Judging from the general paucity of comments, you guys are missing two fun posts that I co-wrote with my husband (using the generous data collection services of Jen Baker). They're languishing over at the marvelous blog Someday My Printz Will Come.
You should be reading them! They're posts about the Printz award! They have numbers in them! And graphs!
The first post says, among other fascinating things, that Printz Winners and Honors are just as likely to receive fewer than three stars as more than three stars from the six major review journals.* The post also shows that realistic fiction wins the Printz most often, with fantasy a distant second. All other genres (historical fiction, poetry, non-fiction, biography, and memoir) seem to be given honor awards rather than the gold.
The second post, which is equally sexy, shows the probability of winning a Printz or an honor given that you've earned as star from one of the six major journals. Interestingly, Horn Book gives out the fewest young-adult stars, but is the best at "predicting" Printz awards.
Both posts reflect my interest in bringing quantitative analysis to children's literature. Show me the numbers!
*The six review journals are Booklist, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Horn Book, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal
Apparently no one here likes numbers.
ReplyDeleteI like numbers, but I am now sure "high school math" is the right title... The few high school kids I can think of who might be able to come up with these things themselves are all related to you... but more people should read them!
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