Short lists: the long and short of it

Tomorrow is the first of our finalist announcements. I think I'll torture you a little.

Some trivia about the lists, but no hints:

• Two of them have grown to eight seven, and another to seven, eight, instead of last year's five;*
• The Fantasy/Science Fiction list has split in two by age group, with five in each;
• There are a goodly number of books about/for girls in the middle grade category;
• Several books made the short lists despite never arriving from publishers--panelists had to hunt them down in libraries or bookstores.

Hope that whets your appetite. See you tomorrow!

Meanwhile, keep checking out our book reviews, which our organizers culled from panelists' blogs. There are some terrific reads in there.

--Anne Levy, editor *(who obviously didn't major in math)