Starred YA Book Reviews 2012

This is a compilation of YA books published in 2012 that have received two or more starred reviews from the major review sources. All information is gathered from the publications’ websites and/or print editions, but may not be completely comprehensive. Some of the books may be more middle grade than YA — I used my best judgment based on information in the review publications and the publisher websites. Please let me know if you notice any omissions!

Last Updated: January 9, 2013

Key:

• Horn Book=The Horn Book
• PW=Publisher’s Weekly
• SLJ=School Library Journal
• Booklist
• Kirkus=Kirkus Reviews
• Bulletin=The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
• Note: VOYA highlighted reviews are not included

Six Stars
Ask the Passengers by A.S. King (Little, Brown)
Horn Book, PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus, Bulletin

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (Hyperion)
Horn Book, PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus, Bulletin

Dodger by Terry Pratchett (Harper/HarperCollins)
Horn Book, PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus, Bulletin

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (Penguin)
Horn Book, PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus, Bulletin

Moonbird by Phillip Hoose (Farrar)
Horn Book, PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus, Bulletin

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman (Random House)
Horn Book, PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus, Bulletin

Five Stars
Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust by Doreen Rappaport (Candlewick)
PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus, Bulletin

Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Shienkin (Roaring Brook/Flash Point)
Horn Book, PW, SLJ, Kirkus, Bulletin

The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan (Knopf)
Horn Book, PW, Booklist, Kirkus, Bulletin

Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb Books)
Horn Book, PW, SLJ, Kirkus, Bulletin

My Book of Life by Angel  by Martine Leavitt (FSG/Ferguson)
Horn Book, PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic)
PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus, Bulletin

Four Stars
A Certain October by Angela Johnson (Simon & Schuster)
Horn Book, PW, SLJ, Kirkus

Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass by Russell Freedman (Clarion)
PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore (Dial)
PW, SLJ, Kirkus, Bulletin

The Boy on Cinnamon Street by Phoebe Stone (Scholastic/Levine)
PW, Booklist, Kirkus, Bulletin

Crow by Barbara Wright (Random House)
Horn Book, PW, SLJ, Kirkus

The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour (Penguin)
PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus

Drama by Raina Telgemeier (Scholastic)
PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus

The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown)
Horn Book, PW, Booklist, Kirkus

Dying to Know You by Aidan Chambers (Ambrams/Amulet)
Horn Book, PW, SLJ, Kirkus

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus

The Impossible Rescue by Martin W. Sandler (Candlewick)
PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus

Miles to Go for Freedom: Segregation and Civil Rights in the Jim Crow Years by Linda Barrett Osborne (Abrams Books for Young Readers)
PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth (HarperCollins/Balzer+Bray)
PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher (Little, Brown)
PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus

Never Fall Down: a boy soldier’s story of survival by Patricia McCormick (Balzer + Bray)
PW, SLJ, Booklist, Bulletin

No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson (Carolrhoda LAB)
Horn Book, PW, SLJ, Kirkus

There is No Dog by Meg Rosoff (Penguin)
Horn Book, PW, Booklist, Kirkus

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson (HarperTeen)
PW, SLJ, Kirkus, Bulletin

Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson (Scholastic)
Horn Book, PW, SLJ, Kirkus

We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March by Cynthia Y. Levinson (Peachtree Publishers)
PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus

Wonder by R.J. Palacio (Knopf)
PW, SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus

Three Stars
A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix (HarperCollins)
Horn Book, SLJ, Kirkus

A Greyhound of a Girl  by Roddy Doyle (Abrams/Amulet)
PW, Booklist, Kirkus

After Eli by Rebecca Rupp (Candlewick)
PW, Booklist, Kirkus

After the Snow by S.D. Crockett (Feiwel & Friends)
PW, SLJ, Kirkus

All You Never Wanted by Adele Griffin (Knopf)
SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus

Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson (Penguin)
PW, SLJ, Kirkus

The Bronte Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne  by Catherine Reef  (Clarion)
PW, Booklist, Kirkus

The Chaos by Nalo Hopkinson (S&S/McElderry)
PW, Booklist, Kirkus

Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick (Scholastic)
PW, SLJ, Booklist

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (Little, Brown)
Horn Book, PW, Bulletin

The Difference Between You and Me by Madeleine George (Viking)
PW, SLJ, Kirkus

The Diviners by Libba Bray (Little, Brown)
SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus

Every Day by David Levithan (Knopf)
SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus

The Fairy Ring: Or, Elsie and Frances Fool the World  by Mary Losure (Candlewick)
Horn Book, SLJ, Booklist

The Final Four by Paul Volponi (Viking)
SLJ, Booklist, Bulletin

The Fitzosbornes at War by Michelle Cooper (Knopf)
Booklist, Kirkus, Bulletin

Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta (Candlewick)
PW, Booklist, Bulletin

The Girl with Borrowed Wings by Rinsai Rossetti (Dial)
PW, Booklist, Kirkus

The Girls of No Return by Erin Saladin (Scholastic)
Booklist, Kirkus, Bulletin

In Darkness by Nick Lake (Bloomsbury)
PW, SLJ, Kirkus

Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-Ending Search for a Cure by Jim Murphy and Alison Blank (Clarion)
SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus

Jepp, Who Defied the Stars  by Katherine Marsh (Hyperion)
PW, SLJ, Bulletin

Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl (Viking)
PW, SLJ, Booklist

