Predictions, or, Time to Vote!

Ok, here it is, the moment you’ve all been waiting for.

(Well, we hope you’ve been waiting for it. Possibly with bated breath, or maybe on tenterhooks?)

Below you will find Someday’s short list. We looked at our own reading, other Mock Printz lists, reviews, and more to determine this final list of ten titles that we really think have what it takes to receive a shiny sticker on Monday.

A note on procedure: Voting is weighted, and the first round of voting is for the winner only; Honor books are selected in a separate vote. We’ll use this same list of ten, once it becomes nine, to choose our Mock honors. You will get to vote for your top three choices for the winner.

More voting details from the Policies and Procedures:

Voting Procedures

Members must be present to vote. Proxies will not be accepted. Following discussion, balloting will begin. Paper ballots will be used and tallied either by the chair or her/his designee(s). On each ballot each member will vote for her/his top three choices. First choice receives five points; second choice receives three points, and third choice receives one point. Members are reminded that, at this point, they are voting for the winner, NOT for honor titles. A separate ballot will be conducted for honor titles. To win, a title must receive five first-place votes and must also receive at least five more points than the second-place title. If no title meets these criteria on the first ballot, any title receiving no votes is removed from consideration and a period of discussion of remaining titles follows. A second ballot is then conducted. Balloting continues in this fashion until a winner is declared.

Honor Books

All nominated titles are eligible for honor book consideration. Following the selection of a winner, a straw vote is conducted. Any title receiving no votes is removed from consideration. A formal, weighted ballot will follow. Based on the results of this ballot, the committee will decide if it wishes to name honor books and, if so, how many.

Since we expect more than five readers will vote, we need to shift the numbers. 5 out of 9 voters is 55% and we’ll use that as our number, and then if the gap is close we’ll adjust the 5 point margin as well.

The finalists:

Between Shades of Gray: While we wonder if this is getting more love for it’s importance than its writing and think there are some flaws, this is clearly one of the big books of the year.

Paper Covers Rock: Well, you know what Karyn said. But this has references to great literature, a definite precision of writing, and lots of traction–and in the end, it’s about quality, and there is a lot here that could be seen as serious literary quality.

Chime: 6 stars, 4 best lists, and we think this one has winner written all over it, but what do you think?

A Monster Calls: Rich writing, beautiful illustrations, but maybe you think it’s too young or too message-driven? Sarah says it isn’t, and she’s not shy about sticking the too young tag on a book.

Life: An Interrupted Exploded Diagram: The writing is stunning, but the construct of the novel raises questions.

The Returning: It’s a dark horse, but oh so fantastic.

Imaginary Girls: We’re still on the fence about this one, but somehow we can’t quite let it go…so we’ll let you decide!

Beauty Queens: New book by a former winner. Is it too uneven? (Karyn has read it twice and STILL can’t decide if everything works, so now you get to decide, although she’ll blather about it tomorrow.)

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making: Rich and unusual, full of literary charms, but does it work?

Scorpio Races: It’s getting a lot of popular love, and Sarah says it has the literary chops to back that up. Do you agree?

To vote, go to our fancy little poll. We’ll post results as soon as the poll closes, at noon (Eastern time) on Wednesday 1/18.

Postscript, added 5 hours after initial posting: We’ve added a second question about how many of the ten you’ve read: please be honest, but if you started something and gave it up because you thought it was a piece of crap–and believe you can support that with textual evidence!–we’ll consider that book read. If you think your vote would have been different if you’d just gotten to book X and want to share, please do so in the comments over here, as we think that’s interesting data to collect.

Filed under: Contenders, Predictions, Process