Mock Printz 2026 discussion

The clear favorite in our reading poll this month and the second novel from John Corey Whaley, the 2012 Printz winner. Does Noggin stand out in the YA literary landscape?

I loved Noggin. It's such a weird premise so I was hesitant, but Whaley makes it work so effortlessly. There's just a smidgen of science to make it feel possible, but the focus of the book is the relationships between characters. Really well done.

The premise of this book seemed so sci-if to me that I wasn't sure what to expect, and I wasn't expecting to like it so much. But this book is definitely character driven with a story that seems to come full circle. I loved his device of using the previous chapter's last words to title each chapter. I agree that this was well done, I think it was even better than Whaley's first book.

I didn't love this book although parts of it were clever. I didn't really care what happened to the characters.

Yeah, I'm definitely not as much of a fan of this as some people seem to be. It was a quick read, but I finished it a week ago, and I can barely remember much about it already.

I felt like the sci-fi promotion of the book (blurb on goodreads, the cover/book jacket) had me expecting something different than what was delivered. In the case of Noggin, that difference between expectation and reality was not a bad thing -- I found myself enjoying the story and the emotional relationships between characters more than I thought I would. I'm just wondering how I'm going to sell this one to my students, who I am worried are going to think it's a futuristic soldier story. I've got a similar problem with Grasshopper Jungle, which I liked much more than Noggin. Anyone have ideas?

I'm glad I'm not the only one that didn't really enjoy this book. I feel like I'm supposed to like it, but just can't. I found the protagonist's incessant going on about getting his girlfriend back really annoying, and he was in fact pretty unlikable. After I finished, I realized that the book was just - boring. The premise had so much potential!

I totally agree Anne. It was boring. I found myself skipping whole chunks just to get to the end.

My least favorite part was the single-minded determination on Travis (the protagonist's) part that, 1) He was going to get his girlfriend back, and 2) The 5 years he spent as a dead man didn't matter because, 3) That was his girlfriend and, 4) He was gonna get her back.

I like John Corey Whaley, though - I feel like Noggin (I just posted a review here) was meant to be twice as ambitious as Where Things Come Back, but really Noggin was twice as heavy on contrived premise and WTCB was twice as ambitious. I liked both, though.

Teen is cured of cancer and can't get over his girlfriend having moved on in the five years it took for his cure. Wah. Honestly, and not to sound strident, Travis' behavior toward Cate was verging on emotional rape. She said no. Repeatedly. But he knew better. This one does not make my list.

This wasn't quite what I expected....

The reviews made it sound like some kind of bizarre science fiction novel, but actually, it's not much more than a slightly unusual high school romance. I agree with some of the comments above that this was an interesting idea woefully underdeveloped. A good read, though.

I was also disappointed in this one. The premise was clever, but the actual plot was annoying. I kept thinking it would redeem itself, but the ending was the worst part. Epilogues often feel like a cop out to me. Definitely not a contender, I say, despite the hype.

I enjoyed it. I thought the questions raised about grief, mourning, self, and friendship were interesting. We get a unique perspective about if you get to come back from mourning. What parts of you come back? How are you different? How are the people you love different? Would you want to come back? How would you react to someone you had grieved being revived? How much of you in mental vs. physical? Is there memory in the body?

I was not a big fan of the addition of Lawrence Ramsey, the other man they revived. I thought it would be more interesting to see Travis cope with the issues himself.

As far as his obsession with Cate, to me it was less about her and more about him trying to hold onto what was. As insight into the teenage brain, while redundant and repetitive to us, smacks of pretty spot on when they are in love.

The scene with Jeremy's sister in the graveyard, the moment with the hands, was beautiful.

I just loved this book. It's clever, funny and keeps you hooked.