It’s time for another Loan Stars roundup!
Loan Stars is the readers’ advisory tool that allows library staff across Canada to collaboratively select their favourite forthcoming titles. Using CataList, the online catalogue service and order management tool available for free to libraries, library staff can endorse the Fiction, Non-Fiction, Juvenile, and Young Adult titles they want to recommend to their patrons. The titles with the most recommendations become Loan Stars picks!
Join us as we go back in time and recap what happened in the Loan Stars Junior world in the summer and fall of 2021 — the July-August, September-October, and November-December Junior lists (click here to see the full lists).
Library circulation
Thanks to LibraryData, BookNet’s national library collection and circulation analysis tool, we were able to determine which of the 30 books on the three lists were the most popular among library patrons from their publication dates up until January 24, 2022.
These are the results:
The Okay Witch and the Hungry Shadow by Emma Steinkellner (July & August 2021 List)
Cat Kid Comic Club: Perspectives by Dav Pilkey (November & December 2021 List)
Hunting by Stars by Cherie Dimaline 🍁 (September & October 2021 List)
There’s a Ghost in this House by Oliver Jeffers (September & October 2021 List)
The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune (July & August 2021 List)
Lala's Words by Gracey Zhang 🍁 (July & August 2021 List)
Chez Bob by Bob Shea (July & August 2021 List)
Find Spot at Nursery by Eric Hill (July & August 2021 List)
You'll Be the Death of Me by Karen M. McManus (November & December 2021 List)
I Am Not Starfire by Mariko Tamaki 🍁 , illus. by Yoshi Yoshitani (July & August 2021 List)
Subject popularity
Both Juvenile and Young Adult titles are eligible to be recommended as Loan Stars Junior picks. This quarter, 15 of the titles on the three lists were Juvenile Fiction, five were Juvenile Non-Fiction, and 10 were Young Adult Fiction.
If we breakdown all 30 titles by subject, we find that the most popular subject categories are
Comics & Graphic Novels: five Juvenile Fiction titles and two YA Fiction
Animals: two Juvenile Non-Fiction titles and one Juvenile Fiction
YA Fiction Fantasy with three titles.
All the remaining titles each have a different subject category.
Repeat authors
Of all the authors and illustrators whose titles were Loan Stars Junior picks this past winter and spring, six were also featured on a previous Loan Stars Junior list!
The authors and illustrators previously included (and the titles that got them on the list):
Dav Pilkey’s For Whom the Ball Rolls was on the July & August 2019 list
Oliver Jeffers' Love from the Crayons was on the November & December 2019 list
Karen M. McManus' One of Us is Next was on the January & February 2020 list
Elizabeth MacLeod’s 🍁 Canadian Women Now and Then was on the March & April 2020 list
Hetxw’ms Gyetxw’s (Brett D. Huson) 🍁 The Frog Mother was on the March & April 2021 list
Canadian 🍁 contributors
How many Canadian contributors — authors, illustrators, translators, or editors who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada — made these three lists? From all 30 titles, 33% were by Canadian contributors.
ICYMI, these are the titles that made it to the lists
July & August Loan Stars Jr. list
Chez Bob by Bob Shea (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
The Okay Witch and the Hungry Shadow by Emma Steinkellner (Aladdin)
I Am Not Starfire by Mariko Tamaki 🍁 , illus. by Yoshi Yoshitani (DC Comics)
The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor by Shaenon K. Garrity, illus. by Christopher Baldwin (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
They're Tearing Up Mulberry Street by Yvonne Ng, illus. by Richard Smythe (The Creative Company)
Lala's Words by Gracey Zhang 🍁 (Scholastic Inc.)
The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers)
The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune (Tor/Forge)
Find Spot at Nursery by Eric Hill (Penguin UK)
Birding for Kids by Damon Calderwood 🍁 and Donald E. Waite 🍁 (Heritage House)
Find all these titles in this CataList catalogue.
September & October Loan Stars Jr. list
Living With Viola by Rosena Fung 🍁 (Annick Press)
Julia's House Goes Home by Ben Hatke (First Second)
Set Your Alarm, Sloth! by Jess Keating 🍁 , illus. by Pete Oswald (Scholastic Inc.)
Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood (St. Martin's Press)
Unicorn Night by Diana Murray, illus. by Luke Flowers (Sourcebooks)
There’s a Ghost in this House by Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins Publishers)
Santa Jaws by Bridget Heos, illus. by Galia Bernstein (Henry Holt and Co.)
Hunting by Stars by Cherie Dimaline 🍁 (Penguin Random House Canada Teen)
Chaiwala! by Priti Birla Maheshwari 🍁 , illus. by Ashley Barron 🍁 (Owlkids Books)
The Wolf Mother by Hetxw’ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson) 🍁 , illus. by Natasha Donovan (Portage & Main Press)
Find all these titles in this CataList catalogue.
November & December Loan Stars Jr. list
Cat Kid Comic Club: Perspectives by Dav Pilkey (Scholastic Inc.)
Just Roll with It by Veronica Agarwal and Lee Durfey-Lavoie (Random House Children's Books)
Words to Make a Friend by Donna Jo Napoli, illus. by Naoko Stoop (Random House Children's Books)
The Coldest Touch by Isabel Sterling (Razorbill)
Meet David Suzuki by Elizabeth MacLeod 🍁 , illus. by Mike Deas 🍁 (Scholastic Canada Ltd.)
You'll Be the Death of Me by Karen M. McManus (Random House Children's Books)
The Big Reveal by Jen Larsen 🍁 (Henry Holt and Co.)
Girl Giant and the Jade War by Van Hoang (Roaring Brook Press)
Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
Thunder and the Noise Storms by Jeffrey Ansloos 🍁 and Shezza Ansloos 🍁 , illus. by Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley 🍁 (Annick Press)
Find all these titles in this CataList catalogue.
Want to see more Loan Stars Junior top picks? Check out the full archives, sign up to our newsletter, or stay in touch with us on Twitter or Instagram.
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