One point I would like to make as a reviewer for some 30-
odd years (some of them very odd indeed).
I review for Booklist and for Kirkus. Booklist treats each
of its reviews as a recommendation. In other words, if I
think a book is not good, unworthy, or just plain awful, I
write up a note to my editor at Booklist explaining why but
the review is not published.
There are rare exceptions to this, but being reviewed in
Booklist means a book is recommended, so you aren't going
to see negative reviews there.
GraceAnne DeCandido (sig file way below)
The honorable Doyle_Tony inscribed the following on 26 Jun 2006
> In recent weeks I have started two YA books that I could not
> finish (Vandal by Michael Simmons and Playing the Field by
> Phil Bildner). I found that with both books I had to really
> push myself to read them and so I followed the advice I give
> my students-- life is too short to read bad books (unless
> your English teacher makes you).
>
> I had purchased both books at Barnes and Noble with my own
> money based on the jacket blurbs. Out of curiosity I
> checked the reviews on Follett's Titlewave. Was it just me?
> Was I burned out on YA lit? I had just finished Octavia
> Butler's excellent Fledgling (which is unfortunately not
> appropriate for school libraries) so maybe these just paled
> in comparison. For both books the reviews were very
> inconsistent. Vandal got a starred review from Kirkus but
> was panned, rightly so, by SLJ. Playing the Field got a
> glowing review from Booklist and was lambasted, again,
> rightly so, by SLJ. The 2 SLJ reviews were done by
> different reviewers. For me, Vandal just had no spark and
> didn't seem to be going anywhere. Playing the Field was
> just awful. I was groaning and rolling my eyes with every
> other paragraph. I can see people having differences of
> opinion about books (e.g. my students love Cirque du Freak
> but I am not a fan). I have trouble imagining, though, a
> professional reviewer reading these books and see
>
> So, based on this very unscientific sample I would say that
> SLJ has better reviews, because I am always right and so are
> the people who agree with me ;-). The odd thing is that in
> the past, without really thinking about it, I have always
> gone with the SLJ reviews when they disagree with other
> sources. Just a gut feeling from reading so many reviews I
> guess.
>
> Has anyone else had similar experiences?
>
> Anthony Doyle, Librarian
> Livingston High School
> Livingston, CA
> tdoyle@MUHSD.K12.CA.US
> Http://www.lhswolves.org/library/index.htm
> "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture; you just
> have to get people to stop reading them." Ray Bradbury
>
>
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GraceAnne A. DeCandido
Reader Writer Reviewer ~ New York City
Part-time lecturer in children's and YA literature
Rutgers SCILS PDS
Favorite titles Spring 2006
http://www.well.com/user/ladyhawk/books.html
All shall be well,
and all shall be well,
and all manner of things
shall be well.
Dame Julian of Norwich ~ 14th cent.
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