I’d like my book discovery to be this whimsical (and slightly reminiscent of the TARDIS, too!). Failing that, I’ll take any suggestions!
CC-licensed image “Book Exchange” by Flickr user oatsy40

Suggestions for 2013 books have been flowing in, and I’ve been thinking a lot about how we find books, and how we create the contender list that we post come the on-season in September.

(A brief housekeeping note: unlike our fellow award bloggers over at Heavy Medal and Calling Caldecott, we won’t go totally dark in the off-season, mostly because if we did, no one would ever be able to keep up with the reading when the on-season rolls around. So we’ll still be around, posting every week or two, from now until August, about what we’re reading and what we’re seeing and what we think may have Printz legs and, if we think there are any hard thorny questions about the Printz worth visiting or revisiting, possibly tackling those as well.)

So let’s talk about creating the contender list. And about crowdsourcing. And mostly about discovering the secret gems.

In the comments on our last post (about early potential contenders), the question was raised of how we can find the serious sleepers, the books without a ton of stars. Which is a really good question, and probably the place we’ve been the least successful.

In an effort to cover a wider range of books and maintain our sanity, we’re also reassessing the “3-or-more stars means we cover the book” rule that we’ve used the last two years — it leaves us reading frantically from a pile with a lot of books that clearly are not actually serious contenders, while missing some great stuff that we should be talking about.

Now, the idea behind the contender list we put together each year is to list books we really believe the RealCommittee is/will be reading, and in that sense the 3-star cut off is not arbitrary — that’s a good baseline to create a pile worth looking at, since they already have a consensus from critics, and the RealCommittee does use stars as one way to find books, and we combine it with buzz to try to broaden the net.

But the RealCommittee members can put books from that pile aside five pages in, or fifty, or 100, and move on; they also receive hundreds of books from publishers and publicists, meaning the books come to them and they are saved a lot of the work of discovery. We’ve got a different charge and, while we get some review books, nothing like the quantity of material that the RealCommittee members receive. Our charge is that we review, publicly, anything that goes on the list (well, most of it, anyway… a few books get away from us every year). Last year, that meant we had a HUGE contender list, just from the stars, which made it hard to get beyond those books — I’m not sure I read a bona fide sleeper last year. And we need to create that list without having seen many of the books yet.

(Plus we end up having to take apart books that are perfectly delightful and deserved their stars but are just not contenders, and we’d like to find a way to instead spend more time looking for new contenders.)

So.

What we’re looking for are better methods of discovery.

Currently, we’ve got: reviews, publisher previews, catalogs, ARCs, Goodreads/social media, and bookstores.

Reviews are all well and good but we can’t read every review ever, so how, other than stars, can we make sure we’re not missing things? Plus, reviewers are people too, which means sometimes a great book gets a terrible review (I’ve been that reviewer a few times), or doesn’t get reviewed at all for whatever reason. Same for catalogs, really — who can read every page of every catalog from every publisher?

Previews are fantastic — I do love being a New York City librarian! — but limited: only a few houses have them and only the big houses, which leaves an awful lot not covered.

Goodreads I adore, and I do find a lot of titles there, but, like all social networks, the filter bubble issue remains– I’m in a circle of like-minded readers, so how do I find the books none of us are reading yet?

As for bookstores…  for a long time, a monthly bookstore visit was something I saw as a professional obligation (and ok, also something I just liked having an excuse to do). But my last few bookstore visits have been pretty disappointing — Barnes and Noble has become all about the commercial frontlist titles, of which there are more every year, while smaller stores just don’t have the shelf space for everything.

So what’s left? What stone have we not turned over? And how do we choose, when we’re still reading, what to put on the contender list? We want better — or at least more — ways to find the best books. What do you think? Where do you look? Or is the very definition of a sleeper a book that no system can discover?

Which books can go the distance?
(CC-licensed image “The Champ” by truebluetitan)

Ok, so we’re a month plus into 2013 and I’ve finally, finally! started a 2013 title.

(Just One Day, by Gayle Forman, in case you wondered.)

And now I need to decide what to read next. So let’s talk 2013 publications that belong on the contenda list already, whether for critical acclaim (by which I mean, stars) or buzz.

I’ve got a few titles on the list already, so I’m thinking I’ll show you mine and you’ll show me yours. Good? Good.

I’ve been checking in with Jen J’s star list pretty frequently recently, where a handful of definite YA titles have already hit the (arbitrary and possibly ripe for revision) 3-star minimum that we’ve used the past two years to compile the contenda list.

Those titles are:

Eleanor & Park, Rainbow Rowell –  I’m already hearing raves about this book, and will be reading it as soon as I get my hands on it.

Etiquette & Espionage, Gail Carriger — One I’ve already read! I revealed this in a comment already, but this was the Mary Poppins book I mentioned last April. It’s delightful. It’s not a contender, though, and this is exactly the kind of book that has us thinking about that 3-star thing.

Widwinterblood, Marcus Sedgwick (with 4 stars already) — This was on my to-read list anyway, because I think his prose is masterful. I don’t even care what it’s about, I’m reading this thanks to pure blind author faith.

Teeth, by Hannah Moskowitz — Gone, Gone, Gone, Moskowitz’s 2012 publication was one of the 2012 books I wanted to read but never got to, so I am definitely making time for this one.

Uses for Boys, by Erica Lorraine Scheidt — And here is the argument for using stars, however arbitrary, because I haven’t heard of this one at all, and without the reviews I doubt it would have come to my attention, especially with that slightly sparkly romantic cover, which seems to be not at all indicative of the content — this is one I might have brushed right past as a commercial clone even if I had seen it (and frankly, accidental discovery is all but impossible these days — even big bookstores are only carrying the glossy stuff).

The list also has two crossover MG/YA titles with three stars already: Courage has no Color, by Tanya Lee Stone and Emancipation Proclamation by Tonya Bolden. Why am I not surprised that the crossovers are nonfiction??

So much for stars. On to my personal list. These are pretty much all based on faith — as with Sedgwick, these are works by authors I trust to deliver something worth my time. It remains to be seen if any of them are really contenders, but I’ll be reading them.

