So for those of you who do not devote your every waking hour to the world of book publishing, there are several journals that review books in advance of their publication.* In each issue, these journals give their favorite few titles "starred reviews." (I do not know where this tradition started, but anyway it is nearly** ubiquitous in the world of children's books.)

And although most readers probably don't even know about this weird little publishing tradition of starring certain reviews, it is--as they say--kind of a big deal. It provides, for one thing, a relatively broad (or the broadest we have, anyway) idea of what critics think of a particular title. (So if a book gets five starred reviews, as The Book Thief did, it indicates there is broad agreement that the book is excellent. Which of course it is.)

I have worked as a book reviewer, and still do sometimes, and I think it's important and interesting work. But authors cannot take too much stock in reviews of their own books, because otherwise they will go crazy. I read reviews mostly because I'm interested to see what people respond to and what they find lacking, but I try not to take it personally, good or bad.

All that said: Alaska and Katherines both received three starred reviews in advance of their publication. Word came from Julie today that Paper Towns has just received its fourth star, from the nice people at School Library Journal.

So that is nice, even if it takes five paragraphs to explain why I am happy! (Also: Big congratulations to sometimes sparksflyup commenter Anna Jarzab on the sale of her first novel in a two-book deal to Delacorte!)

* These include, for instance: Booklist, SLJ, Publishers Weekly, Horn Book, The Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books, KLIATT, and VOYA.
**VOYA does not give stars, for instance.