🤩 Among The Stars: March Update
- Jennifer LaGarde
- Apr 6
- 4 min read
It's that time again. For the moment, anyway, our curated starred review spreadsheet is up to date, y'all.
As a reminder, Martha Hickson curate and collate the starred reviews from six trade journals:
I realize, of course, that other sites/blogs award stars, too... but these are the journals we've chosen to focus on.
An Extra Nerdy Update!
As both a book nerd AND a nerd more generally, I'm fascinated by the data this spreadsheet produces. I love scanning all the rows and columns to get a sense of how starred reviews are distributed amongst the data points we curate. Each month. I do a little math to share the shake down of stars across all the journals we keep track of. However, since the beginning of this project, I've wanted to create a sheet that did the moth for me... and this month I finally did it!
While I'll continue to post monthly updates here, you can also keep track of this nerdy data by checking out the tab labeled "statistics" at the bottom of the spreadsheet.
The Stars So Far!
Here's the current distribution of 2025 stars so far:
Jennifer's Picks + Takeaways
As I've been preparing next semester's reading list for the Young Adult Literature Course I teach for Rutgers, I've leaned heavily on the starred review spreadsheet to help me narrow down selections. (Once the course has been published for students, I'll share this semester's reading list with the world!) That said, this focus on books written for readers between the ages or 12-18 has put a number of new/upcoming titles on my radar. Here are a few that I'm excited about!
Title: Shampoo Unicorn
Author/Illustrator: Sawyer Lovett
Why I'm excited: When Erin Entrada Kelly calls a book the "most powerful debut of the year," I listen! That said, I'm particularly excited by the fact that this book is set in rural West Virginia and utilizes a podcast to tell the story. (I can't wait to listen to the audio book!) This starred review from PW captures more about why I quickly ordered this one!
"Acceptance and forgiveness are at the core of this timely novel, which gives voice to queer youth and amplifies the importance of connection and community."
Title: Ours to Tell: Reclaiming Indigenous Stories
Author/Illustrator: Eldon Yellowhorn & Kathy Lowinger
Why I'm excited: I create an inclusivity matrix for my YA Lit course to ensure that my own reading preferences/blind spots don't overly influence the reading list I create for students. Over the years I've come to recognize non-fiction as a category that I sometimes overlook. With that in mind, I am always excited to discover new non-fiction titles to review for the course - especially those that amplify marginalized voices. This starred review from SLJ convinced me to bump this title to the top of my TBR pile!
"This luminous work is more than a collective biography. It’s a reclamation of Indigenous stories, often manipulated, destroyed, and untold."
Title: A Bird In The Air Means We Can Still Breathe
Author/Illustrator: Mahogany L Browne
Why I'm excited: Honestly, it doesn't take much to convince me to read a new book by Mahogany L Browne. I've been a fan since Chlorine Sky hit shelves in 2021. This starred review from PW just sealed the deal!
"Poet Browne (Vinyl Moon) delivers a mournful remembrance of those who died during the pandemic in this love letter to New York City and its resilient teen population as they adjust to a changed world."
Title: Hunger's Bite
Author/Illustrator: Taylor Robin
Why I'm excited: Again, this one wasn't a hard sell, y'all. I mean.... it's a graphic novel set aboard a haunted ship where exhausted and exploited crew members team up with a vampire to fight the oppressive and predatory practices of the ship's new owner. Where do I sign up?? This review from PW made me all the more excited for this book!
"What starts as a charmingly funny interpretation of diverging adolescence evolves into a feverish nightmare that uses abstract paneling and character designs to examine capitalism and greed, resulting in a jumps-off-the-page thrill ride."
What Did I Miss?
As you might imagine, this project takes a lot of time and it's easy to make mistakes. Martha and I appreciate your help as we do our best to make sure the final product is as accurate as possible. That said, to be clear, we are not taking notes on misspellings, etc., but If, after at least a month**, you notice that we have 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 me avoid duplicating reviews.
