It’s a labor of love and takes hours of research and data inputting and triple-checking. The list was compiled and formatted by one lone little ol’ indie bookseller. We hope this list will be a handy resource for booksellers, librarians, teachers, readers, and folks in the children’s book industry. Publishers may alert me to any oversights at ebluemle AT please include all starred review sources and dates for any books you’re referencing. This round-up covers reviews published through January 16, 2013. Publishers and authors: starred reviews are counted only when they have been officially published by the review magazines. While everyone will understandably focus much interest on the books receiving multiple stars, and may lose steam before getting toward the bottom of the list, I encourage you to take a long look at the single-star books those often are given to rare discoveries and are well worth exploring. Receiving a starred review is a special, joyful honor for a book and its creators. Last year’s titles received 1,496 starred reviews. So, I present to you the final, updated list of 2012’s starred reviews for children’s and YA books from the following sources: Booklist, The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, the Horn Book, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, and VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates – their “perfect tens,” or 5Q 5P titles, get the nod here). With the ALA Youth Media Awards coming up next week (Monday, January 28, at 8:00 a.m.), it’s the perfect time to scan this list of last year’s standouts and ponder our own favorites (including, perhaps, some books that didn’t receive any starred reviews but still knocked our socks off). Now that it’s January 2013, most of 2012’s starred reviews are finally in.

Mousterpiece cinema frozen