(And I’m not listing all the series books, but you can take as a given that A, I’ll be reading them, and B, it will be the rare mid-series title indeed that could make the contender list for real, but if one of them does jump out as that elusive beast, we’ll certainly mention it.

Paper Valentine, by Brenna Yovanoff (a title and cover that make me think of this amazing and bizarre stop-motion short) — I loved her first book, then never could finish her second, but am hopeful enough that I actually bought this for me (as opposed to for my library) yesterday. Here’s hoping that was the right call!

Spoils, by Tammar Stein — I read Light Years what feels like light years ago, and I found it flawed but intensely compelling. I’ve managed not to read Stein’s latest two, but this one is on my list for this year.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, Holly Black — loved the short story, excited for the book. And I still think Black’s Curse Worker’s trilogy is criminally under appreciated (see what I did there? The puns, I love them). It’s brilliant.

Mortal Fire, Elizabeth Knox — I’ve loved Knox since I read The Vintner’s Luck, and the Dreamhunter duology remains one of my favorite books of all time (yes, there are two volumes, but it’s more a book than a series nonetheless). So, you know, I’m not expecting much.

Mojo, Tim Tharp — I know most people will remember Tharp for his NBA nod with The Spectacular Now, which had some spectacular and some not-so moments, but actually the book that won my heart was The Knights of Hill County, a football book I read in my BBYA days. I thought I would hate it but in fact it was a quiet, beautiful, brilliant work. I’m hoping Mojo is more of the same, without the issues of The Spectacular Now (that awful clichéd scifi stuff — urg).

17 & Gone, Nova Ren Suma — Imaginary Girls might have been flawed, but it was the kind of flawed that sticks with you, so I’m in for more of Suma’s sumptuous prose.

Black Helicopters, Blythe Woolston — Although I focused on the issues when I reviewed Catch & Release with an eye towards the RealPrintz, Woolston has some serious skill. Also, she already has a RealPrintz honor, and we generally read anything a former winner or honoree writes.

The Different Girl, Gordon Dahlquist — I’m the only person I know who read Dahlquist’s adult books (and they were very adult), but I loved his imagination and the scope of his world building, plus at least one person I trust has already read and loved The Different Girl. Also, I hear the cover will glow in the dark.

Out of the Easy, Ruta Sepetys — Confession: I never did read Between Shades of Gray, but I recognize that I should have.

When We Wake, Karen Healey — Guardian of the Dead was genius, and The Shattering was very good. I am not thrilled that Healey has moved on to dystopia, a word that at this point leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but I’m going to give it the old college try anyway and hope that she’s good enough to rise above the rest.

The Tragedy Paper, Elizabeth LaBan — I have no idea who Elizabeth LaBan is, and I think this is a debut, but she went to my high school, a fact I knew before I Googled her, because I too wrote a tragedy paper. And it was a transformative rite of passage, and I (like all the other graduates who experienced that class) can still quote that teacher. So this is the sentimental read, borne out of a desire to see my high school experiences reshaped into fiction.

And… that’s it. That’s all I’ve got for now.

Mark and Sarah at Crossreferencing raised a few more titles (including The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door, a book that made my to-read list just for the awesome cover); Liz B of Teacozy and Kelly and Kimberly of Stacked have already started reviewing 2013 titles, some of which might be contenders; and I’ve been prowling Goodreads in the post ALA weeks looking at what those who attended and collected ARCs are listing,  all of which has put a few more titles on my list. But despite my efforts, this feels like a paltry list so far.

So please, won’t you add to my list until it’s wildly out of control? What are you looking forward to? What have you read already that has contender potential?

In Darkness, with its Printzly bling on display!

Apologies for the radio silence! Almost as soon as the YMAs were over, it was time for an annual conference on education and technology, and I’m afraid I switched gears 100% from my book self to my tech self, and the blog was the poorer for it.

We will be taking a brief hiatus soon (and actually, readers, how long that will be is something we’d like some input on, but not today), but the past week was just a question of poorly planning for a conference that has significant impact on mine and Sarah’s lives.

With the excuses out of the way, and the high emotions hopefully down to a simmer…

A huge thank you to the RealCommittee, who read and read and read all year! As a YA librarian, as a reader, and as someone who has served on that committee (and unpaid, volunteer position, glory notwithstanding), I truly appreciate how hard they worked and how thoughtfully they deliberated. We wouldn’t be here without them!

Now, how ’bout that Printz award??

Here’s our score:

Readership: 4/5 (Oh, The White Bicycle, how you came out of nowhere! Also noteworthy is that I appear to be hogging the best books to myself when it comes to reviews. Next year, I will be a better sharer.)

Heart books: 1/5 (Plus the Morris for Seraphina, so it feels as good as 2/5)

Head books: 1.5/5 (I’m giving myself .5 for In Darkness, which I at least mentioned in my head list.)

Pyrite awards: .5/5 (Our Pyrite winner only took an honor in the RealPrintz, which I think means we can’t take full credit for getting it. And not one of our Pyrite Honor titles made it, which surprised me — I thought the groupthink would be more accurate than the bloggerthink of our predictions.)

Prediction books: 2/5 (Right? We called a wildcard, and The White Bicycle is certainly that.)

When I tally it all up, I’m reasonably satisfied from the heart end — the two titles I most wanted to see recognized this year, from both the head and the heart, were Code Name Verity and Seraphina, and both were recognized even if not both for the Printz. And although I’m sad for Railsea, since I think some award love was its only chance to be more widely read, I’m not surprised or even disappointed by its failure to medal.

And 2 out of 5 predictions, even if one of the two was a bet-hedging sort of prediction, is a sight better than last year. By next year, look for us to — no, who am I kidding? It’s all just guesses. Educated, considered guesses, but still.

So let’s look at what we said about the books that did win/honor, and see if we saw the qualities the committee recognized.

