Wednesday, July 30, 2008

I'm going on a Mock Printz trip and I'm taking...

The BCCLS Mock Printz committee is meeting for breakfast on Friday (mmm, Jersey diner breakfast), and I'm sorting through my list of have-reads and to-reads to take to the meeting. We use YALSA's criteria of "outstanding literary quality" to determine our top picks, which are then read by many of our system's librarians and discussed at a meeting that takes place just before Midwinter. Here's my list so far:

The books I'll fight for:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Paper Towns by John Green
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
Madapple by Christina Meldrum
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson
Impossible by Nancy Werlin

Not that I think I'll have to fight for any of these save for Madapple, because the committee is pretty much in agreement on the other five.

The books I still have to read:

Octavian Nothing...Vol. II by M.T. Anderson. Barbara of Wyckoff has my galley and said she's enjoying it so far.
He Forgot to Say Goodbye by Benjamin Alire Saenz. Sammy & Juliana might have been the most overlooked book of its year. I have no excuse for not getting to this book yet! None!
Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers. The committee is still out on whether the literary quality is up there with the ones I listed before, so I have to read it and see for myself.
The Explosionist by Jenny Davidson
Me, the Missing, and the Dead by Jenny Valentine
The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

The books that I loved but aren't Printz books:

My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger. Highly recommended for purchasing, though. It was such fun and so upbeat.
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
All We Know of Heaven by Jacquelyn Mitchard

The dark horses, books I don't think will win but I think are worthy of note:

You Know Where to Find Me by Rachel Cohn
North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley (review of this one coming!)
The Missing Girl by Norma Fox Mazer


Opinions are mine only, not the Printz committee's, not YALSA's, etc.

No comments: