What will hopefully become an annual event had a great start this past Saturday afternoon. Thirteen HVLA members and friends gathered at LREI – Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School for a Mock Printz co-hosted by HVLA and SLJ’s
Someday My Printz Will Come blog. Karyn Silverman of Someday served as our Printz expert.
The afternoon began with soup, sandwiches and socializing.
Being mostly independent school librarians in Manhattan, it’s no surprise that some of us were suffering from, or recovering from, the cold that everyone in the NY metro area seems to have. Luckily, Karyn and I were prepared with
Cold 911 from David’s Tea (our not-so-secret obsession),
and we served up a few pots before getting down to our discussion.
All of our titles were written on a white board in alphabetical order by author’s last name. To save our limited time for in-depth discussion, we did a quick poll (by show of
hands) of everyone’s top-five books.
The
Drowned Cities and
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe received the lowest number of votes, which matched the results of our original nominations poll.
We decided to discuss
the books in the order they appeared on the board, putting
The Diviners by Libba Bray up first.
This was also our first opportunity to review the Printz policies and
procedures, which Karyn helpfully wrote on the white board for easy review.
Whether
The Diviners succeeds as a
standalone book was a main topic of our discussion, as was Evie’s emotional journey,
and the character development overall.
The Fault in Our Stars came next. John Green’s novel had received the
64% of the votes in the nominations round, and while there was a lot of love for
John Green, we had to wonder if he was bigger than the work itself. Ultimately,
we agreed that although voice and style were strong, the plot and some of the
characters were flawed.
A.S. King’s Ask the Passengers was
largely praised as thematically strong, with great characters and a strong
authorial voice. Magic realism was judged an asset to this story about
identity, which in one member’s opinion bears the refreshing message that it’s
okay not to have it all figured out as a teen. Other members noted that this
isn’t just a great “coming out” book, it’s a great book with “coming out” as a
part of the narrative.
Before discussion
started we acknowledged that none of us had read every title, but that we would
do our best to give informed opinions when possible and lean on those who had
read a particular title. One of these was Margo Lanagan's The
Brides of Rollrock Island, which had our members questioning if it is
actually a YA title. Karyn informed us that on a real Printz committee, the
chair and members would agree prior to discussion if a book published as YA
(but judged by committee as not really a YA book) would meet criteria. This was
an important designation to note, as the Printz criteria certainly covers the
publishing distinction, but not the critical.
Plot, theme, and
characters dominated the discussion of David Levithan’s Every Day. Some members took issue with the pat moral lessons, and
the implication that A could understand the life of a person after living in
their body for just one day. However, we agreed that the Levithan challenges readers to face their own biases.
Railsea by China Mieville was
another title that was sadly under-read by our group, but Karyn made a good
case for its world-building and wit. Collectively, we marveled at Karyn’s copy
heavily laden with post-it flags.
We returned to our
series vs. standalone debate with The
Raven Boys. It seemed like we all heart this book and Maggie Stiefvater, but there was some
disagreement on the richness of the characters and themes. Some felt that
although parts of these elements are established in this book, it’s too evident
that more is to come in future books.
Finally, we discussed
our second place title in the nominations round: Code Name Verity. Although it didn’t touch everyone emotionally
(i.e.: not all of us cried), we agreed that superior craft is on display in
Elizabeth Wein’s book.
When it came time to
vote, there was definitely excitement in the air. Having been snacking on
candy, pretzels, and tea, we were fueled up and ready to back our favorites. In
secret ballots, we each ranked three books for Mock Printz gold. Each first
place vote was worth 5 points, second place 3 points, and third place votes
were worth 1 point. (In the excitement of the afternoon, we accidentally gave TFIOS one extra second place vote that
was meant for CNV, but the difference
is negligible). Here’s a look at how the votes fell:
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| Click to enlarge the table. |
This first round is so
interesting because CNV narrowly
edges out ATP, but ATP placed on every member’s list save
one. To win, a book needs to receive 50% + 1 first place vote, which means that
we needed to vote again to get our true fake winner.
Second round voting in the Real Printz should follow another round of discussion, often focusing on the books that dominated the top votes, but in the interest of time
and excitement, we went straight to the voting. Karyn advised us to vote
strategically in order to reach a decisive winner; therefore, a member could
sway the vote to CNV or ATP by changing their first place vote.
With that in mind, here’s the second round breakdown:
 |
| Click to enlarge the table. |
Once again, running on
adrenaline we miscounted at the time so the breakdowns shown here are the result of
a second count. Although it didn’t win
by the true Printz margin, our Mock Printz gold went to Ask the Passengers, proving that consensus is just as important as
perfection when it comes to the Printz.
As in the Real Printz, we voted for Honor books separately. This was also an aha! moment for
many of us, as it became clear that although one might not vote for a certain
title for Gold, you may want to support a flawed but noteworthy book for an
Honor. With this in mind, our Mock Honor picks were: Code Name Verity, The Fault in Our Stars, Railsea and The Brides of Rollrock Island.
After a long day’s
journey into night, we not only came away with Mock Printz winners, but picks
for our February Book Club. The titles, date and time for our first meeting of
2013 will be announced here on the blog soon!
Head over to Someday MyPrintz Will Come for additional analysis and data on our Mock Printz. Thank you
to all who participated! Watch this space for details on how to participate in next year's Mock Printz sequel: bigger, better, more tea.
