Best Books of the Year Lists

What to do when you don't make a list

Christine: It’s that time of year when SLJ, Kirkus, New York Public Library, Publisher’s Weekly, and bookstagrammers release their Best of 2023 lists.

When your book makes a list, it feels amazing. Vicky and I are both thrilled to be finalists in the Golden Poppy Awards with Alphabot and Dear Mr. G. Plus Best Buddies is on SLJ’s list.

But most years we’ve seen those lists come out and most years we’ve read them and our books have not been mentioned. And it’s disappointing. It’s okay to feel that way!

Kate Messner wrote a poem on this subject that I often return to: What Happened to Your Book Today. Here’s a snippet:

“Somewhere, tiny hands held up your book
And a little voice begged, “Again!”
Somewhere, the answer came,
A grown-up sigh…and a smile…
And the fourteenth read-aloud of the morning.
That same book. Again.
Your book.”

It’s a beautiful poem, go read it right now!

Some advice on Book Friends Forever last week that I loved was to set an intention before looking at any of the lists. Plan to celebrate a friend if their book is on the list but yours is not. Tell yourself you’re not on the list but you’re just curious about which books are on it. Or simply don’t look at them unless you’re tagged or a friend tells you you’re on it.

Something I would add is to try to separate yourself from your books. These lists are not about you as a person or even as a creator (this is also good advice for rejections). And not everyone can read every book, yours maybe didn’t make it into the hands of the person creating this particular list and that’s okay. Every year there are so many amazing new children’s book released and these lists help celebrate that.

Vicky: I guess I’ve been thinking about this a lot with the best list posts going around. Even though Alphabot and Best Buddies made it onto lists this year (I think it may be the first time I’ve made it onto lists??), I still found that I was disappointed that my books weren’t on OTHER lists. Which is just to say, these lists are just an endless hole of potential disappointment so I think there’s no point in being disappointed. I know, easier said than done, but that’s how I feel right now.

But one thing I was thinking, I don’t think I actually feel envious or jealous of people who are on the lists. I mostly just feel disappointed that I’m not on the lists. Maybe I don’t care about the lists that much. But I DO sometimes feel envious of other accomplishments (giant book deals! TV adaptations!), and I DO sometimes feel jealous when I feel other people have innate qualities/talents that I wish that I had (so funny! so personable!). And I think it can actually be helpful to separate these things out, because being jealous is something I may just have to work through or manage, but being envious of something can actually motivate me to put the work in toward attaining those things. Even if those things are mostly out of my control—what I can control is writing the best books I can.

That was a bit of a tangent, but I guess my point about lists is, try to just celebrate the happy moments because the disappointment of NOT being on lists is an endless hole. And if you need a hug, that’s what your critique partners and writing friends are for. And maybe it’s time to go write the next book!

Celebrating the happy moments together!

With that, we’d like to wish everybody a happy holiday! Next week, we will be posting our topics for 2024, including our twice monthly paid posts with deeper dives into the business and craft of kidlit. If you’d like to receive these deep dives, consider a paid subscription next year! Enjoy the holidays, hugs to you all, and more soon!