The honor books:

Aristotle and Dante: So very very relieved we managed to cover this one, even if it was at the very 11th hour! I said, “I finished this filled with admiration and respect for the writing.” Of course, I then went on to say, “while I don’t think it will make the top 5 for RealPrintz, I do believe this is a book the committee must have discussed (or be discussing, possibly right now!) — it is a quiet but noteworthy book.” So while I didn’t think it would go the distance, I did think it had shortlist written all over it, and now I find myself wanting to reread it, to see how it holds up and deepens on a more thoughtful and thorough scrutiny.

Code Name Verity: I said, “this is, for my money, the runaway best written book of the year. And yes, I loved it, but that’s not actually the point at all. The point is that this is a masterwork of writing, full of literary flourishes, tightly plotted, rich in character, well-grounded in reality, haunting in setting, and just hitting it out of the park on so many levels. It deserves the Printz.” And while the RealCommittee consensus might not have given it the gold, I don’t think anyone doubts just how amazing this book is (well, except maybe Mark) or that it deserved some award bling.

Dodger: I read, and enjoyed, Dodger quite a lot but I have a lot of emotions about Terry Pratchett and his writing — I’ve been reading and loving his books since age 12, and introducing him when he spoke at NYPL a little over a decade ago remains a highlight of my professional and personal life. Also, Nation‘s honor was my RealCommittee year. Which is why I haven’t reviewed Dodger on record, but Sophie did, and said, “I realize it’s not perfect — certainly not with regard to accuracy, which we’ll get to in a moment — but it is almost perfectly put together, and is certainly enough of an exemplar of voice, style and thematic development that I hope the 2013 RealCommittee will take a serious look (or maybe a second look) at it.” She then went on to champion it specifically for the silver, rather than the gold, and she was spot on.

The White Bicycle: We haven’t seen it. In fact, it look like pretty much no one has seen it. However, I have to also confess that between the cover and the rather awful flap copy, even if this had passed my desk, I probably would have passed on it, because really, we do judge books by their covers. I’m so glad that first RealCommittee reader took a chance, and I’m looking forward to it. But I also think this is a book that begs some clarification of the eligibility statement, which says a book must have a US edition in the eligibility period. In this case, it’s a Canadian publisher with, so far as I know, no US presence other than simultaneous, but limited, distribution. It’s in the catalogs of the major jobbers, but not actually available anywhere as far as I can tell, although hopefully it will be now. I don’t begrudge the book the award, and I think it’s wonderful to see a smaller press title get some recognition, but I do think there is a problem when no one can get their hands on the title that took the silver in the most prestigious award for YA literature. Even the review journals missed it (that Booklist review is online only, dated Jan. 7, and written by the RealCommittee’s Booklist Consultant, so I am guessing that Booklist came to it via committee buzz — by early January, things would be shaping up enough through online conversation and straw polling that whether or not anyone was sure it would honor, it would have been clear that consensus said it was a serious contender, and therefore worth reviewing — I’m speculating, of course, but the evidence seems pretty clear).

The Winner:

In Darkness: This was another 11th hour review, and another one I’m so glad I read before the buzz. And if I’m being honest, this is the real reason this post has taken a week, conference attendance notwithstanding.

At the time (ahem, last week), I said, “This is a beautiful, harrowing piece of writing,” but I then went on to ask some questions of accuracy. And I’m still troubled by those questions.

I think that from a writing perspective this definitely earned its place at the top, but I can’t quite let go of my discomfort, tied into questions of cultural appropriation and accuracy in depicting Haiti (as a land of darkness and Voudou — the questions raised by The New York Times won’t leave me) and L’Ouverture. Yes, the author acknowledges openly that he has made changes to history, but literacy and its connections to power and freedom are such powerful motifs here –literary motifs, an explicit part of the quality of writing that makes the book deserving — that I do still find it problematic that L’Ouverture’s illiteracy in the novel prior to the ceremony and his twinning with Shorty is fiction.

Because in the novel, the sudden literacy is pivotal. But it’s made up. Which then makes the whole depiction of L’Ouverture an issue for me — accuracy is the obvious Printz criteria to look at here, but my deeper discomfort is that concern about respect. Do the inaccuracies make this a disrespectful book? Does disrespecting the source of the tale count as a literary critique? I find myself wishing I had a reader who knew more about Haiti or was Haitian with whom to discuss this. I’d like to get past my discomfort, but it’s like a toothache, persistent and uncomfortable and in need of outside assistance.

So that’s my response, a week late and fraught with anxiety. Am I the product of too many diversity trainings? Am I being uptight and ridiculous, or does anyone share my discomfort? More importantly, what place does this response have in a conversation about literary merit?

And what did you think of these books, or are we all well into 2013 and totally over the 2012 books already?

Trying to liveblog here. This might be an Epic Fail, but doing my best!

Lots of good stuff on the Alex list, including Mr. Penumbra, which I started last night on the rec of a teen and am adoring.

Schneider skewed young this year, so I have zero intelligent commentary.

Stonewall:
Yay Drama!

Gone, Gone, Gone: already on my to-read list, jumping up right now.

October Mourning: couldn’t handle it emotionally.

Sparks has a great subtitle! But I’ve never heard of it.

AND ARISTOTLE AND DANTE for the win! Despite having been a little cool on the book, I am super delighted by this! So delighted that I suspect I liked the book better than I realized.

CSK:

I love Kadir Nelson. I think that might be a professional requirement at this point, actually.

And Bryan Collier!

And Jackie Woodson!

Oh! Yay for No Crystal Stair — a beautiful and unexpected piece of writing.

Hand in Hand is another one I missed. Anyone have thoughts on it?

The MAE surprises me in the best ways every year. Waiting with baited breath…

So perfect! I grew up (well, at least I was still young when I read Alanna the first time…) on Tamora Pierce’s work — and based on the cheers, so did many others! And those are two series I particularly loved. Super cheers!

Morris. I maybe can’t breathe I want this for Seraphina so much.

*SCREAMS*

(edited to add: In case you couldn’t tell, Seraphina did indeed win, and it was the highlight of the YMAs for me)

Nonfiction. Joy is biting her nails… (She’s totally pulling for Titanic.)

