voting will stay open until midday Wednesday, with the goal of posting our Pyrite winner by Wednesday evening
Take a minute to read back through all our “nominations” this year or just vote away!
*TK this week, in some cases in very brief form: The Smell of Other People’s Houses; Rani Patel in Full Effect; Tell Me Something Real; Girl Mans Up; Merrow; Julia Vanishes; Steeplejack; Spontaneous; Beast; Still Life with Tornado; Scythe; The Reader
About Karyn Silverman
1. The Lie Tree
2. Golden Boys
3. The Passion of Dolssa
1. The Sun is Also a Star
2. The Lie Tree
3. Vassa in the Night
1. The Passion of Dolssa
2. We Are the Ants
3. The Golden Boys
1. The Memory of Light
2. We Are the Ants
3. The Bitter Side of Sweet
1. The Sun is Also a Star
2. The Passion of Dolssa
3. Still Life With Tornado
1. The Passion of Dolssa
2. The Sun is Also a Star
3. Lucy and Linh
1. Samurai Rising
2. March Book 3
3. The Lie Tree
1. The Lie Tree
2. We are the Ants
3. March: Book 3
1. The Lie Tree
2. Samurai Rising
3. The Sun is Also a Star
1. Railhead
2. March Book 3
3. The Lie Tree
Oof, it’s strategy time for me–made both easier and harder by at least nine sets of votes being public before I vote. Two of my favorites are in the to-cover-this week list, so do I vote for them in hopes of keeping them alive, or do I vote for two of my probably-very-slightly-less-favorites which are already showing up on ballots in the hopes of supporting them over some of the others I don’t care for as much? DECISIONS.
Decisions which are not being made right now. Delay is strategy, too.
1. Lucy and Linh
2. The Serpent King
3. We Are the Ants
My votes are:
1. The Passion of Dolssa.
2. Wolf Hollow.
3. Some Kind of Happiness.
I’ve only just discovered this blog and don’t know if you’ve covered my last two votes or not. If you haven’t I apologize. Even so, Dolssa was one of my favorite reads of 2016. Just reminds me how much great reading I have to look forward to. Thanks for the information.
Wolf Hollow as an Honorable Mention in this post: http://blogs.slj.com/printzblog/2016/11/28/the-thin-line/#more-5732
Some Kind of Happiness as a reader nomination in this post: http://blogs.slj.com/printzblog/2017/01/05/hoffmeister-legrand-ya-fiction/
1. Still Life with Tornado
2. The Sun is Also a Star
3. March Book 3
I could not put down any of these, so hard to rank them 1-3!
I’ve gotta read Dolssa ASAP. Seems like a contender for sure. It’s sitting right on my desk!
1. March 3
2. Girl Mans Up
3. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, BFF, 1
1 – Passion of Dolssa
2 – March Book 3
3 – Wolf Hollow
Tough year to pick this year!
The Lie Tree
The Female of the Species
(I have two choices for third place – but neither is eligible – Crooked Kingdom, since it’s part of a series – and Learning to Swear in America – so funny! – maybe next year we can talk again about the literary value of series books – and that, yes, there IS a place for humor in teen fiction!)
There definitely is! It’s just rarely the same place as award winners.
So many good books. How to choose?
The Passion of Dolssa
When the Moon Was Ours
My Lady Jane
OK. If I can’t vote for WHEN THE MOON WAS OURS, move up MY LADY JANE to two and put WE ARE THE ANTS in third.
Hey Sharon, Just letting you know I counted your votes with your revised plan, with MLJ at 2 and Ants in your third slot. Thanks!
1. Still Life with Tornado
2. The Sun is Also a Star
3. Some Kind of Happiness
The Passion of Dolssa
Still Life With Tornado
The Reader
1. The Passion of Dolssa
2. March Book 3
3. The Lie Tree
1. The Passion of Dolssa
2. Burn Baby Burn
3. The Lie Tree
I believe you guys never covered “The Moon Was Ours” — otherwise that would definitely be on my list.
–I meant “When the Moon Was Ours”
I still voted for When the Moon Was Ours. Love that book. Honestly.
WHEN THE MOON WAS OURS was in my pile (from the larger, planning list that Sarah, Karyn, and I use) and I ultimately decided that I couldn’t justify covering it here. Although the language is lovely, I found that it got in the way of character development. When magic realism works, it’s amazing, and I think McLemore did a beautiful job of it with THE WEIGHT OF FEATHERS. My experience of that book may have had me expecting the moon (pun kind of intended?) with this one so maybe I’m not being fair.
Why is it a top pick for you?
I loved The Weight of Feathers but wound up shelving When The Moon Was Ours 50 pages in even though I’d been really excited about it (magical realism and queer), not because it was bad but just because I was finding it slow and not all that interesting–my mind wandered while reading and I wasn’t inclined to pick it back up after a break.
I thought it was overdone and there was a (SPOILER) magical sex change that really didn’t work for me.
When the Moon Was Ours had a fairy tale quality to it but it dealt with such a timely issue of gender identity. The writing was so evocative and descriptive. I felt like I was there witnessing it all first hand.
1. Lucy and Linh
2. The Sun is Also a Star
3. The Reader
Still Life With Tornado
Some Kind of Happiness
The Passion of Dolssa
Okay, enough strategy,* I’d better get my vote on.
1. The Lie Tree
2. Wolf Hollow^
3. The Serpent King
____________
* I’m saving my being-covered-this-week favorites for the honor vote, since that’s entirely separate from this vote
^ I’m counting I’m counting its “honorable mention” in the upper-MG post (http://blogs.slj.com/printzblog/2016/11/28/the-thin-line/) as a nomination; if that’s deemed invalid, can Serpent King be moved up to #2 and Merrow added as a #3, despite what the first footnote says?
I counted the honorable mention as a post, since we intended to cover Wolf Hollow and I was just kind of cheating.
1 BURN BABY BURN
2 THE LIE TREE
3 LUCY & LINH
1. The Lie Tree
2. Golden Boys
3. The Passion of Dolssa
1. Lie Tree
2. Samurai Rising
3. Reader
1. Vassa in the Night
2. The Passion of Dolssa
3. Railhead
1. March vol 3
2. We Are the Ants
3. The Lie Tree
(pressing post before I can change my mind — AGAIN)
1. Lucy and Linh
2. We are the Ants
3. Highly Illogical Behavior
Voting is closed, and we have a tie, per RealPrintz regulations! Results and the opportunity to vote again here: http://bit.ly/2jlBOXV