🤩 Among The Stars: August Update

It's the end of the month, so that means (for the moment!) the starred review spreadsheet that Donalyn Miller and I curate is up to date!

As a reminder, Donalyn and I curate and collate the starred reviews from six journals: 

Booklist 

Horn Book

Kirkus

School Library Journal

Publishers Weekly 

The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

We realize, of course, that other sites/blogs award stars, too... but these are the journals we've chosen to focus on.

THE STARS SO FAR

We have recorded 1448 reviews so far, with the same four books holding the top spot for having earned a star from all six of the journals we curate.

Similarly, as of this writing, only 3 titles have earned stars from five out of those six journals.

HOWEVER, this month saw a jump in the number of books with stars from four of the journals we keep track of - we're up to 18 books with four stars (so far)! This list is a perfect example of how the starred review spreadsheet influences my reading life. While I've read 10 of the books that I have received four stars (so far!), the other 8 have definitely bumped up my TRB pile.

WHAT DID WE MISS?

Last month, a few people used the form I created to let me know that I had missed a star - thank you! As you might imagine, this project takes a lot of time and it's easy to make mistakes. I appreciate your help as I do my best to make sure the final product is as accurate as possible. That said, to be clear, we're not taking notes on misspellings, etc., but If, after at least a month**, you notice that we've missed a starred review from one of the journals we curate, please use this form to let us know. 

**,Why do we ask you to wait a month? Some reviews appear online before that journal's official issue has been released. Waiting the month helps us avoid duplicating reviews.

Finally, as I've written about before, this work has proven to be very meaningful for me. In addition to making me aware of books I might never have heard of otherwise, it's also helped me recognize publishing trends more broadly. I feel better able to speak about children's literature, with another layer of authority, as a result of this work. It's a lot, but I'm super grateful for it.

Happy reading, y'all!