I totally called that one — this is THE nonfiction book this year, the one everyone loves as a reader (even Joy).

YAY BETH! I am delighted to see Monstrous Beauty listed for the Odyssey. Ooh, and now I want to see how Fault plays on audio. Oh. This would not have been the audio for me.

*breathes*

The moment we’ve all been waiting for, the Printz! It’s here! Will it be my Printz??

Honors:

Aristotle and Dante — I did say this was a serious contenda, right?

An honor for CNV.  I am… troubled. But I can get over it. At least it got something!

Dodger, making Sophie’s day, and I am always happy with any recognition for Sir Terry.

And hey, there’s the dark horse! The White Bicycle, what?

And… In Darkness. Wow. Well, I’m awfully glad we got to it in time!

Huge kudos to the committee, and super congrats to all of these books! I’m delighted that at least one of my faves, and one of our predictions, medaled!

Comments are open, so comment away!

ALA definitely affected our voter pool (another note for next year, get all the voting done by the Thursday of ALA week), so we went down to only 35 voters (from nearly 70 for the Pyrite gold — can you have Pyrite gold? Hmmm), and it wasn’t exactly the same voter pool. However, the results show that this smaller and somewhat different pool was mostly in agreement with the original voter pool.

Which gives us hope that Seraphina, which we love a LOT, does indeed have a chance at the RealPrintz (although we left it off our prediction list, given the challenge real fantasy has historically faced), since it continues to be the second most loved title for the Pyrite, first giving CNV something that resembled a run for its money and now sweeping the honor vote. Read on for details and the rest of the lineup.

Not surprisingly, looking back at the voting results for the Pyrite, the three titles vying for the most first place votes were The Brides of Rollrock Island, The Fault in Our Stars, and Seraphina, with Ask the Passengers and Bomb grabbing the next two places.

It’s in the second place votes that Seraphina pulled into the true consensus place, and it becomes clear that for Someday readers, Seraphina really is the second best book of the year by a fair margin. With the RealPrintz, we never know what the breakdown of the honor books really was, but it does make you wonder, doesn’t it? Brides pulled the second highest number of votes for the second honor slot, which continues to follow the lead of the Pyrite poll and the first honor book, but then things suddenly start to shift:

Ask the Passengers and — surprise! — Me & Earl & the Dying Girl? This is especially interesting as there were no second place votes for Fault, Me & Earl’s content sibling (and the book we think edged the wonderful Me & Earl out of many conversations — see earlier Honeycrisp/Pink Lady apple analogy).

Moving onto vote position number three (although not everyone voted for a third or fourth honor book), Seraphina is still in play with 15% of the 3rd place votes, and Bomb makes a strong appearance as the most popular third place choice (is that slightly oxymoronic?)

And finally, the fourth place votes, where Ask the Passengers makes a strong showing as the consensus title that everyone likes, but relatively few people seem to love, when it comes to Printz speculation. Still, those 4th place votes are worth 7 points here, and edged Askinto the last possible honor slot.

So in the end, the honor (nickel) books are Seraphina with 107 points (8-7-5-1), Brides of Rollrock Island with 87 (8-5-1-3), The Fault in Our Stars with 62 (8-0-1-3) and Ask the Passengers with 57 (3-4-3-7). (However, Bomb is nipping at Ask‘s heels with 50 points to Ask‘s 57, making it very clear just how much those 4th place votes mattered). The full point spread looks like this (click through for a larger image if you can’t read everything in this version):

A few thoughts:

Fault had edged out Brides for the fool’s gold vote by two points, but here fell behind by 15 points, while Seraphina and Ask remained in the same relative positions.

The next closest title after Bomb (which would be 5th) is Me & Earl & the Dying Girl, which earned approximately half the weighted total of Bomb. Earl was not included in the gold vote, but beat out other contenders that were (Diviners, Drowned Cities, Raven Boys). But once the list was expanded, they fell quite a bit lower in the estimation of voters. Is it the series issue? Or were the wrong books in the initial vote for the winner?

As you may remember, we really struggled to figure out a way to establish a readable shortlist for our Mock with enough lead time to give everyone a chance to, you know, read the titles, which was why we did what essentially amounted to a binding straw poll with our initial Pyrite nomination list. But we suspect that the initial poll that led us to ten titles was unduly influenced by readership and books people really wanted to read, a suspicion that seems supported by Me & Earl‘s showing in the honor vote.

Now, that could also just reflect the different standards for honor votes vs winner votes, or it could be attributable to the change in voting populations over the course of the week. But still, this confirms that we don’t want to artificially shorten the list so much next year and risk losing the best of the best to an early poll when readership was still low. Would those of you who have been participating be willing to read closer to 15-20 books for the Pyrite, provided we can find a way to get the list (or some portion of the list) assembled earlier in the year?

Ah, things to chew on when the dust settles.

In the meantime, congratulations to Rachel Hartman, Margo Lanagan, John Green, and A.S. King! Because while a Pyrite prize is in no way mistakable for a Printz Award, the Pyrite does come from the heart…of many, many passionate readers!

And now, let the nail biting commence, because the RealPrintz, which is the one that really matters, is in 12 hours. 12 hours! See you on the flipside!

*The Pyrite Printz, or Pyrite, is the Someday My Printz Will Come mock Printz deliberation, and should not in any way be confused with YALSA’s Michael L. Printz Award, often referred to here as the RealPrintz or Printz. Our predictions, conversations, and speculation about potential RealPrintz contenders and winners reflect only our own best guesses and are not affiliated with YALSA or the RealPrintz committee. You probably figured that out on your own, but we like to make it clear!

We’re going to make some predictions for tomorrow. They will, doubtless, be wrong: never has there ever been a cat so clever committee that didn’t surprise, well, everyone.

But we’re not just wildly guessing here either. Or, not entirely, anyway.

You may, perhaps, be thinking, Huh, didn’t they just do top 5s the other day? How is this different? The other day, what we listed were our individual picks. This time, we (in the Royal sense; today we’re speaking as a single blogging entity) are actually trying to anticipate the RealCommittee’s picks.

