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Life on the Cybils YA Panel

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Last year, I was lucky to be asked to be a part of the second round Cybils YA judging committee — my responsibilities involved reading 7 titles that the first round judges and picking one book of those to be winner. We looked at tons of criteria of the seven books before finally deciding on one title.

This year, I got to experience the Cybils on the opposite side. Rather than reading 7 titles and picking one winner, I had the opportunity to help read through over 180 titles and winnow down the pool to 7 titles to pass on to second round judges.

Being a part of this panel was some of the most fun I’ve had in a long time. It was completely exhausting and at times emotionally draining, but after three months of reading wildly, it all came down to a 4.5 hour discussion the day after Christmas. The day we took that gigantic list and picked the best of the best; these are the books we beg everyone who reads kid lit to read.

To help in making decisions during this single discussion (and trust me when I say we talked about these books WELL beyond one single discussion), we were asked to short list titles that stuck out to us as having high literary merit and high teen appeal — titles worth talking about and digging into. At first, our short lists could be as long as we wanted, but as the month of December moved on, we were charged with narrowing and narrowing further, until each of us brought our “fighting five” to the final discussion. Those were the titles we would be passionately making cases for and defending.

When we came to that final discussion, we had a total of 13 titles among us. So how to decide? In short, it’s part art and part science.

Jackie had a brilliant method for further narrowing this list of 13 down to 7. We were each asked to rank the list of 13 titles and add one wildcard title — this could be something we wanted to bring up for consideration again, even if it hadn’t made anyone’s final five short list. She added each of our ranks up and divided them by the number of readers (each of these titles had at least 6 of the 7 of us reading them) before announcing we had three clear front runners, three clear bottom listers, and a bunch in the middle. We chose to keep the top three titles without questioning or discussion since they came out so much higher than other titles. We did the same with the bottom three titles since they came out markedly lower than those titles in the middle.

And then there were seven titles vying for four spots, and that’s when things got ugly fun.

We talked through each of the titles, one by one, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. This wasn’t time to simply state whether we liked it or hated it, but rather to talk specific points like character development, plot holes, and even the nitty gritty things that didn’t work (and yes, we got minute on details — at this point, these things mattered since there were so many good books being considered). Interestingly, titles that I found to be on the weaker scale on initial reads became stronger in my mind after talking about them and vice versa. A book that kept a place on my short list throughout the entirety of the reading and discussion period ended up being my bottom lister at the end (and a title that ultimately did not make the cut).

One thing I decided from the beginning was that I would hold my arguing strength toward just a couple of titles that I would be heartbroken about if they didn’t make the short list. Even though I had my “fighting five,” I really only planned to fight hard on two. And I think of the 13 titles, there was only one I would have spent any time arguing against; while I liked it, I had a number of issues with plotting and pacing and ultimately was one of the early cuts. I made my arguments, supported 100% with rational, logical, well-reasoned support (okay, okay – and some straight up words like LOVE may have entered the discussion) and was very excited my top titles, Split, Some Girls Are, and Stolen, ended up on the short list.

To be honest, a couple of the books we chose were titles I never felt anything for. But thanks to the impassioned pleas of the other panelists, I reread the titles with a bit of a different eye and saw exactly what value they would add to the short list. In fact, I reread all but one title on our final short list, taking into account the arguments and discussions brought up in emails we bounced back and forth throughout. I’m also delighted a couple of titles that were initially ranked lower when we began our discussion ended up making the final cut after lengthy discussion of plot and character points. To say I’m thrilled with the range of titles represented would be an understatement. And there are some books — Sorta Like a Rockstar being one — that I would have never picked up without the pushing of other panel members, and I cannot be happier I listened to them.

As for the wildcard titles, I was fine letting mine go. I was happy a couple other panelists read it, even though they weren’t as wild about it as me (actually, I don’t think any of them were, but it didn’t make me love them any less…mostly). There were a number of completely worthy books that many of us added and removed from our short lists multiple times that ultimately didn’t make the cut. I think I’ve said it once or twelve times already, but narrowing 180+ books down to 7? Not easy. It has been painful to keep this list quiet for almost a week.

