Here comes the judge

BevVincent

When I won the Al Blanchard Award in 2010, one of the "prizes" was the honor of being a judge for the Award the following year.

I was also asked to be a judge for the Shirley Jackson Award a few years ago.

Last year, I can now reveal, I was a judge for the Best Young Adult novel for the Edgar Awards. I read about 100 YA novels over the course of 2020, which was quite an adventure. There is a lot of excellent work being done for YA readers.

FlakeNoir

What an amazing experience this must have been, that's fantastic Bev. 

Notaro

That's a huge chunk of time to set aside. ⌚, time well spent. 

Hedda Gabler

That confirms it. BEV VINCENT IS NOT HUMAN.   

So many irons in the fire. So much time and attention to detail is just on a whole other plane of existence. 

Take me to your leader and say kind things about me. 

Hedda Gabler

Were you the only judge? As judge(s), did you discuss the stories?  Where can we see the story you picked as winner?  

Hedda Gabler

Did you offer any feedback? Any story you read that was just right there, but needed some help? A story you gave the writer even the tiniest bit of feedback to because you saw potential? 

The power you have to inspire someone is one comment away.  

Not judging if you didn’t, usually no readers of work comment, they just don’t have time. But , you being from another planet and all…

BevVincent

I was one of five judges. Below are our nominees; The Companion was the winner. We offered no feedback--they were all published works from major publishing houses. They needed no help from us!

We didn't discuss the books among ourselves, although we did exchange "top X" lists toward the end to help us narrow down which ones would ultimately be put forward as nominees.

• The Companion by Katie Alender (Penguin Young Readers – G.P. Putnam’s Sons BFYR)
• The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown BFYR)
• They Went Left by Monica Hesse (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown BFYR)
• Silence of Bones by June Hur (Macmillan Children’s Books – Feiwel & Friends)
• The Cousins by Karen M. McManus (Penguin Random House – Delacorte Press)

Hedda Gabler

I love behind the scenes snippets of things. Sounds like it was fun and satisfying too.

Hedda Gabler

I think the  atmosphere is getting better, but i do think there are reading snobs who don’t want to give YA a place at the table. I have read some amazing YA books. 

I’m going to add these to the pile. 

BevVincent

I was very impressed by the books -- they're aimed primarily at teen readers. There was another category for younger readers. Lots of topical themes and no-holds-barred storylines. Some of the submissions missed the mark because we couldn't in all honesty consider them mysteries. Excellent novels--just not mysteries.

Hedda Gabler

Kudos and appreciation to all the judges who spent  2020 reading these. 

Hedda Gabler

Okay, i went and looked at The Companion. Read Kirkus review.  First, sounds good.

Second, I am so disappointed.  In summing it up, Kirkus felt the need to say, “ Characters appear white.”

Seriously? This is what it comes to?  I don’t care what f’ing color the characters are, is it a good story? 

Why? Someone explain why that was necessary. 

Neesy

Hedda Gabler said:

Okay, i went and looked at The Companion. Read Kirkus review.  First, sounds good.

Second, I am so disappointed.  In summing it up, Kirkus felt the need to say, “ Characters appear white.”

Seriously? This is what it comes to?  I don’t care what f’ing color the characters are, is it a good story? 

Why? Someone explain why that was necessary. 

Maybe they were thinking of someone like me i.e. so white I burn to a crisp (JK)

But seriously - yeah - that does not seem necessary so I agree with you

- cannot say I have ever heard anyone describe characters like this; if he or she had said characters appear bland then I could understand that

BevVincent

The Kirkus reviews for YA books tend to emphasize diversity, when present.

Hedda Gabler

Diversity is one of those words that is not necessary. We don’t need to be given descriptors. Read a synopses of the story and if it sounds good, read the book.  We do not need to be told the color of someone’s skin. Kids/young adults aren’t charming idiots. They figure it out. And maybe the family could be so generic, each child can see their family in the story.  Let them discover the diversity. This “diversity” tag was “appears white.” Not even a definitive statement.   Absolutely not necessary and does a disservice to the author and story. 

I think telling us what the “diversity” in a book is is dangerous .   A parent can look at it and say, “gay characters? No way my kid is reading that!” And a great story loses the readers of tomorrow who can, through exposure and learning,  change the dialogue— overcome prejudice

JMO

GNTLGNT

....excellent effort Bev!.....