The RealCommittee process, as we’ve said before, is unique to each year, since every member brings their own sensibilities, preferences, and baggage with them. This means that it’s almost impossible to truly predict what a committee will select, because all of those elements that make up 9 individuals meld into something that has a personality of its own. In the end, there are a lot of excellent books that could wear the gold and silver this year, so the final decision can have a faint whiff of the arbitrary to those outside the committee — why this one and not that one, we ask? But for everyone sitting in that room, making the decision, the reason are many and completely clear.

So while we’ve been reading and discussing and reviewing in the context of the award all year, and we’d like to think that we have a not insignificant sense of the field, we’re bringing our own baggage to this prediction list, which means we aren’t just guessing — but we might still be way off base.

More caveats, explanations, &tc.:

We have no insider information (although we’re tickled at the idea of insider trading of award info, and wondering why no one has made a spoof film about the librarian underworld where these trades would presumably occur).

We’re handicapped by not knowing what books the RealCommittee has actually read — we feel confident that some committee member or other has read every book we’ve covered, but we also suspect the committee as a whole has read far more widely than we have (there are 9 of them, after all), so we might have skipped something that turns out to be among the best of the year.

(In fact, as we write this, we have in our respective homes piles of unread, wonderful 2012 titles that we just never quite got to. Those books are all laughing at us, and, we are convinced, just waiting to be named tomorrow morning to our everlasting chagrin. Crystal ballin’ is hard, yo.)

But we took a look at what we thought were the year’s best, drawing from our own reading and also the lively conversations here are elsewhere. We cross-referenced that against the various year-end lists, particularly the trade lists. We considered how these books might have fared in our own committee years, trying to think of the kinds of issues that might come up; we looked at things like the ways in which two books that are too similar pretty much never both make the list, because it’s one thing to say a Honeycrisp apple and a Pink Lady are both perfection on a core, but it’s harder to make a list of just Honeycrisps, because when you put them together one will be a little bit better and you’ll only want to recognize the very best one.

(Ok, that isn’t perfect, but go with it. Please.)

We’re not guessing a winner and honor books separately, just a slate of 5 books we think are most likely to get named Monday, in order from most to least likely.

• Code Name Verity
• No Crystal Stair
• The Brides of Rollrock Island
• The Fault in Our Stars

Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby
Houghton Mifflin, March 2012
Reviewed from an ARC

This debut got one star, and wasn’t on our initial contenda list. But the nod from the Morris committee certainly piqued our interest, and I’m so grateful. This is definitely my favorite of this bunch of last minute reads. The writing is often beautiful, the characterization is strong, and the setting (late 30′s, in a wayward girls’ home and then a carnival) is rich and intense. Some of the short chapters are a place to hear from Portia’s compatriots in the carnival — to tell their stories. Many of these characters, we learn from the author’s note, are loosely based on historical people. These vignettes add texture and dimension to the story. Barnaby’s touch is delicate; she places each chapter very carefully, and also very carefully chooses whether to use first or third person narration.

The ending is rushed, but that’s the biggest flaw I could find at this late stage read. The multiple revelations at the end do feel a little like a pile up, and the carnival members coming to the rescue is sudden. However, the emotional payoff of that moment is powerful, and the growth that we are able to see in Portia is gratifying. There are a lot of strengths to this read: the theme of finding family and love, the exploration of stories as a source of power.

A Certain October by Angela Johnson
Simon and Schuster, August 2012
Reviewed from an ARC

With four starred reviews and an author who won the Printz before, this was a no question auto-contenda in our list. And I can see where those starred reviews came from: this story is immediate and often raw. It’s a quick read that asks big questions, and provides a realistic exploration of psychological pain, and it’s all done with a believably teen-ish voice. It’s possible that, in the smaller CSK pool of potential books, this title could go far.

But there are some flaws that will knock A Certain October out of discussion at the Printz table. There’s a lot going on in this story, and very few pages to get it all across. We don’t get a lot of time with the characters, and as a result, they seem to be collections of details rather than whole, integrated people (Misha has a tattoo and lives with the Aunts; Falcone is gay and his sister is no longer around; Kris is into music.) The story itself feels a little disjointed; it moves around in time, and sometimes the flashbacks sneak up on the reader.

Son by Lois Lowry
Houghton Mifflin, October 2012
Reviewed from a final copy

The conclusion to The Giver series, y’all. Lois Lowry. Without even counting the three stars it received, this was another easy auto-contender to spot. We get closure to Jonas’s world by getting Claire’s story. Her journey takes us through the settings of Gathering Blue and The Messenger and ties everything together by the end. Claire’s story is emotionally compelling (the first part is especially strong).

There are some issues that will hold Son back in terms of RealPrintz discussion, however. Other parts of the book are not as smooth and well developed as the first part; the plot lags during Claire’s amnesia episode, and she seems like a different character. The world building for Son is sketchy; it’s interesting reading, but it doesn’t all hang together neatly enough to be cohesive. There are a number of plot holes and convenient twists, too (Claire doesn’t get her pills, as a member of The Community, which is what sets this novel’s action in motion; we don’t see how she reaches the seaside community; the supernatural element of the Trademaster is jarring).

So that’s a quick run through of the reading I’ve been trying to cram in. Do you all have thoughts? Or are you too busy trying to get through your own stacks of books?

In the last two weeks, I’ve read two more from the original contenda list (Pinned and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe), one Morris shortlist title (Love & Other Perishable Items) and two dark horse candidates that were brought to our attention by readers (In Darkness and Various Positions).

Sarah will be sharing a few more titles tomorrow, but sadly, neither of us managed to read Andrew Smith’s Passenger, a late addition auto-contender. It is, however, beyond a long shot for the RealPrintz — book 2 of a series, and, based on the first chapter and some student feedback, impenetrable without having read the first book.

(But if you never read the first book, The Marbury Lens, and want a really disturbing, stark, and very well-written book to read next, pick it up, because it really is a powerful read.)

