December 13, 2013

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More of the books!

Karyn just posted an impressive roundup of last minute reading, so I’m chiming in with some more. With Monday morning’s announcement looming large, it seems like everyone is trying to sprint through their last minute reads in order to feel prepared. Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby Houghton Mifflin, March 2012 Reviewed from an ARC This [...]

Nonfiction Roundup, Part 2

Karyn wrote about the long slog of winter break reading just before a conference/blog deadline. I understand her image, but I think I spend winter break/early January more like a muppet: waving my arms around in a flurry of indecision (and, sometimes, stress because I’ve put off so much committee reading. Blerg!); now’s the time [...]

Ask the Passengers

Ask the Passengers by A.S. King September 2012, Little Brown Reviewed from an ARC Can I take an unrelated-to-anything moment to say how pretty the new blogs are? We’ve been hearing a lot about the new look behind the scenes, so to actually see it — and see how quickly it all came together — [...]

Beyond Courage

Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust by Doreen Rappaport Candlewick, September 2012 Reviewed from an ARC With five starred reviews, this was an easy auto-contenda to spot. Rappaport looks at the active, heroic roles Jewish people played during the years of the Holocaust. She shares 21 stories — many involving [...]

every Unwholly day

every day by David Levithan
Published by Knopf, August 2012
Reviewed from a final copy
You know a book’s a big deal when the visiting public librarian gives it a shiny booktalk and then all the students want to do is keep hearing about that book, to the exclusion of all the other books said librarian brought. [...]

Tiger Lily

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Harper Teen, July 2012
Reviewed from an ARC
As a quick reminder, we only have a little time before our Pyrite Printz nominations close, so if you have a book that knocks your socks off this year, you should head over to the comments to let us know!
But the real purpose of [...]

Round Up (Austen Style!)

Alright, y’all, I’m having a rough blog post, OK? Because I have here two books that I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed reading for myself. But when I switch to my magical Printz-o-vision, neither Keeping the Castle nor For Darkness Shows the Stars stands up to a more critical analysis. Pity me, the poor [...]

Drowned Cities

The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi
Little, Brown, May, 2012
Reviewed from final copy
So you know that Ship Breaker was the winner the year I served on the RealPrintz committee, right? And I can be a mature blogger — mature enough to admit that I wonder if my affection for “my” winner skews my reading of Ship [...]

Nonfiction roundup

Well, perhaps less of a round up than an offering of two books — two books that I don’t think will go the distance in PrintzLand (although of course only time will tell). We’re looking at the Freedman book on Lincoln and Douglass and the Aronson book on J. Edgar Hoover. My problems with each [...]

Year of the Beasts

Year of the Beasts by Cecil Castellucci and Nate Powell
Roaring Brook, May 2012
Reviewed from final copy
By my count, Year of the Beasts has received two stars; it’s in the buzz portion of our contenda list. Some of that buzz, I know, has been from me to Karyn: Cecil Castellucci is always doing interesting work, and [...]

Bitterblue

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
Dial Books, May 2012
Reviewed from an ARC
I should probably be honest: I read this book as a fan first. I enjoyed Graceling and was impressed by Fire; I was more than curious about Cashore’s new book. Once I stole borrowed — with total intent to return! Someday! — Karyn’s copy, I read [...]

The Obsidian Blade

The Obsidian Blade by Pete Hautman
Candlewick, April 2012
Reviewed from an ARC
I have a feeling this is going to be a short review, in part at least because I didn’t finish reading this one. Yes, we’ve gotten to my first DNF of the year (at least, my first public blogging about a DNF title; rest assured, [...]

The Children and the Wolves

The Children and the Wolves by Adam Rapp
Candlewick, February 2012
Reviewed from a final copy
I’ve never read an Adam Rapp book before, so I volunteered for this one. Volunteered! I said, sure, I will read it. Oh, you guys. I mean, I thought I was prepared. I tried to be ready. And this book was exactly [...]

Froi of the Exiles

Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta
Candlewick, March 2012
Reviewed from ARC
Melina Marchetta! Chronicles of Lumatere! Part two! Froi! Yes, I was pretty excited to read this one. With three (? check my math on that) starred reviews, and a real affection for Finnikin of the Rock, I was ready for a fabulous read. And I [...]

Final Four

The Final Four, Paul Volponi
Viking, March 2012
Reviewed from final copy
I suspect this will be a short review (well, short for our usual average of 900-1000 words around these parts). But if you strongly disagree with me, I suppose the comments will make up for my brevity up here, right!? Paul Volponi’s The Final Four is [...]

Chopsticks

Chopsticks, Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral
Razorbill, February 2012
Reviewed from Final Copy
Chopsticks is a particularly interesting item from the buzzed-about portion of our contenda list. It’s a fascinating format — available digitally and physically — full of arresting visuals and links to outside media. Although there are very few words on each page, the visual elements [...]

You may have noticed that John Green wrote a book this year

The Fault in Our Stars, John Green
Dutton, January 2012
Reviewed from final copy
This is easily one of the biggest titles of the year — six starred reviews! Big time buzz! John Green! Previous Printz winner! Nerdfighters! — so we’ve been thinking about it for a while. Since this is a book from a former Printz winner [...]

The Whys & Wherefores of the Printz Award, Postscript: Practical Matters

We’ve looked at the Printz process, and ruminated on the idea of literary excellence. Now it’s time to look at some of the more practical details: how do you find books to read? How do you get all that reading done? How do you remember the books you’ve read?
If you’re awesomely organized, you are keeping [...]

Anticlimactic: I don’t believe in Printz Genre Bias

So I’ve been writing and rewriting a post on genre bias and the Printz for — I’m not kidding you — the past two weeks. But it boils down to a very drama-less post about a lack of genre bias in Printzland and how things seem to me to be fine. Which: good news for [...]

Whither the nonfiction, bloggers?

We’ve done a lot of writing about contendas this year, but you may have noticed that non-fiction has been absent so far. As a matter of fact, our own Mark Flowers emailed wondering “whither the nonfiction, bloggers?” And just as we were turning his question right back on him in the form of an [...]
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