The New Year is a time to reevaluate old acquaintances. That’s why the top-ten list was invented. And so Junot Díaz, snubbed at last fall’s National Book Awards but much heralded on critics’ roundups, gets a second chance at hype for his first novel—hoping against hope (for you cannot escape the curve!) that readers won’t eventually rebel against such praise. Meanwhile, Juno’s hit status is good news for good-news-starved Hollywood. But it means indie kids everywhere must now say, “Yeah, I saw it, and … ” (Also, critics, we’re really beginning to tire of being told how There Will Be Blood is the next Citizen Kane.) Plus: Could it be that Kid Nation wasn’t so much a sign of the apocalypse as … kind of cute?

Related:

• Archive: “Book Features”
• Articles by Boris Kachka
• Table of Contents: Jan 14, 2008 issue of New York | Subscribe!