We’re also sad to say that two buzz titles recommended by readers never made it onto either of our piles — Monument 14, recommended by Jen Hubert of Reading Rants, and The Opposite of Hallelujah, recommended by Kelly of Stacked. These are two well-read critics, and Jen definitely has a nose for Printz winners, so do check out their respective reviews. Whether or not either of these titles are named on Monday, they are definitely worth seeking out.

Okay, enough housekeeping! Onto the last of my 2012 reading.

Pinned, Sharon Flake
Scholastic, October 2012
Reviewed from ARC

Sometimes I really wonder about the age recommendations the publishers put on their books. Pinned strikes me as very young — issues are black and white, language and narrative are straightforward, characters simple to understand, although not simplistic. As an upper middle grade title, there is a lot to admire; as a YA, it’s too simplified.

That said, this is a quick, satisfying read and it has potential for the Schneider AND the CSK, although I don’t have enough of a sense of the full pool for either of those awards to know where this stacks up. Autumn is a particularly unexpected and refreshing character, and her struggles as well as her passion (for wrestling, for Adonis, for life in general, really) elevated her to a character for whom I felt genuine sympathy and compassion.

I don’t think this is a real contenda for the Printz, but it deserved its stars (three), and I’m glad I managed to read it.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Simon & Schuster BFYR, April 2012
Reviewed from final e-copy

I started this in July, but I just wasn’t into it, and a copy — from the public library! — has been languishing on my nightside table ever since. Happily, the combination of an e-copy (more portable!) and the pressure to finish it for our local Mock Printz were just what I needed for a second push.

This is not my book, and I don’t imagine I would have read it without the pressure of professional commitments, but I finished this filled with admiration and respect for the writing.

Thematically, the scope is wonderful. Fathers and sons, friendship, love, the nature of family — and laughter. So much joy, even in the anger and sorrow that also permeate this novel. These are universal themes, executed with polish.

The language is highly stylized, almost staccato at times, and the questions that permeate the dialogue and Ari’s first-person narrative are powerful questions that play well against the stripped down language.

Like Fault, this is also a book with wonderful adults.

There were also things I didn’t think worked as well here: the structure has a slightly soap operatic feel, with the end-of-summer hospitalizations; the way Ari says he’s angry and depressed but in so many ways never acts it — really, I think I just never felt like I knew him, like I was kept at a distance. And maybe that was deliberate, but it created a layer of cushioning around the story that made it strangely flat in affect.

Even so, I see why this deserves kudos and while I don’t think it will make the top 5 for RealPrintz, I do believe this is a book the committee must have discussed (or be discussing, possibly right now!) — it is a quiet but noteworthy book. And I suspect this is one of those books with the potential to change the right reader’s life.

Love and Other Perishable Items, Laura Buzo
Knopf BFYR, December 2012
Reviewed from final e-copy

I am so glad the Morris committee brought this little delight to my attention, although I still want Seraphina to take the award.

But this was fun — fun with a genuine bit of depth.

The primary characters are wonderful — slightly too earnest Amelia, who is sometimes a bit of a twit and so oblivious to everything else because she’s 15 and head over heels rings absolutely true. And Chris, caught in the hopeless underemployment of recent graduate (or, really, about-to-graduate) is also pitch perfect, although they do, perhaps, sound a bit too alike. Chris is the more compelling character, I found, but that may be the adult reader peeking through. (Amelia certainly echoed my 9th grade self and friends in many ways, which makes her seem very true but may have also elicited some soul deep discomfort.)

The secondary characters have a lot less life, and although they are entertaining, they are, mostly, types more than people. But at least they are just right types, which takes some skill.

The dual narrative was interesting, but the decision to rehash almost the exact same time frame from each perspective was a pace killer, and bogged down the forward momentum a lot. Also, it’s all a bit too dreamy — Chris giving Amelia the journals, but being far away so that the ick factor of a 22-year-old falling for a 15-year-old is safely sidestepped — well, it’s a bit of a romantic happy ending, and I’m not entirely sure I buy it.

In the end, I thought this was an adorable diversion, but not much more. And although we’re not meant to truly compare books, it’s hard not to look at this against the other down under romance on the stack this year and find this lacking some of the depth and grace of writing. Still, a book can be a great read without being great literature, and this does make the great read stack.

In Darkness, Nick Lake
Bloomsbury, January 2012
Reviewed from ARC

This is a beautiful, harrowing piece of writing. Intertwined narratives, one now and one in the past, paint a blood-soaked but sympathetic portrait of Haiti, where the slavery Toussaint L’Ouverture fought against has been replaced by a freedom that may not be any better for those in the slums of Port au Prince.

The present-day narrative is told in first person. When Shorty’s voice is on, it sings; the liberal use of Creole, the sentence structures — it’s great. But every now and then the author’s voice seems to slip through with a piece of information that is just a bit too big picture for Shorty and his life experiences (the comment on how there are no McDonald’s for employment opportunities, for example). And the content is harrowing and vivid, although there is not always enough context provided for a reader to follow some of the experiences Shorty relates, which are so tied into the recent political history of Haiti.

The past narrative, which follows Toussaint L’Ouverture, is told in a more reserved third person. Lake has taken some liberties with L’Ouverture’s life, which he acknowledges (but doesn’t describe) in the afterword. Questions of accuracy, which tends to be a criteria applied more to nonfiction, arise as a result.

Still, despite the flaws, this is a book that packs a powerful punch, and asks hard questions about self-will and destiny, about the meaning of freedom, and the shackles of poverty and the shackles of slavery. It’s a dark horse, but it’s one I hope the RealCommittee is reading closely, although in the end I think the flaws — especially the accuracy issues, which go beyond the history into the nature of Haiti itself — would take this off the table.

Various Positions, Martha Schabas
Frances Foster Books (Farrar Straus Giroux), February 2012
Reviewed from final copy

This is a book that took me by surprise and that I really wish I had read early enough in the season to read again before writing about it.