I couldn’t have asked for more fun people to read, discuss, and argue with. Each had a wicked sense of humor, as you’ll see in the next week — we have a little fun to share with everyone through our blogs about some of the things we learned while reading. Keep your eyes peeled.

Thanks to Amanda, Ami, Cheryl, Jackie, Justina, and Melissa for a fantastic time. Once again, I was blown away with how reading and discussing books with other people changed my reading mindset and made me look at things a little bit differently. And of course, the endless laughs! Every day delivered a little smile to my inbox, be it about a book or something completely unrelated to books and reading.

There is an awesome balance to the list, quite by accident rather than purposefully planned, and we have three books featuring strong male voices (one of the things that makes my librarian heart grow large). I think if there were one word to describe what made each of these stand out for me, it would be voice. Voice even outweighed issues in plot for a couple books — I think the thing I learned most while being on this panel was that voice is my *key* component for a good book.

I’d love to tell you why you should read and promote each and every one of them, but because our panel wrote some excellent rationales for our decisions, I think I’ll let those do the talking. If you haven’t read any of these, get to it. You will not be sorry.

Without further ado, here is our short list, in alphabetical order:

Dirt Road Home by Watt Key
Fast paced, gripping, and heartfelt, Dirt Road Home was the book that we just couldn’t put down. The story follows Hal, who is looking for a clean slate inside the Hellenweiler Boys Home, a juvenile detention facility. What he finds is a jungle where the only rule is for inmates to pick a side in the brewing gang war. When Hal refuses, he becomes a target, which sets off a string of events that makes Hal’s goal of staying on the straight and narrow hard to keep. His earnest voice and straightforward point of view are world weary while still being fresh, and Watt Key has masterfully crafted a book that is not only about second chances, but about staying true to yourself even when you aren’t sure who you are.

Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly
One of the issues du jour seems to be main characters on the autism spectrum or those struggling with Asperger’s syndrome. What the panel loved about this book is that Drea is very much a girl any teen can relate to. Yes, she has Asperger’s, but that is not the sum total of her existence. She is also a teenager, a musician, a girl who has moved a lot and has a crotchety old grandmother to live with. All of these things contribute to a personality readers can easily connect with, and Drea’s straightforward way of looking at life is refreshingly honest.

I Now Pronounce You Someone Else by Erin McCahan
Using wit and a whole lot of charm, author Erin McCahan has created a unique coming-of-age story centering on Bronwen, an strong-minded 18-year-old in search of a place to belong. Never having felt connected to her own family, Bronwen finds herself on the verge of getting married, hopeful that a life with Jared will give her the family she’s been looking for her entire life. The complex nature of what marriage means, as well as what ultimately makes a family is addressed in a refreshing and, at times hilarious, way. The humor woven amidst a plot with a very serious topic is what ultimately led the panel to fall in love with Bronwen (a.k.a Phoebe Lilywhite) and her quest to find herself, a real family, and true love.

Scrawl by Mark Shulman
An instantly engaging voice is the first clue that there’s more to this school bully than stealing lunch money. Shulman’s expert structure maintained a delicate balance of tension and humor, while his subtle character development creates entire back stories for secondary characters in a single, artful sentence. Shulman takes a familiar technique with journaling and manages to make it fresh and unique all the way to the brilliant last page. Readers can’t help but cheer for the self-described loser, Tod Munn, as he navigates through expectations, loyalties, and aspirations.

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers
You haven’t seen mean until you’ve seen the girls in Courtney Summers’s Some Girls Are. Picked for its strong, sparse writing, tight pacing, and gut-wrenching grit, the cast of flawed characters in this noir story will leave you gasping — and maybe hoping for mercy — through each new blow. This one begs the question: can high school kill?

Split by Swati Avasthi
Sixteen-year-old Jace hasn’t seen or spoken to his older brother Christian in five years, ever since Christian broke off all contact with their abusive father and disappeared to another state. Now Jace is the one fleeing home, bruised in both mind and body, seeking refuge with the brother who left him behind. The two scarred brothers–one emotionally closed-off and one barely able to contain the rage that churns within him–struggle to trust each other in an onslaught of painful memories and tense interactions. Jace’s voice is raw and wry and honest, drawing the reader into his pain and his fear: fear for his mother’s safety and for the person he’s afraid of becoming. Like Jace’s father, this powerful novel pulls no punches. Our panel was collectively wowed by its candor, its nuanced characters, its gut-twisting emotional impact, and its strong, authentic narrative voice.

