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Someday My Printz Will Come
Inside Someday My Printz Will Come

Morris Nominations

January 21, 2015 By 30 Comments

YALSA’s Morris Award (technically the William C. Morris Debut Award) is a great showcase of strong new voices in the YA literature field. Often there are a few books we have had on our speculation list that end up being Morris finalists, because good writing is good writing. And, of course, sometimes the best writing is a debut — from Looking for Alaska, 10 (TEN!) years ago (before the Morris, but still a debut) to Seraphina just two years ago.

But the thing is that the Morris pool is a LOT smaller. And often crowded with schools of commercial clone fish, against which the more original and/or literary novels tend to really shine. And we all know that a big fish in a small pond often becomes a small fish when the body of water is bigger.

The Printz is a pretty big body of water. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books to look for Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

100 Sideways Miles

January 18, 2015 By 8 Comments

100 Sideways Miles, Andrew Smith
Simon & Schuster, September 2014
Reviewed from final copy

If you were a teenager who spent at least one long night with friends discussing the future, destiny, and the fear that you can’t control the course of your life, 100 Sideways Miles probably reminded you of those moments. Finn Easton, the novel’s narrator, is a teen deeply concerned about his place in the universe and whether or not he has any say in his fate. Some of the themes Andrew Smith is thinking about in Grasshopper Jungle recur here—specifically connection and friendship; however, while Grasshopper Jungle takes quite a cynical view of human nature, 100 Sideways Miles has the kind of hopeful ending that feels like a beginning.

I have a feeling that this book’s optimism is a factor in why Andrew Smith’s second novel of 2014 has five stars to its predecessor’s three. (And just for reference, last year’s Winger was a three star book in addition to being a BFYA top ten pick.) [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books to look for, Contenders, Fiction Tagged With: , , , ,

Picture Books for … Teens?

January 13, 2015 By 2 Comments

It’s rare that there are true all-ages picture books.

This year, we have two of note.

Both are beautiful, thought-provoking, unusual, and skew way up. All the way to adolescence and beyond.

I’ll eat my hat if either receives a silver from the RealCommittee. Hell, I’ll eat all y’all’s hats. BUT. These are gorgeous books with appeal for older readers, so here’s me shining a bit of light on them.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Books to look for, Fiction Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mock Printzing the Night Away

January 11, 2015 By 4 Comments

Collecting data requires fancy equipment and complex mathematics.

Well, results are in for the Pyrite and for our local mock roster, and it’s interesting.

Also, we have a winner!

It will be interesting see if discussion knocks this one down in either final vote, but right now Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun is the runaway winner.

The breakdown: Locally, our group of 9 voted a unanimous 9 “yes, let’s discuss this” votes (note that we had an actual poll for the local Mock, although write-ins are encouraged). Here on the blog, with 27 voters, it received 13 nominations, the highest number.

Popularity or prediction? Only time will tell…

(Insert portentous dun-dun-dun music here.)

Let’s see what other data can be gleaned from the compare and contrast and data gathered.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Books to look for, Contenders, Pyrite Tagged With: , , ,

Dreaming in Indian

January 10, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Dreaming in Indian: Contemporary Native American Voices, edited by Mary Beth Leatherdale and Lisa Charleyboy
Annick Press, July 2014
Reviewed from final copy

I’m a day late in getting to this one because I just finished it. With no digital copies available, and my usual source without it in stock, I had to wait on a delivery. It was totally worth the wait, and I’m so glad it’s a physical copy (I don’t often say that, to be honest, but this is one gorgeous book; I enjoyed poring over the pages). I’m guessing that this will be a somewhat short review as a result, as I’ll continue to process…in the comments. :-) [Read more...]

Filed Under: Nonfiction Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone

January 6, 2015 By 6 Comments

coverThe Unfinished Life of Addison Stone, Adele Griffin
Soho Teen, August 2014
Reviewed from final copy

A few weeks ago, I reviewed How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon. It’s not immediately obvious, but that title shares remarkable similarities with Adele Griffin’s faux-nonfiction novel, The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone. Both books focus on dead teens, using multiple voices to reconstruct the story of how they died. It’s an interesting structure for the examination of a single teenager and the multitudes an individual can contain.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Contenders, Fiction Tagged With: , ,

Was It the Timing?

January 4, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Usually the Pyrite nominations bring all y’all out of the woodwork, because it’s the moment to champion the books you’ve loved this year.

So either we launched the 2015 Pyrite at a terrible time, right before the insanity of the holidays, or this year is a really dull year.

Which is it?

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Housekeeping, Process, Pyrite

Partial Non-Fiction Roundup Part Two

January 2, 2015 By 2 Comments

Hello! I hope your 2015 is going well! We are getting closer and closer to the big, Printzly reveal, you know. And in the interest of getting through a few more titles on our long (and always growing, it seems) list, here’s another nonfiction roundup. This time, we’re looking at three of the five finalists for Excellence in Nonfiction — Ida M Tarbell, Laughing at my Nightmare, and Popular. (We’ve already checked out Port Chicago and the Romanovs aallllllllll the way back in 2014.) They all three show a wide variety of topics covered for teens in nonfiction, and also all three have compelling, particular perspectives on our world.

[Read more...]

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Mary Poppins Books

December 31, 2014 By 1 Comment

Almost three years ago, I talked about Mary Poppins books (practically perfect in every way).

These are books that deserve stars and commercial acclaim and critical praise. They are in the top of the crop for the year, but they’re… a little thin. Like Mary Poppins, they appear and have their moment and then off they go; unlike Mary Poppins, they don’t leave too much behind (she, after all, wrought change. Also earworms).

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Books to look for Tagged With: ,

Egg & Spoon

December 29, 2014 By 1 Comment

Egg & Spoon, Gregory Maguire
Candlewick Press, September 2014
Reviewed from final copy

What an ingenious little (okay, big) book this is.

Maguire is at his best when he’s being sly and subverting tropes and expectations; he did it to genius effect in Wicked, which remains one of my favorite novels, and while his overall body of work is uneven, when his writing shines it’s positively lustrous.

This is him at his best.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Books to look for, Contenders, Fiction Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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