Also, the package is stunning. Take the cover art of only the lower half of a dancer, an image that evokes the headless objectified girls of romance novel covers, the darkness in ballet of The Black Swan, and, at least to my eyes, a silhouette that suggests the old image of an ostrich with its head in the sand. Layers of meaning and a stunning picture. Kudos to the designer, although whoever wrote the flap copy seems to have phoned it in from outer space.

Because this is not really a ballet book, and it’s not the teacher-student “romance” and coming of age the jacket seems to point to.

This is a dark, disturbing portrait of a young woman cracking under the pressure of the idea of the male gaze. This is the story of the outcome of a lifetime of unhealthy messages, the results of a dysfunctional family and a broken girl who has some trouble with reality. This is about the mixed messages society sends girls, about the way these messages can be internalized, about the damage parents deal their children, and about the solace and danger of a passion, in this case ballet.

It is, frequently and unsparingly, a book about sex and the questions of adolescence. It’s ugly and riveting, and I found  myself thinking that it poses many of the same questions as The Brides of Rollrock Island, and while Various Positions doesn’t hold any more answers, I thought the questions were in many ways more resonant for being set so firmly in the real world.

As far as the writing goes, the sentence level writing is generally excellent — this is a first novel, and as someone said to me about a different book the other day, it is “occasionally over written — as all great first novels are.” But for the most part this is strong, clear prose that paints a vivid picture — sometimes too vivid.

Georgia, the first person narrator, is somehow both amazingly candid — her obsession with the poses she finds in online pornography, the way she excited herself by imaging the way med see her, are all discussed in great detail — and utterly unreliable. I have so many questions about what was real. Not the big stuff with Roderick, but the little details. Did she really not understand how her parents met? Is her mother really so meek and beauty-obsessed? Is Isabel really so wonderful? I also felt that there might be more to her childhood than is revealed, which made me want to reread to look for clues in the text to decode this girl.

And that ending. Wow, that ending, where it seems like all is well and she has moved on and grown up, but then the only gaze she notes in her new ballet audition is the gaze of the one male teacher. Shivers, because what seemed like a healthy, resolved tale suddenly looks like it was only the beginning, and maybe Georgia is way more messed up than it seemed.

So yes, after one reading, I am blown away and think this has serious potential for the RealPrintz. But I’d need to read it again to see if it can really go the distance, and I know there are others who thought this was mostly awful — I’m hoping they’ll sound off in the comments, because right now this is in my top five and I really really want to talk about it!

The Pyrite version of silver is nickel, right? Wait. What? Apparently we are just as bad at chemistry as we are at math. Used under CC license from flickr user yaybiscuits123.

Honor Vote Time!

Honor book voting policies are weirdly absent from the RealCommittee P&P, but we checked in with a number of friends and colleagues, including at least one former RealCommittee Chair and one former RealCommittee Admin Assistant to make sure we had it down. And so we are ready to put the honor book voting procedures into black and white for all to see.

Once the winner is chosen, an Honor Book straw poll is taken, in which each person votes for four titles. Every nominated title other than the already determined winner is eligible for an Honor, with no regard for whether it garnered any votes in the polling for the winning title, so the straw poll includes the complete nomination list. Any book receiving zero votes in the straw poll is dropped from the Honor Book ballot, and then the real Honor voting commences.

For our Pyrite* purposes, we are going to open it back up to the entire Pyrite nomination list — and yes, we realize the system this year has been flawed. We are trying to find the balance between a list that all players have time to read (which was why we voted it down to 10 before the true Pyrite vote) and a list that allows us to recognize a wide range of titles and really reflects the year. (If you have better ideas for achieving that balance next year, please let us know — we are definitely open to suggestions!) But we will skip the straw poll, mostly for the sake of time, and hopefully the results will be decisive anyway.

Honor voting is weighted just as the standard vote for first place, but since each person can vote for up to four books, the points are allocated as 7-5-3-1 instead of 5-3-1.

Now, one thing that does not appear, as far as we can tell, to be set in stone (and which none of us remember with certainty) is the point at which the committee determines how many honor books they will recognize. So while this may not be canon, what we’re going to do here is vote based on the maximum of four, and then look at the point spread before we decide the number of honor books. We may have a point spread that clearly indicates there are two or three books that fall way higher in our collective estimation than any others for the honor slots, and maybe we only recognize those 2 or 3. Or we could do as every iteration of the RealCommittee has done, and recognize the full four, because more recognition for more excellent titles is always good.

(For the record, Karyn tends to be all about the smaller and even more selective list, and in any conversation about honor book numbers ends up sitting alone in the corner being booed for that attitude. She’s hoping to find at least one or two sympathetic compatriots this time around.)

As we did for the Pyrite winner, please vote in the comments. You may vote for up to four titles and do please number them 1-4 (or 1-3, or 2, if you are feeling very selective indeed). We’ll collect votes until Saturday early evening, and post the results Saturday night or Sunday morning.

The complete Pyrite nomination list:

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone, Kat Rosenfield
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire-Saenz
Ask the Passengers, A.S. King
Bitterblue, Kristin Cashore
Bomb, Steve Sheinkin
The Brides of Rollrock Island, Margo Lanagan
Chopsticks, Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral
Days of Blood and Starlight, Laini Taylor
The Disenchantments, Nina LaCoeur
The Diviners, Libba Bray
Dodger, Terry Pratchett
The Drowned Cities, Paolo Bacigalupi
Every Day, David Levithan
The Fault in Our Stars, John Green
Graffiti Moon, Cath Crowley
Keeping the Castle, Patrice Kindl
Long Lankin, Lindsey Barraclough
Me & Earl & the Dying Girl, Jesse Andrews
Monument 14, Emmy Laybourne
Personal Effects, E.M. Kokie
Railsea, China Miéville
The Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater
Seraphina, Rachel Hartman
Team Human, Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan
Titanic, Deborah Hopkinson
Various Positions, Martha Schabas

*The Pyrite Printz, or Pyrite, is the Someday My Printz Will Come mock Printz deliberation, and should not in any way be confused with YALSA’s Michael L. Printz Award, often referred to here as the RealPrintz or Printz. Our predictions, conversations, and speculation about potential RealPrintz contenders and winners reflect only our own best guesses and are not affiliated with YALSA or the RealPrintz committee. You probably figured that out on your own, but we like to make it clear!

