It's that time again. For the moment, anyway, my curated starred review spreadsheet is up to date, y'all.
As a reminder, I 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 I've chosen to focus on.
The Stars So Far!
Let's start with a quick recap. Here's the current distribution of 2025 stars so far:
0 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
1 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
4 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
28 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
63 ⭐️ ⭐️
201 ⭐️
Youth Media Award Round Up
Since last posting an update, ALA's Youth Media Awards were announced. And because I'm a nerd, I was curious: how many starred reviews did this hears YMA winners earn? After a little research, here's what I learned about a few* of the major awards.
Coretta Scott King Award
Winner
Twenty-four Seconds from Now by Jason Reynolds ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Honor Books
Black Girl You Are Atlas by Renée Watson and Ekua Holmes ⭐️ ⭐️
Black Star by Kwame Alexander ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome ⭐️ ⭐️
Illustrator Award
Winner
My Daddy Is a Cowboy by Stephanie Seales, illustrated by C. G. Esperanza ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Honor Books
Coretta: The Autobiography of Mrs. Coretta Scott King by Coretta Scott King, illustrated by Ekua Holmes ⭐️ ⭐️
Everywhere Beauty Is Harlem: The Vision of Photographer Roy DeCarava by Gary Golio, illustrated by E. B. Lewis ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Go Forth and Tell: The Life of Augusta Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller by Breanna J. McDaniel, illustrated by April Harrison ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
John Newbery Medal
Winner
The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly (ZERO STARS!)
Honors
Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar ⭐️ ⭐️
Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All by Chanel Miller ⭐️
One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome ⭐️ ⭐️
Wrong Way Home by by Kate O’Shaughnessy ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Michael L Printz Award
Winner
Brownstone by Samuel Teer, illustrated by Mar Julia
Honor Books
Bright Red Fruit by Safia Elhillo ⭐️ ⭐️
Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Road Home by Rex Ogle ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Randolph Caldecott Medal
Winner
Chooch Helped by Andrea L. Rogers, illustrated by Rebecca Lee Kunz ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Honor Books
Home In a Lunchbox by Cherry Mo ⭐️
My Daddy Is a Cowboy by Stephanie Seales, illustrated by C. G. Esperanza ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Noodles On a Bicycle by Kyo Maclear, illustrated by Gracey Zhang ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Up, Up, Ever Up! Junko Tabei: A Life in the Mountains by Anita Yasuda, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Sibert Medal
Winner
Life After Whale: The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall by Lynn Brunelle, illustrated by Jason Chin ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Honor Books
Call Me Roberto!: Roberto Clemente Goes to Bat for Latinos by Nathalie Alonso, illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II by Candace Fleming ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
The Girl Who Sang: A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival by Estelle Nadel and Sammy Savos ⭐️ ⭐️
Wings of an Eagle: The Gold Medal Dreams of Billy Mills by Billy Mills and Donna Janell Bowman, illustrated by S. D. Nelson ⭐️ ⭐️
So... what does this mean? Absolutely nothing!
And yet... I find it fascinating! AND I think it's a good example of how starred reviews, like any review, are just one data point that we can use to help inform our reading lives and/or collection development decisions. While I find the work of curating starred reviews to be meaningful, I also know that it's important to remember that many, many wonderful books never even get reviewed by trade journals. What's more, each review represents one person's opinion of that book. Ultimately, I continue to believe that the myriad ways books connect us to one another, and to the essential parts of ourselves, remain more important than any review. That's why, whenever I share the starred review spreadsheet with educators, I always provide time for us to also share books that may not appear on the spreadsheet, but have found their way into our hearts.
*Note: obviously, there are many other awards given out in late January, to many other deserving book creators. However, given my own time restraints, this felt like a good representative sample.
What Did I Miss?
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, I'm not taking notes on misspellings, etc., but If, after at least a month**, you notice that I have missed a starred review from one of the journals I curate, please use this form to let me know.
** Why do I 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.
