Mock Printz 2026 discussion

Earlier this year we read Grasshopper Jungle and now Andrew Smith's 100 Sideways Miles has tied with brown girl dreaming in the polls. It's already garnered 4 starred reviews (1 more than I can find for Grasshopper Jungle). Can Smith pull a double this year? It would be a new record!

I fell in love hard with Winger , then thought GJ was *too* self-aware and tried too hard, like "Look at me, I'm brilliant!" I enjoyed it overall though, and I think it'd be better on a second read. 100 Sideways Miles felt like a quick throwaway, though - Smith's characters, for the first time, didn't seem wholly authentic to me.

This is my full review of 100 Sideways Miles.

Quick throwaway exactly captures my feelings about this one. I really liked GJ in spite of (or maybe because of) the "trying too hard" issue. It felt like this was an early novel he'd had in a drawer and then pulled out and published after the success of Winger. I'd be shocked if it got a Printz nom.

I liked Wingerr well enough, GJ was ok, this book falls somewhere in between for me. I guess my question is can Andrew Smith write about something other than boners and body functions? What I really liked about this book was the straight-forward way Smith portrays Finn and his epilepsy, which is something not frequently done in YA lit. I also liked how Smith again goes to history, and juxtaposes the 1920's flood with present day circumstances, using the story in a foreshadowing way.

But I feel like Smith is writing the same book with the same themes, just changing out the particulars. A good read that will definitely appeal to boys, but I'm not sure if this will grab a Printz.

Have any of you read Smith's books pre- Winger ? He had something like 6 novels published before that, with The Marbury Lens being the best-known of them. I've only read his most recent 3.

I've read Ghost Medicine, and I really liked it. I thought it was a good book for boys, a modern day Western, which you don't find too often in YA these days.

I know how important the horse is to the plot, but did anyone else find the cover a bit off-putting? My wife saw this book and at a glance thought it was a middle grade book - she was very surprised that a young adult book would have a horse on the cover, even after I explained the synopsis. I think the book would attract more readers with a different picture.

Mrs. Humphrey wrote: "Quick throwaway exactly captures my feelings about this one. I really liked GJ in spite of (or maybe because of) the "trying too hard" issue. It felt like this was an early novel he'd had in a dr..."

I agree. Superficial characterizations, contrived setting, weak plot.