Look! The results! Only… we stripped out the titles from this version. So now you HAVE to read on.

Before we say anything else, or share shiny data, and definitely before we name the book that gets the Pyrite* medal (which, really, would be more of a paperweight), we want to say thank you.

Thank you, of course, for reading the blog. But mostly, and most importantly, thank you for caring about YA literature. Thank you for sharing your passion, for having opinions, for thinking about books, and for making this all worthwhile. We have such a lovely little corner of the internet — our community is so thoughtful, passionate, and kind; it’s a joy to be a part of it.

Ok, enough sentimentality. We’ll save the rest of the emotions for Monday’s tears (for joy or sorrow, but Karyn at least almost always cries a little during the YMAs).

So, you wanna know what won?

Well, you didn’t think we’d make it that easy, right? We have some suspense to build? Some tension to ratchet? Some screws to turn?

We had 67 people vote (at least as of our data compilation late in the evening). 65 of them voted for first, second, and third place — one lone holdout refused to vote a third place title from the list, and we admire that conviction. The other gave Railsea their second place vote, and Karyn at least REALLY admires that decision. The votes showed love for all our shortlist titles, but we did have a clear winner.

Wait! Suspense! You know what kills builds suspense? DATA ANALYSIS.

There were some interesting trends in terms of consensus titles, and in addition to a clear winner there was a strong middle of the pack showing — it will be interesting to see if this pack becomes the honor list when we vote on that in the morning (in other words, stay tuned).

(As an aside, remember that when we talk about votes, we’re talking about weighted 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place votes, per the RealPrintz rules. Hence the exhortation to rank your votes.)

So, numbers.

Three titles had 0 first place votes. Two of these will surprise no one, we think: The Diviners and The Raven Boys are well loved indeed, but as we’ve discussed quite a lot on various posts, they are series starters and leave so much unfinished that they were working with a major handicap.

The third book that didn’t garner any first place votes is more startling: Bomb, which we would have pegged as a crowd favorite. Does it just skew too young? It did, after all, win Heavy Medal’s Mock Newbery. Or did the source citation controversy get people rethinking its strength? (And despite the lack of first place votes, Bomb did get a respectable percentage of overall votes, with 8%, so there was some love, just not as much as we might have anticipated.)

There was a small, but fervent following for Every Day and Drowned Cities. The numbers look identical for these two across the board, with each receiving a 1-3-2 spread.

(A note on RealCommittee strategizing and consensus-building techniques: Had we all been in a room together, talking to each other at even greater length than our (sometimes really long) posts and comments allow, we might not have seen these votes at all. Assuming the conversation had made it clear these titles weren’t making the very top of the top of the list, because there weren’t enough strong supporters, these voters might have let them go and thrown support behind one of the midrange pack, which might have edged one of those closer to first place. In our collective experience, those first place votes for a beloved book often drop to third place votes along the way, the better to throw some additional weight (get it?) behind a title that actually has a shot.)

So what did make up that likely to honor mid-range, which might have benefited from strategic voting? (We’d need to look at the data voter by voter to go any further in that line of analysis, though, and we didn’t do that. Feel free to crunch those numbers on your own, since all the votes are public.)

The Fault in Our Stars earned 11% of the votes, grabbing 72 points overall, with 8-9-5 in vote distribution.

Hovering just a tad higher in percentage points, Ask the Passengers and The Brides of Rollrock Island had 12% of the total vote each, with 63 points for Ask (7-6-10) and 70 points for Brides (7-9-8); the point differential is due to the weighted votes, with Brides doing significantly better on 2nd place votes than Ask (which was, however, the most popular third choice overall).

For all three of these titles votes in first, second and third place were critical to their overall scores. So if any of you doubted the power of a second or third place vote, here is the proof that weighted votes make a huge difference.

We are going to have to tell you about the winner at some point, right?

So, if you’ve been reading carefully, you’ve noticed that we’ve mentioned all but two titles so far.

Of the two, Seraphina did very well, with 16% of the votes and a total of 97 (10-13-8) points, significantly higher than the mid-range pack.

But in the end, nothing even came close to challenging our Pyrite winner.

Code Name Verity (which everyone was probably assuming from the first, since that has been the consistent pattern in the Pyrite conversations) swept the vote, with 33 first place votes. That’s almost 50% of the possible first place votes — our Data Analyst and Supreme Number Cruncher (hi Joy!) says it’s as close to half as it could reach (because 50% of 67 is 33.5).

Which, actually, is a problem, because TECHNICALLY it should be 50% + 1 to win. Which would be 34 first place votes (scaled up from the 5 out of 9 required for the RealPrintz). But we are calling this for CNV. Especially because CNV also received the highest percentage of votes overall. And three times the number of first place votes as the next highest array of first place votes (plus, more than double the points). Also, 12 second place votes, which was the highest number of 2nd place votes. (And 8 third place votes, too.) Clearly, despite the slight lack of the +1, this was hands down the Pyrite winner!

(Also, after last year’s trials and tribulations and votes and extensions, we have learned our lesson! We want the Number Gods to be kind to us.)

Overall charts follow, and super congrats to Elizabeth Wein and Code Name Verity! It may only be fool’s gold, but here’s hoping the real gold follows.

And now, now — now you get to vote for the honor books. But we’ll post those separately, just so we don’t lose anyone who fell asleep during the data party.

Super thanks to Joy Piedmont, whose Excel skills were the saving of this post. If anyone wants her spreadsheets, let us know and we’re happy to share the raw data.

*The Pyrite Printz, or Pyrite, is the Someday My Printz Will Come mock Printz deliberation, and should not in any way be confused with YALSA’s Michael L. Printz Award, often referred to here as the RealPrintz or Printz. Our predictions, conversations, and speculation about potential RealPrintz contenders and winners reflect only our own best guesses and are not affiliated with YALSA or the RealPrintz committee. You probably figured that out on your own, but we like to make it clear!