The Votes Are In — But the Winner Isn’t!

You voted, and we have the results.

And… we’ll be voting again shortly, because we also have a tie.

But before we dip into the results, a few words:

Thank you! For playing along with us, for voting, for reading the blog, but mostly for caring about these books. Although only one book will win on Monday, and no more than four additional titles will be recognized with honors, your passion for so many more than five titles is critical and inspiring and a testament to the great year we’ve had in YA lit (previous snarking notwithstanding).

We do this blog because we love the books and the robust, amazing world of YA lit, and because in our lives, it actually matters who takes home the gold on Monday — and so we say thanks for caring too (it makes us feel less alone!) and thanks for championing great books for the teens with whom we work.

Ok, now let’s dig in.

We had 39 voters this year, which is slightly more than four times the RealCommittee numbers.

35 people voted for three titles from the nomination list we had generated as a group; three voted for two titles from the shortlist and included a write-in vote (for which we don’t blame them — the list had some great titles but also lacked some great titles) and one lone holdout refused to give any book that final third place point, measly as it was, and only voted for a first and second place book.

We had 28 nominations on the shortlist, although only 27 discreet titles (we listed Boxers, Saints, and Boxers & Saints as three options). 11 individual titles received at least one first place vote; 8 titles (10 if we include the two write-ins) received only second or third place votes; and 9 titles received 0 votes, including Boxers as an individual title and Saints as an individual title. One of the write-ins (The Golden Day) received votes from two people, and we’re actually going to retroactively consider both write-ins formal nominations and add them to the tie-breaking runoff.

Here’s the point spread for the 21 books that received votes, now with titles:

For those of you without reading glasses, that’s 64 points each for Boxers & Saints AS ONE BOOK and Eleanor & Park (also one book). Ampersands for the win!

Fascinatingly, the tie has nothing to do with weighted votes — each received 18 votes, broken down 9-5-4.

The next three closest titles in terms of points are Far Far Away with 33 points (5-2-2); Winger with 24 (4-1-1); and The Midnight Dress with 23 (2-4-1).

However, if we look at voters rather than points, some interesting data emerges. Following our first place tie, the next three titles in terms of number of supporters are Far Far Away (9); Black Helicopters (8); and then four titles with 7 voters apiece — Rose Under Fire, The Midnight Dress, The Summer Prince, and Midwinterblood. All of which goes to show just how important the order of your votes can be, because the weighted vote and consensus vote are vying for the top slot — Winger had fewer supporters overall, but almost all of them put it first, whereas Black Helicopters was a frequent third place vote, which might bode well for an honor slot but made it place 9th in terms of points.

Prefer that in visuals? Take a look at these two charts side by side. The lefthand shows voter numbers, while the righthand is points. Books are in the same order in each chart, so it’s easy to see how voters and points do not line up the same.*

So now that you’ve seen the results, it’s time to vote again! Here’s how runoff votes work for the RealPrintz: Titles with 0 points in the initial vote are taken out off the ballot, then everything left is discussed again, and then everyone votes 1-2-3 of the remaining books, weighted 5-3-1, but now with more information and thus more opportunity to strategize (and some of the second round of discussion can be strategic too).

So here’s our new, shorter shortlist, alphabetized by title, ready for final arguments. Comments are open — fire away, and we’ll run the runoff in the next post.

17 & Gone
All the Truth That’s In Me
Black Helicopters
Boxers & Saints (as a single entity)
Charm & Strange
A Corner of White
Eleanor & Park
Fangirl
Far Far Away
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
The Golden Day
The Kingdom of Little Wounds
The Midnight Dress
Midwinterblood
More Than This
Mortal Fire
Rose Under Fire
September Girls
Sorrow’s Knot
The Summer Prince
Winger

*We chopped off the outliers — E&P and B&S on one end, and then the bottom range of books which were low in voters and points — to make the charts a bit less crowded and also because the middle of the bell curve is the most interesting, data-wise.

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!

Filed under: Process, Pyrite