Stolen by Lucy Christopher
Stolen is a haunting novel that explores the fine line between love, lust, and obsession and a book that generated intense, impassioned debate among the panelists. Sixteen year-old Gemma is kidnapped from the airport by Ty, a man who has been fixated on her for years. Written as a letter to her captor, Gemma begins to uncover her true feelings about what happened — feelings she hasn’t even wanted to admit to herself and feelings even the reader will question. What really happened between Ty and Gemma in the desert? Psychologically thrilling and twisted, Stolen is a breathtaking masterpiece.

On balance: How much should we obsess?

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I’ve got a topic I’m interested in starting a discussion on. It’s something I’ve been wrestling with in my mind for a while, and one which was stirred up by articles such as this one. This is sort of two-pronged, so go with me here.

When the Morris Awards list was unveiled a couple weeks ago, I saw more than one post discussing how this was one of the most balanced lists put out by an awards committee in a long time. We’re talking balanced in the sense of genre and topic, rather than by author’s gender right now. I don’t disagree with this assessment at all; in fact, I think it’s a pretty spectacularly balanced list, except for the lack of a real romance-y title. We have a historical fiction, two contemporary titles (which are themselves worlds different from one another), a paranormal, and a fantasy.

But then discussions popped up like the one I liked to above regarding gender balance and it got me thinking.

As a reader, I don’t think too much about the gender of the book’s author. For me, it’s not really that important. It’s something I think about a bit when it comes to the main character and how well done I think he or she may be — one of my sticking points in many books is authenticity of male voice — and so when one is particularly well done by a female, I take note. I want to read more of their titles to see this strong voice since I do think it’s hard to nail down. Rarely, though, do I consider the author when I’m reading their work. Their backgrounds, experiences, heritage, and gender play little into my reading experience. I don’t think it’s fair. It puts that author in a place where they’re representative of something bigger than themselves, their experiences, and their creative abilities.

When awards lists come around, it fascinates me to no end how discussions of the author’s background and experience can even come into the equation. How something not related to the text can possibly be relevant to the work as written. I think discussion of character voice and gender is entirely relevant — and something we’ve talked about in Cybils discussion — but the authors themselves? It has no place in discussion of the book itself.

This brings me back to my point earlier about the Morris’s extremely balanced list.

I think it’s also unfair to become obsessive about balance. It’s a bonus, though I think it becomes a bit of a clutch in many situations. I don’t think we always need to be balanced in the world, nor do we always need to be balanced when it comes to something like awards. I don’t think we need to have this balanced pointed out, either. I almost find it a bit pandering.

Some books are just stronger than others, and some genres produce stronger books in any given year than others. To exclude books from consideration for an award because another book is in that genre or because it’d make the list unbalanced just feels wrong to me. I don’t think there is obligation for fairness in art or literature.

I’m not writing this to bash the hard work of any awards committee in the least, but instead to raise a discussion about balance and fairness. Thinking back to this year’s National Book Award titles, too, you see sort of what I’m talking about: all of the contenders this year were heavily issue-driven and often dark. There were outcries for how unfair that list was because it leaned so much one way. You can’t make people happy one way or another, and something will *always* get excluded.

What I want to know and hear from you about is this: can we ever be truly fair and balanced? Should we ever? What should be part of consideration for awards lists and what shouldn’t? Where do we draw the line on awarding books for being superb books and creating a list of balanced and representative works for consideration?

Our picks for the Printz, the Morris, and more

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If you’ll remember, Kim and I ran our predictions for some of the big book awards back at the end of June. Now that it’s officially December and the vast majority of potential award winners have been published, it’s time to revisit and offer up our thoughts on the Printz, the Morris, the Non-Fiction award, and more.

