The Great Lakewood Newbery Book Club
When the winners are announced–and especially if they are unpopular–people will complain that the committee members must not actually know any real live children if they were able to make those selections. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course. Most, if not all, committee members have a group of children that they regularly consult with, whether it is a group of public library patrons, students at a nearby school, or an odd assortment of friends and relatives. The diversity on the committee, both in terms of geography and job experience, ensures that a wide cross-section of children are being monitored for their response to various titles. While many of us can make very good educated guesses about the child appeal of various titles, the Newbery committee is several months ahead of us. They don’t need to make educated guesses. They know. And if they have picked a book with a small audience, they must have found it excellent rather than popular (which is what the criteria direct them to do, anyway, isn’t it?).
In preparation for attending Nina’s mock Newbery, I decided to run a mock Newbery with fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students here at Lakewood School. This group meets twice a week during lunchtime to discuss all things Newbery. They have to read at least ten books in order to join the final discussion and voting, but they don’t necessarily read the same ten titles because I want them to have the experience of reading widely and deeply in the field, of separating the wheat from the chaff. We’ve been meeting for just over a month now and several students have already reached that goal with a couple more on the brink. It is a great group of voracious readers (about a dozen and a half) that can provide me with solid feedback, even on the fringe titles. I have about sixty to seventy titles in my personal classroom collection (and I would have had more if I had not thoughtfully disposed of review copies and advanced reading copies before deciding to do this very late in the year–darn!). The students are also encouraged to find books through the public library or bookstore. Here’s a snapshot of our reading progress to date. Let us know what you think!
nine readers
DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: THE LAST STRAW by Jeff Kinney
eight readers
DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: DOG DAYS by Jeff Kinney
seven readers
CAT BURGLAR BLACK by Richard Sala
six readers
THE DUNDERHEADS by Paul Fleischman
five readers
CATCHING FIRE by Suzanne Collins
THE LAST OLYMPIAN by Rick Riordan
four readers
CLAUDETTE COLVIN by Phillip Hoose
THE STORM IN THE BARN by Matt Phelan
FABLEHAVEN: SECRETS OF THE DRAGON SANCTUARY by Brandon Mull
three readers
WHEN YOU REACH ME by Rebecca Stead
MURDER AT MIDNIGHT by Avi
SCAT by Carl Hiassen
BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS by Nic Bishop
CHASING LINCOLN’S KILLER by James Swanson
EMMALINE AND THE BUNNY by Katherine Hannigan
A SEASON OF GIFTS by Richard Peck
THE FROG SCIENTIST by Pamela Turner
two readers
THE MAGICIAN’S ELEPHANT by Kate DiCamillo
THE EVOLUTION OF CALPURNIA TATE by Jacqueline Kelly
TENTACLES by Roland Smith
TRUCE by Jim Murphy
LIPS TOUCH by Laini Taylor
MUDSHARK by Gary Paulsen
ZOOBREAK by Gordon Korman
THE MOSTLY TRUE ADVENTURES OF HOMER P. FIGG by Rodman Philbrick
AVALON series by Rachel Roberts
one reader
THE DEMON KING by Cinda Williams Chima
THE WITCH’S GUIDE TO COOKING WITH CHILDREN by Keith McGowan
THE DRAGON OF TRELIAN by Michelle Knudsen
LUCY LONG AGO by Catherine Thimmesh
CHARLES AND EMMA by Deborah Heiligman
ON VINEY’S MOUNTAIN by Joan Donaldson
T-MINUS by Jim Ottaviani
THE SQUIRE’S QUEST by Gerald Morris
FRANKIE PICKLE AND THE CLOSET OF DOOM by Eric Wight
101 ANIMAL SECRETS by Melvin Berger
EMMA JEAN LAZARUS FELL IN LOVE by Lauren Tarshis
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About Jonathan Hunt
Jonathan Hunt is the Coordinator of Library Media Services at the San Diego County Office of Education. He served on the 2006 Newbery committee, and has also judged the Caldecott Medal, the Printz Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. You can reach him at hunt_yellow@yahoo.com
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I am doing a Mock Newbery with 4th Graders and they recently cut (meaning no one was interested in defending it as “distinguished” for the next round):
A Season of Gifts
Al Capone Shines My Shoes
Anything But Typical
Captain Nobody
Emmaline and the Bunny
Happenstance Found
How Oliver Olson Changed the World
Homer P. Figg
Melonhead
Mudshark
Neil Armstrong is my Uncle
Operation Redwood
Rissa Bartholomew’s Declaration of Independence
Wild Things
Wings
Still In The Running:
Also Known As Harper *
Any Which Wall
Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally) *
Born to Fly
Brooklyn Nine
Camille McPhee
Carolina Harmony
Darkwood
Dormia
Escape Under the Forever Sun
Heart of a Shepherd
Jake Ransom and the Skull King’s Shadow
Kaleidoscope Eyes *
Love, Aubrey *
Lucky Breaks
Mudville
Murder at Midnight *
Paris Pan Takes the Dare
Peace, Locomotion
Problem with the Puddles
Return to Sender
Scat *
Slob
Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run
The Amaranth Enchantment
The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z.
