Loan Stars Junior lists roundup: Winter and Spring 2021

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 winter and spring of 2021 – the December-February, March-April, and May-June 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 June 27, 2021.

These are the results:

1. Claudia and the New Girl by Ann M. Martin, illus. by Gabriela Epstein (December-February 2021 list)

2. The Secret Fawn by Kallie George 🍁 , illus. by Elly MacKay 🍁 (December-February 2021 list)

3. Aru Shah and the City of Gold by Roshani Chokshi (March-April 2021 list)

4. Sharing a Smile by Nicki Kramar, illus. by Ashley Evans (December-February 2021 list)

5. Elephants Do Not Belong in Trees by Russ Willms 🍁 (December-February 2021 list)

6. The Last Kids on Earth: Thrilling Tales from the Tree House by Max Brallier, illus. by Douglas Holgate and friends (March-April 2021 list)

7. Home Is in Between by Mitali Perkins, illus. by Lavanya Naidu (December-February 2021 list)

8. Girl Giant and the Monkey King by Van Hoang (December-February 2021 list)

9. Dear Black Girls by Shanice Nicole 🍁 , illus. by Kezna Dalz 🍁 (December-February 2021 list)

10. The Tea Dragon Tapestry by K. O'Neill (May-June 2021 list)

Subject popularity

Even though both Juvenile and Young Adult titles are eligible to be recommended as Loan Stars Junior picks, all 30 titles on the three lists were Juvenile titles – 23 of them Juvenile Fiction and 7 Juvenile Non-Fiction.

If we breakdown all 30 Juvenile titles by subject, we find that the most popular subject categories are Animals (5 titles), Social Themes (4), Comics & Graphic Novels (3), People & Places (3), and Imagination & Play (2), with the remaining titles each having a different subject category.

Repeat authors

Of all the authors and illustrators whose titles were Loan Stars Junior picks this past winter and spring, 2 had been featured on a previous Loan Stars Junior list!

The authors and illustrators previously included (and the titles that got them on the list):

• Elly MacKay’s The Tallest Tree House was on the March-April 2019 list

• K. O'Neill’s Dewdrop was on the March-April 2020 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, only 20% were by Canadian contributors.

ICYMI, these are the titles that made it to the lists

December-February Loan Stars Jr. list

• Claudia and the New Girl by Ann M. Martin, illus. by Gabriela Epstein (Graphix)

• Girl Giant and the Monkey King by Van Hoang (Roaring Brook Press)

• Standing on Her Shoulders by Monica Clark-Robinson, illus. by Laura Freeman (Orchard Books)

• Home Is in Between by Mitali Perkins, illus. by Lavanya Naidu (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

• Little Helpers Toddler Baking Cookbook by Barbara Lamperti (Rockridge Press)

• I See You See by Richard Jackson, illus. by Patrice Barton (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books)

• Sharing a Smile by Nicki Kramar, illus. by Ashley Evans (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

• Dear Black Girls by Shanice Nicole 🍁 , illus. by Kezna Dalz 🍁 (Metonymy Press)

• The Secret Fawn by Kallie George 🍁 , illus. by Elly Mackay 🍁 (Tundra Books)

• Elephants Do Not Belong in Trees by Russ Willms 🍁 (Orca Book Publishers)

Find all these titles in this CataList catalogue.

March-April Loan Stars Jr. list

• We Move Together by Kelly Fritsch 🍁 and Anne McGuire, illus. by Eduardo Trejos (AK Press)

• The Extraordinary Book That Eats Itself by Hayes and Arlon, illus. by Pintachan (Earth Aware Editions)

• The Last Kids on Earth: Thrilling Tales from the Tree House by Max Brallier, illus. by Douglas Holgate and friends (Viking Children’s Books)

• Aru Shah and the City of Gold by Roshani Chokshi (Disney-Hyperion)

• The Case of the Burgled Bundle by Michael Hutchinson 🍁 (Second Story Press)

• The Frog Mother by Brett D. Huson 🍁 , illus. by Natasha Donovan 🍁 (Portage & Main Press)

• Do You Know What I Am? by Chad Geran (POW! Kids Books)

• New Adventures: My New Friend by Tom Easton, illus. by Charlie Alder (Hachette Children's)

• Pierre & Paul: Dragon! by Caroline Adderson 🍁 , illus. by Alice Carter 🍁 (Owlkids Books)

• New Adventures: My New House by Tom Easton, illus. by Charlie Alder (Hachette Children's)

Find all these titles in this CataList catalogue.

May-June Loan Stars Jr. list

• The Tea Dragon Tapestry by K. O'Neill (Oni Press)

• Stamped (For Kids) by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, illus. by Rachelle Baker (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

• We Are All Under One Wide Sky by Deborah Wiles, illus. by Andrea Stegmaier (Sounds True)

• Time for School, Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle, illus. by Jill McElmurry (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• My Daddies! by Gareth Peter, illus. by Garry Parsons (Penguin UK)

• Animal Rescue Friends by Gina Loveless and Meika Hashimoto, illus. by Genevieve Kote (Andrews McMeel Publishing)

• Fly, Tiger, Fly! by Rikin Parekh (Hachette Children's)

• I Want to Be...a Teacher by Becky Davies, illus. by Richard Merritt (Random House Children's Books)

• Llama Llama Seasons of Fun! by Anna Dewdney, illus. by JT Morrow (Grosset & Dunlap)

• Meet Your School! by Cindy Jin, illus. by Melissa Crowton (Little Simon)

Find all these titles in this CataList catalogue.

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