Printz

I’m going to be honest and say that I thought last year’s winner, Going Bovine, was dreadful. I mean really, really bad. Clearly this is a minority opinion, and I know many people see lots of greatness in the book, but I disliked it intensely. My dislike of last year’s winner informs my predictions for this year. And by that I mean: I fear that a book I really disliked will take the prize. And that book is…

The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, by Francisco X. Stork. We did a round robin review of this one awhile ago, which you can read here. Oh my gosh it bored me almost to tears. But literary merit, which is how the Printz committee defines the term “best,” often equals boring.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Incarceron, another boring book and one of my predictions from our previous post, took the prize either. The same goes for Will Grayson, Will Grayon, which I haven’t read. Jennifer Donnelly’s Revolution, another book I haven’t yet read, is also an easy choice to contend for the Printz.

I really wish a book like Nancy Werlin’s Extraordinary would take the prize. Unlike Last Summer of the Death Warriors, I felt Extraordinary was well-written and interesting (the two can coexist!). It also addressed what it’s like to be an adolescent and developing one’s self-worth and friendship and lots of other Important Things. BUT, by far the most outstanding 2010 book I read this year was Monsters of Men, and it’s the one I dearly hope will win. The Printz guidelines don’t state that a book has to stand well on its own, at least not that I can see, so I’m crossing my fingers (but not holding my breath).

What this whole section really boils down to, though, is that most outstanding YA books I’ve read this year were not published in 2010 (Bog Child, Lauren Oliver’s Delirium – look for a review of this 2011 book sometime soon, several by Alice Hoffman, and so on).

Morris

I haven’t read any of the Morris contenders, and honestly none of them appeal to me. They could be well-written and interesting, but as a teen I wouldn’t have picked up a single one of them. Since appeal is a third of the criteria, I don’t think the committee did a hugely great job, but then again, I’m not on the committee, so what do I know. By conducting a very scientific eeny meeny miney mo, I’ve decided to throw my hat in for Guardian of the Dead.

I wish Kody Keplinger’s The Duff, which I really enjoyed, had gotten some recognition from the Morris committee. The same goes for Caragh O’Brien’s Birthmarked and Y.S. Lee’s A Spy in the House. (If these authors have published something else before, forgive me.) I’m also really looking forward to getting my hands on Michaela MacColl’s Prisoners in the Palace soon, since it seems right up my alley and as far as I can tell, MacColl is a debut author.

Nonfiction

All of the nominees for the Nonfiction award, with the exception of the book about Janis Joplin, appeal to me. I’m frankly surprised by how much the nonfiction picks appeal to me (and how little the fiction ones do!). It’s normally the other way around. I’ve started reading Spies of Mississippi and Every Bone Tells a Story, and while they’re both good, Spies of Mississippi seems to skew quite young for a young adult title. Every Bone Tells a Story is fascinating, well-written, and seems right on target for the age group. The Dark Game: True Spy Stories is I’m sure a fun read, but it seems a bit too fun for an awards committee. Bartoletti is the obvious choice, and awards committees eat up books about the Civil Rights movement and dead entertainers from their own childhoods, but I’m going to stick with Every Bone Tells a Story just because I like it.


I’m always of two minds when it comes to these sorts of awards. There’s the ones that the committees will like, and there’s the ones I’d like.

Printz

For me, it seems these titles are the realistic top choices:

In my own Printz world, these would see time on the honors or winner list:

I’ve read a lot of books this year — something like 215 at this point — and so few have really stood out as what the Printz committee seems to dig (though even that is something completely mysterious into itself). But if I were a betting woman, my money would be on one of the first four I liked. The Green/Levithan might edge out the others because they’re librarian darlings. If you’ll notice, my list looks remarkably similar to the list I had earlier. Publishers are on to putting out some of their strongest, most award-worthy titles earlier on in the year, so it’s not super surprising.

On a sidenote (maybe someone can clue me in): why did the title of Stolen change when it came to the US from Chicken House? Our US version does not include the subtitle “A Letter to My Captor.”

Non-Fiction
It seemed like a pretty weak year for non-fiction this year, but maybe I say that as someone who doesn’t really select teen non-fiction anymore and thus don’t read it as much. But when the list was announced, one title stood out to me as a front runner:

I have no real reason other than it’s Susan Campbell Bartoletti, and I have loved her non-fiction in the past. This one’s gotten a lot of positive buzz, even outside the librarian world.

