Mock Printz Results

11 people met today for our second Mock Printz. We discussed each book for 10 minutes each and at the end of the discussion we took a vote for the winner.

For those who just want the results:

Winner:

Bacigalupi, Paolo – Ship Breaker

Honor Titles:

Marchetta, Melina – Finnikin of the Rock
Nelson, Jandy – The Sky is Everywhere
Teller, Janne - Nothing


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For those who want to know all the nitty gritty details:

1st Vote for the Winner:

Our first vote did not meet the criteria. We did not have one book that had at least 5 first place votes, nor did any title lead the others by at least 5 points. Here is how it scored out:

As Easy as Falling... = 0 first place votes (4 total points)
Fever Crumb = 0 first place votes (0 total points)
Finnikin of the Rock = 3 first place votes (19 total points)
Last Summer of the Death Warriors = 0 first place votes (0 total points)
Mercury = 0 first place votes (0 points)
Nothing = 1 first place vote (15 total points)
Revolver = 0 fist place votes (3 total points)
Ship Breaker = 4 first place votes (26 total points)
The Sky is Everywhere = 3 first place votes (22 total points)
You = 0 first place votes (10 total points)

Crazy right? Here's what killed the books that did not move on to the second vote:

As Easy As Falling = Although I was fully charmed, it seemed most others were not. They found it to be too implausible (which frankly I thought was part of its charm...) So they liked it, but didn't find it to be as well written. I totally disagree and after my second read loved it even more than I had on the first read (hence the 4 points it got), but one lone voice is a lonely voice in a mock discussion.

Fever Crumb = People felt like you had to read the others to fully get the book. I disagree, but then I've read all the other books more than once so I'm probably not the best judge of that. And if everyone who hadn't read the other books said it, well, I'm inclined to take their opinion. It seems to me that this one failed to move up because it wasn't independent enough from the other books.

Last Summer of the Death Warriors = People did not believe in D.Q. They thought he was a bit of a cliche.

Mercury = The feeling I got was that people genuinely enjoyed this, but didn't think it was as strong a story as the other titles.

Revolver = That damn epilogue killed it. I think this one could have won if it wasn't for that epilogue.

2nd Vote for the Winner:

Finniking of the Rock = 3 first place votes (23 total points)
Nothing = 0 first place votes (15 total points)
Ship Breaker = 5 first place votes (33 total points)
The Sky is Everywhere = 3 first place votes (24 total points)
You = 0 first place votes (4 total points)

So Ship Breaker is our Mock Printz winner!

We decided to knock You off the list. What killed it: Zach. Was. Over. The. Top.

Honor Titles:

We had 4 titles left. What happened was a lengthy discussion about whether we should make all the remaining non winning titles honors, or if we should knock off Nothing, or if we should just go ahead and revote.

We decided to keep Sky is Everywhere and Finnikin as honors. Proabably not perfect Printz procedure, but we felt comfortable with it.

As you could imagine Nothing was a divisive title. I don't think anyone loved it, some questioned it being a teen title, no one was terribly comfortable with it. We looked at the Printz criteria again and the majority thought it fit. Still, there was division. We decided to do a straight up and down vote as to keep or ditch it as an honor. Only one vote said to leave it off.