The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine (Putnam)
PW, SLJ, Kirkus

Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover and America in the Age of Lies by Marc Aronson (Candlewick)
PW, SLJ, Kirkus

The Obsidian Blade by Pete Hautman (Candlewick)
PW, Booklist, Kirkus

Passenger by Andrew Smith (Feiwel and Friends)
PW, Booklist, Kirkus

Pinned by Sharon G. Flake (Scholastic)
Horn Book, PW, Kirkus

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson (Simon & Schuster)
PW, SLJ, Booklist

Son by Lois Lowry (Houghton)
SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus

Waiting by Carol Lynch Williams
PW, SLJ, Kirkus

The Wicked and the Just by J. Anderson Coats (Harcourt)
Horn Book, SLJ, Kirkus

Two Stars
A Soldier’s Secret: The Incredible true Story of Sarah Edmonds, a Civil War Hero by Marissa Moss (Abrams/Amulet)
PW, Kirkus

Amber House by Kelly Moore, Tucker Reed, and Larkin Reed (Scholastic/Levine)
PW, Bulletin

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield (Dutton)
PW, Kirkus

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz (Simon & Schuster)
PW, SLJ

Best Shot in the West by Patricia McKissack and Frederick L. McKissack Jr. (HarperCollins/Balzer & Bray)
SLJ, Kirkus

The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison (Egmont)
SLJ, Booklist

The Children and the Wolves by Adam Rapp (Candlewick)
Booklist, Kirkus

Cardboard by Doug TenNapel (Scholastic/Graphix)
SLJ, Kirkus

Chomp by Carl Hiassen (Random House)
SLJ, Kirkus

Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral (Razorbill)
SLJ, Booklist

Chuck Close Face Book by Chuck Close (Abrams)
PW, SLJ

Cold Cereal by Adam Rex (Balzer + Bray)
SLJ, Kirkus

Don’t Turn Around by Michelle Gagnon (Harper/HarperCollins)
SLJ, Kirkus

Double by Jenny Valentine (Hyperion)
Kirkus, Bulletin

Dragonswood by Janet Lee Carey (Dial)
SLJ, Kirkus

Enchanted by Aletha Kontis (Harcourt)
SLJ, Kirkus

Fourmile by Watt Key (Farrar)
SLJ, Kirkus

Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks (First Second)
SLJ, Kirkus

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente (Feiwel and Friends)
Booklist, Kirkus

The Good Braider  by Terry Farish (Amazon Children’s)
SLJ, Booklist

Hades Lord of the Dead by George O’Connor
SLJ, Kirkus

In a Glass Grimmly by Adam Gidwitz (Dutton)
PW, Kirkus

Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand by Ramon Perez (Archaia Entertainment)
PW, Booklist

Keeping Safe the Stars by Sheila O’Connor (Putnam)
PW, Kirkus

Kepler’s Dream by Juliet Bell (Putnam)
Booklist, Kirkus

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde (Harcourt)
PW, SLJ

Lies, Knives, and Girls in Red Dresses by Ron Koertge (Candlewick)
Horn Book, PW

The List by Siobhan Vivian (Push)
PW, Kirkus

Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough (Candlewick)
Kirkus, Bulletin

Marathon by Boaz Yakin (First Second)
Booklist, Kirkus

Marching to the Mountaintop: How Poverty, Labor Fights, and Civil Rights Set the Stage for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Final Hours by Ann Bausum (National Geographic)
SLJ, Bulletin

May B. by Caroline Starr Rose (Random House/Schwarz & Wade)
PW, Kirkus

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews (Amulet Books/Abrams)
Booklist, Kirkus

Mister Death’s Blue-Eyed Girls by Mary Downing Hahn (Clarion)
PW, Kirkus

My Family for the War by Anne C. Voorhoeve (Dial)
SLJ, Booklist

On the Day I Died: Stories from the Grave by Candace Fleming (Random/Schwartz & Wade)
PW, Kirkus

Pink Smog by Francesca Lia Block (HarperTeen)
PW, Booklist

Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow (Tor)
SLJ, Booklist

Radiant Days by Elizabeth Hand (Viking)
PW, Kirkus

Railsea by China Mieville (Del Rey)
PW, Booklist

Reached by Ally Condie (Dutton)
PW, Kirkus

Small Damages by Beth Kephart (Philomel)
PW, Kirkus

Soonchild by Russell Hoban, illus. by Alexis Deacon (Candlewick)
PW, Booklist

Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff (Dunne/St. Martin’s)
Kirkus, Bulletin

Summer and Bird by Katherine Catmull (Dutton)
Booklist, Kirkus

Team Human by Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan (HarperTeen)
PW, Kirkus

This is Not A Test by Courtney Summers (St. Martin’s Griffin)
PW, Bulletin

To the Mountaintop: My Journey through the Civil Rights Movement  by Charlayne Hunter-Gault (Roaring Brook/Flash Point)
PW, Booklist

Try Not to Breathe by Jennifer R. Hubbard (Penguin)
PW, Kirkus

Two or Three Things I Forgot to Tell You by Joyce Carol Oates (HarperTeen)
PW, Kirkus

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi (HarperCollins)
SLJ, Kirkus

Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst (Simon and Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry)
Booklist, Kirkus

The Unfortunate Son by Constance Leeds (Viking)
SLJ, Bulletin

The Year of the Beasts by Cecil by Castellucci and Nate Powell (Roaring Brook Press)
SLJ, Booklist