Morris
I was a little surprised at some of the picks this year. It seems I’m in a rare position, having actually read many of the titles short listed. There were a number of titles I’m bummed didn’t make the list, including Harmonic Feedback, You, The Mockingbirds, and Split. Many of the titles appear to have come out of left field and many titles that seemed like natural fits didn’t make the cut. I get that it’s a balance of titles, authors, genres, publisher sizes and whatnot (I’ll save that rant for another post) but alas. I wasn’t super impressed with a couple of the titles I did read, particularly on the “appeal” factor for this award. However, one I have enjoyed and think could eke it out is:

I like a good historical fiction, and by good historical fiction, I mean it has to be really good. This one? It’s good. I think it has the potential to suck in non historical fiction readers, and it’s interesting to read a book set in 1926 that isn’t about flappers, the growth of consumerism (it’s subtle), or about wealth. It’s different in a good way.

Since I’m not versed enough in other areas of ALA awards, I’ll defer those thoughts to the lovely Jen.

What I hope will win and what I think will win are in odds for some of these categories. However, in the spirit of the game, I figured I’d share both choices!

Printz:
Will win: The Sky is Everywhere. This book has seemed to be a Printz darling since publication, with both reviewers and librarians alike praising its depiction of grief.

Hope to win: Before I Fall. I absolutely fell in love with Lauren Oliver’s debut novel, which truly humanized a mean girl, managed to make each repeated version of Sam’s day new and original, and contained some of the most beautiful prose I have read in recent years.
Morris:
I have not yet read any of the Morris nominees, but based on the premise alone, along with reviews I have read, I’m going to take a stab in the dark and choose The Freak Observer. I do wish that the committee had recognized one of my favorite reads of the year, Anna and the French Kiss, which perfectly balanced sparkling humor, three-dimensional characters, serious issues, and sizzling chemistry.

Non-Fiction:
Again, I have read none of these nominees. However, based on reviews alone, I agree with Kelly and choose They Called Themselves the KKK.

Newbery:

Will win: Without a doubt, the book to beat is Rita Williams-Garcia’s One Crazy Summer, which many believed was robbed of the National Book Award. While I did like this book, I didn’t have the love that many others feel toward it. Regardless, Williams-Garcia’s book was marvelously written.

Honor books I wouldn’t be surprised to see: Kathryn Erskine’s Mockingbird, Laurie Halse Anderson’s Forge, Kathi Appelt’s Keeper, and Pam Munoz Ryan’s Dreamer. I would love to see Sharon Draper’s magnificent Out of My Mind get a Newbery Honor nod, although I’m predicting it will win the Middle School Schneider Award (for “a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.”)

Hope to win: I absolutely adored Christina Diaz-Gonzales’ The Red Umbrella, a historical fiction account of fourteen year old Lucia, who, with her younger brother, becomes part of Operation Peter Pan, a movement which sent more than 14,000 children to the United States to live with friends, relatives, homes, or foster familes after Fidel Castro’s regime took hold of Cuba. This book was full of heart, humor, and the simple daily events of growing up, filtered through an intriguing historical event.
Caldecott:

Will win: The two strongest contenders I have seen are either Deborah Underwood’s The Quiet Book or Kevin Henkes’ My Garden.

Personally, I believe that either could take the top prize or gain a honor. I’m also rooting for Mo Willems’ lovely Knuffle Bunny Free, which perfectly (and tear-jerkingly) wrapped by Trixie’s story.

And I think Jonah Winter’s Here Comes the Garbarge Barge could definitely also merit an honor.
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What do you think? Agree or disagree with us? Any completely out of left field predictions?

National Book Awards–Our Reactions

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With the announcements of this year’s National Book Award finalists, we thought we’d offer up our thoughts on this year’s picks, as well as what we were surprised didn’t make the cut.

Though I have only read two (One Crazy Summer & Mockingbird) out of the five nominations for Young People’s Literature, one thing that struck me was how the choices seemed to lean more toward Middle Grade than Young Adult Literature, which has seemed to dominate in years past. For example, the subject matters of Laini Taylor’s Lips Touch (2009), Judy Blundell’s What I Saw and How I Lied (2008) and even E. Lockhart’s The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (2008) are much more mature than those of both One Crazy Summer and Mockingbird, which both feature an 11 year old protagonist.

