We are delighted you're here! Before you dive in, here's a bit more about our work.

Over the years, many of us in the library and literacy world found Jen J's Starred Reviews Spreadsheet*  to be incredibly useful. However, since this resource is no longer being updated, a few years ago, I decided to create my own version to help us keep track of the most notable books being published for young people during the calendar year. Initially, Donalyn Miller was a part of this effort. However, as her schedule changed, Martha Hickson took over as my partner in this work. Together, we use the spreadsheet below to curate and collate starred reviews from six journals: 

• Booklist 

• Horn Book

• Kirkus

• School Library Journal

• Publishers Weekly 

• The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Of course, we recognize that other sites/blogs also honor books with starred reviews. However, for this project, we focus on the six trade journals listed above. 

Some notes about how the spreadsheet is organized. 

• Reviews are color coded in the following ways:

  • • 6 stars = Blue

    • 5 stars = Purple

    • 4 stars = Pink

    • 3 stars = Green

    • 2 stars = Orange

    • 1 star = Red

• Each column represents information about the book that is typically provided by the journal. However, if some pieces of information are missing from a given review, we lean on our knowledge of literature published for young people to fill in the gaps. That said, we may sometimes get things wrong.

When viewing/using the spreadsheet, you should be able to sort each column to help you get the most out of the data. However, please note that we do not share access to this spreadsheet. Share requests will go unanswered. 

Finally, two lessons I've already learned as a result of this work are: 

1. This spreadsheet is never really up to date. While we do our best to record starred reviews during the month they are issued, we also appreciate your patience when we inevitably fall behind. 

With #1 in mind, I will share a post on my blog at the beginning of each month to:

1. 1. • 1. •  let you know new data has been entered, and...

           •  share my takeaways from this work. 

2. It's easy to make mistakes. With that in mind, let's just assume that this data is imperfect and, like all mistakes, the ones you will find here are not intentional. That said, 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 me know. 

Finally, if you decide to reach out to let me know about a mistake or share some feedback about this work, please be nice. 🤩

Happy Reading!