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate *
The Locked Garden
The Seven Keys of Balabad
Tropical Secrets
Unfinished Angel
When the Whistle Blows
When You Reach Me *
Wild Girl
Year the Swallows Came Early
Zoobreak
Asterisks denote three kids ready to defend as “distinguished”, but many others have a couple of bigtime cheerleaders! We will get down to roughly five titles next week.
Thanks for posting your longlist, Briar. I hope you’ll weigh in again with your shortlist when you finalize it. I’m going to ask each of my participants to give me their top three just before we go on winter break so that we can all focus on the same titles over the last month. Looking at your list of strongly supported titles, I’ll say that our strong student responses intersect at two titles: WHEN YOU REACH ME and MURDER AT MIDNIGHT.
I am considering using Tentacles by Roland Smith for one of our summer reading programs. Would you consider the book appropriate for 4th-5th graders?
Yes, I would consider TENTACLES appropriate for 4th and 5th graders. It’s a bit long at 320 pages, but it’s written with lots of dialogue, short paragraphs, and brisk pacing. It’s also the sequel to CRYPTID HUNTERS, but I think it stands alone well.
Thank you- Looking forward to seeing what your students think of the books on your list so far1
Okay, I surveyed my serious readers for their top three at this point–
three votes–
DIARY OF A WIMPY KID
WHEN YOU REACH ME
THE LAST OLYMPIAN
two votes–
THE MAGICIAN’S ELEPHANT
AVALON
ON VINEY’S MOUNTAIN
MURDER AT MIDNIGHT
THE STORM IN THE BARN
ZOOBREAK
one vote–
T-MINUS
THE DEMON KING
FRANKIE PICKLE
MOONSHOT
SILKSINGER
FABLEHAVEN
CATCHING FIRE
THE CRIMSON CAP
MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY
LIPS TOUCH
BEASTOLOGY
CLAUDETTE COLVIN
Jonathan, can you give a little more about what kind (if any) criteria you’re asking the kids to consider…i.e., how closely you’re trying to map this to the Newbery? (For instance: Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Storm in the Barn…).
Ok. I’ll re-read Magician’s Elephant.
I’m having them consider all of the Newbery criteria. I normally do mini-lessons on them when I am in the classroom, but as this is an informal lunch discussion with lots of side conversations, and it’s been challenging to do that. We have discussed that the award needs to be based on the text and when that is brought up in our final discussion, I suspect that books like WIMPY KID and STORM IN THE BARN will be taken off the table.
I can’t send mixed messages: Read! Read! Read! But, oh dear, don’t read THAT! Every reading of a book eligible by copyright date and residency/citizenship is honored in our group. I’m striving for voracious reading across a wide range of texts. To date, my top reader has 17 books in 6 weeks.
Seeing WIMPY KID mentioned made me laugh . . . because it hits home the idea that this is an award honoring the best in CHILDREN’S literature, yet ADULTS vote on it. Adults decide what’s “distinguished” for children and what’s not. Why can’t Kinney’s writing and style be considered “distinguished”? I’ll bet a lot of kids would have something to say about that . . .
Imagine . . . a room full of children discussing these books and ultimately making the decision? Percy Jackson may have won a Newbery by now!
One of my frustrations with the Newbery whining is that people complain that the Newbery books aren’t popular, but they really don’t want popular books; they don’t want Wimpy Kid and Percy Jackson. Rather, they want something that is a little bit good *and* a little bit popular. Hmpf.
I’m not whining that the Newbery books have to be “popular”, I’d just like them to be good. Except for the 3 recent years of HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY, CRISS CROSS, and KIRA KIRA, I don’t have too many complaints as of late. But those three, oofta!
I was just speaking hypothetically. Can you imagine a room full of children (the target audience) making this decision? And talking about what’s “distinguished” and what’s not?
Not accusing you, specifically, of whining, just a general statement. One of the reasons I do include the fluffy books in my mock Newbery is that I want to see if kids can use their critical thinking skills to apply the criteria and separate the wheat from the chaff. My experience is that when we pick our titles that they will be a mix of gatekeeper-approved titles and kid-centric ones.
That seems smart, Jonathan. I didn’t include the “popular” titles this year (my first time doing the Newbery club) because all my kids read those books anyway, so my focus was more to get my big readers reading something they might not normally pick up. But it’s a good idea.
Here is our 12 book “short” list, with total points (we did Newbery style nominations of first, second and third favorites across 4th, 5th and 6th grade, roughly 36 kids):
Calpurnia Tate 18
Slob 18
Locked Garden 16
Darkwood 15
Scat 15
When You Reach Me 13
Zoobreak 12
Amaranth Enchantment 10
Dormia 10
Escape Under the Forever Sky 10
Love, Aubrey 10
Peace, Locomotion 10
Of these, I would say that I am hearing the most 4th Grade buzz about Love, Aubrey – it arrived late so didn’t get as many readers before the vote but kids are recommending it left and right. They love to weep.
We’re going to do another round of nominations before Winter Break.