It also seems like a rather bleak field, subject-matter-wise this year, with Ship Breaker detailing the post-apocalyptic aftermath of a hurricane, Dark Life taking on forest fires, Lockdown taking place in a bleak juvenile detention facility, One Crazy Summer bringing three young girls to visit the mother who had abandoned them years ago, and Mockingbird showing a girl with Asperger’s learning how to deal with her brother’s death. While I know that most award-winning books are bleak, this seems to be an especially heavy crop this year.

Again, while I can only speak for two of the books, I do firmly believe that both deserve their nomination. I adored Mockingbird, which was poignant and beautifully written. The characterization of Caitlyn was incredible, along with her evolving relationship with her father. While I did enjoy One Crazy Summer, I don’t think I loved it as much as many reviewers did. However, Williams-Garcia’s story vividly portrayed what it is like to feel abandoned and painted a striking picture of being a child in the Black Panther movement.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit to having only read one of the finalists for the Young People’s category this year, and that was Lock Down by Walter Dean Myers. I have had on my to-read list The Great House by Nicole Krauss, which is on the adult list this year.

I’m with Jen on thinking the field is quite bleak this year, but I’m not too surprised to see some of the titles on there, including Mockingbird and One Crazy Summer, both of which have generated quite a bit of buzz. I’m also surprised there’s not an “out of left field” title in there like last year’s Stitches; instead, they all seem pretty straightforward.

Perhaps what surprises me are some of the worthy titles not included this year, namely Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom and titles like Steve Brezenoff’s Absolute Value of -1. For me, Lockdown just wasn’t a super strong novel, and given the buzz surrounding some of the other Young People’s titles, I’m a little surprised it’s up there (maybe it’s the WDM name that does it).

I am perhaps most struck by the fact that there is not a single non-fiction title in the youth crop. Last year, two non-fiction titles were selected; this year, despite there being two big name non-fiction authors dropping new titles (Russell Freedman and Susan Bartoletti), neither them nor other non-fiction writers are getting any love.

I made it a goal last year to read all of the titles in this category, and I’m going to try to do it again this year (it helps that a few are Cybils nominees). I’ve got a feeling from reviews and buzz alone that Mockingbird might come out on top this year. We’ll see what happens in a few weeks!

It’s the midway point: who’re you predicting is Printz-worthy?

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Since the year is now half over, Kim and I thought we’d offer up what we think is Printz-worthy so far this year. For those unfamiliar with the Printz award, it’s the American Library Association’s big award for young adult literature, and a boiled down list of criteria is available right here. We’re going to throw a few titles each at you and our reasons why we think they’ll be contenders. Moreover, we will only mention titles published before today, so no advanced titles are mentioned here.

Please share your comments after our post. We’d love to know your thoughts on our picks or what titles you’ve been thinking are worthy that we may have missed. And make sure you head over to Janssen’s blog, too, as she’ll be posting her Printz predictions today as well.

I have to be honest: not that many titles have screamed “Printz-Worthy” to me so far this year. So, be warned that some of my picks aren’t ones I’ve read yet, but ones I’m going by on author reputation and other reviews alone. In no particular order:

Jandy Nelson’s The Sky is Everywhere is one that I didn’t much care for, but it has a lot of literary merit to it. The story is about loss and about love, and it has a timeless element to it. Yep, I’m putting a debut up for Printz consideration, and it won’t be the only one on my list.

Last year, I think Marcelo in the Real World may have had the Printz stolen from it. This year, I think it might happen for Francisco X. Stork. You can read my review of this one later this week, but I was impressed with the writing and I think, again, we have something timeless here in terms of theme. And the issue of overcoming adversity is one that the committee likes to see if it’s done well and a little differently (and it is here).

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver has gotten a lot of praise from reviewers, librarians, booksellers, and readers. Again, it wasn’t my favorite, but it was well-written, and it has good appeal: one girl I work with told me she picked it up and read the whole thing in one night because it was so good. The writing is strong, and the story is a twist of a couple familiar literary tropes. I’d be impressed if this debut writer did snag the Printz, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she won’t honored, at least.

The Cardturner by Louis Sacher was a smart little book about Bridge. It was well written and clever, and Sacher’s move from middle grade to young adult novels was pretty successful. He paints a good main character, and I think that the writing is worthy of Printz consideration.

Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick has garnered four starred reviews this year, and it makes me think it might be worth considering (the dark horse, perhaps?). This is an adventure-survival story set in the early 1900s just after the steampunk era that librarians seem obsessed with right now. The writing has been described as gripping and compelling, and the story is one that sounds like it contains elements similar to Adam Rapp’s Punkzilla, which grabbed a Printz honor last year.

Two other titles I thought about included Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta and Incarceron by Catherine Fisher. The first I eliminated because Marchetta won for Jellicoe Road in 2009 and the second I eliminated since it was first published in 2007. I will also say I won’t be surprised if Will Grayson, Will Grayson gets considered, since John Green is a perennial librarian favorite (even though this is far from his best work and not one I’d think worthy of this honor).

When making my list, I checked out the running list of starred reviews from professional journals, which is worth looking at. I have to be honest: I’m surprised just how many starred books there are this year when quite honestly, very few have been memorable or all that good so far. But I digress.

For a bonus, I thought I’d throw a couple of my favorites I think will be considered heavily for the Cybils — a little less on the literary merit side and a little more on the teen appeal factors than those above. Some Girls Are, Dirty Little Secrets, and Harmonic Feedback all stood out to me this year as strongly written with compelling story lines and wide teen appeal.

The hallmark of the Printz award is literary excellence for teens, regardless of popularity or appeal.  This is what I kept in mind as I began to think about my Printz predictions.  Like Kelly, not all of my picks are books I have read – I’m going by authors whose quality of work I trust and also (but not as heavily) by amount of buzz generated.

Incarceron, by Catherine Fisher
While this was previously published in the UK, the American edition was published in January of this year, making it eligible for the award according to the ALA’s rules.  While I was not a huge fan of the book, I can see it winning the Printz: it’s maturely written, has a unique concept (a living prison), and is very complex.  It’s also hugely long, and judging by last year’s winner, Going Bovine, the longer the better where the Printz is concerned.

Monsters of Men, by Patrick Ness
This is a personal pick for me, very close to my heart. (It also hasn’t officially been published in the US yet, so I’m cheating a little, but it HAS been published in the UK…so it’s only half-cheating).  I loved the first book in Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy, The Knife of Never Letting Go, and loved the second book, The Ask and the Answer, almost as much.  I’ve yet to delve more than a few pages into the third book, Monsters of Men, because I know that it will be an incredibly tense experience.  These books are not light reading.  The first two books both had fantastic plots and some of the best and most creative writing I’ve read in quite some time.  I’d be ecstatic to see Ness take home the Printz.

Fever Crumb, by Philip Reeve
I haven’t read this one, but it’s gotten rave reviews from four of the major review sources, and I’ve been very impressed with other books by Reeve.  Reeve’s concept for his “Hungry City” chronicles, to which this book is a prequel, is unique, and it is backed up by outstanding writing.  I also have a weakness for strong female protagonists, and this book has been on my to-read list since I discovered it featured one.

The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, by Francisco X. Stork
I’m in the middle of reading this one for our round-robin review (stay tuned!), and while I think the writing is good, the story just does not appeal to me.  Still, the book deals with some heavy themes (death, rape, violence), and for a lot of people, that’s an automatic plus.  While I don’t think the book’s writing is stellar enough to make it award-worthy, I know that Stork’s last book was a critical darling, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see this one win.

I think these picks really show my biases – I read a LOT of science fiction and fantasy and tend to stay away from much realistic YA literature.  Still, I’m always thrilled when a “genre” book garners awards, and I hope the books on this list aren’t overlooked.  A few other books I think might be in the running so far this year but which I did not include on the above list are:

  • A Conspiracy of Kings, Megan Whalen Turner’s newest set in the same world as her Newbery honor book The Thief, which I did not include because I’m not sure if it qualifies as a young adult novel;
  • Nothing, by Janne Teller, which I feel is a shoe-in for the Mildred L. Batchelder award; and
  • Will Grayson, Will Grayson, simply because it’s by John Green, who is a perennial librarian favorite, but an author whose work I have never read (I know, I know), so did not include.

What are your Printz picks so far this year?