Other Mock Winners, Echo Chambers and Outliers
Tomorrow I head to Dallas for ALA, and Jonathan a little later. So here’s where our postings and comments may get a little more sporadic. You’ll hear from us at the conference, and on Monday of course.
A couple of Mock Newberies reported on the ALSC listserv:
Queens Library: Winner: OKAY FOR NOW, Honor: WONDERSTRUCK
Maryland Library Association: Winner: OKAY FOR NOW
Allen County Public Library reported online their winner: INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN, and honor: OKAY FOR NOW.
Still to come online: Rhode Island Office of Lib and Info Studies decides tonight, Eva Perry Mock Newbery Club on Friday night, and St Joseph County on Saturday. Way to string out the drama!!
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Now, compare these winners, and ours, with the Goodreads poll, and you start to get what Mark Flowers so aptly called at our gathering on Monday an “echo chamber.” While there are some very clear deserving favorites at the top of that poll (in order: OKAY, MONSTER, WONDERSTRUCK, INSIDE OUT, BREADCRUMBS, AMELIA LOST, etc.) showing up as Mock Winners, I have to remember that for all the darn work we put into this, these titles reflect only what we’ve been able to encourage many others to appreciate. These are popular contenders. Will any of them be chosen as the most distinguished by the actual committee?
To tag onto Jonathan’s “Unstarred” post, here are a few more titles that I still find strong, and “less buzzed”:
MO WREN, LOST AND FOUND: Tight prose hitting all the pertinent critieria: setting, character, and well-paced episodic plot. For a “familiar” story structure, plenty of surprises in the protagonist’s attitude. She sticks around in my memory.
SWIRL BY SWIRL: SPIRALS IN NATURE. A pitch perfect poetic informational picture book text that epitomizes distinguished text. It stands up against THE MONEY WE’LL SAVE in my book, but I felt like we could only get away with one picture book on our shortlist. Plus we did Sidman last year.
PIE. I know, I know. But I just re-read it and it stands up. Whacky, fast-paced plot. Oddball characters all vividly drawn. Maybe it doesn’t rise to the top of the heap, but it sure gives others something to shoot for in style.
NEVER FORGOTTEN. Captivating voice, giving history both a personal and a heroic tone. Nearly made our shortlist.
BOOTLEG. My favorite of the other strong nonfiction contenders this year…I’m not a natural nonfiction reader but I slurped this one up.
CHIME. Yep, when all is said and done I come back to it as still a very strong contender for the upper range. Makes a good pair with SCORPIO RACES, which perhaps had the tighter plot and character development, but which I thought had a raveling ending. Both are still on my list.
And though I probably would place them below all these, I still have soft spots for JUNONIA, BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY, EDDIE’S WAR and BLUEFISH. And, ok Sam, I’d probably have to put SPARROW ROAD here too.
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About Nina Lindsay
Nina Lindsay is the Children's Services Coordinator at the Oakland Public Library, CA. She chaired the 2008 Newbery Committee, and served on the 2004 and 1998 committees. You can reach her at ninalindsay@gmail.com
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SLJ Blog Network
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Nonfiction Round-Up: A look at Mock Newbery possibilities, from plastic straws to World War II
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I just trolled the internet looking for other results . . .
I know this was already posted to the blog earlier by Sam Bloom–
Medal: INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN
Honor: SMALL AS AN ELEPHANT
Honor: AMELIA LOST
Here are Medal winners for two groups of fifth graders at different elementary schools in Wilsonville, OR (they had a pool of six books)
THE PENDERWICKS AT POINT MOUETTE
THE TROUBLE WITH MAY AMELIA
Another student group in Zionsville, IN (Laura’s group) chose five books–
LOST VOICES
I BROKE MY TRUNK
BREADCRUMBS
THE EMERALD ATLAS
INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN
Ocean County (NJ?) librarians–
Medal: OKAY FOR NOW
Honor: HOUND DOG TRUE
Honor: A MONSTER CALLS
Honor: DEAD END IN NORVELT
Two groups in Suffolk County, NY, one chose–
Medal: INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN
Honor: CHESHIRE CHEESE CAT
and the other–
Medal: INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN
Honor: CHESHIRE CHEESE CAT
Honor: AMELIA LOST
Falmouth Elementary School (ME?)–
Medal: SMALL AS AN ELEPHANT
Honor: BIGGER THAN A BREADBOX
Honor: NO PASSENGERS BEYOND THIS POINT
Honor: THE EMERALD ATLAS
Honor: TRUE (SORT OF . . .)
Let us know about others!
My students will be holding theirs on Friday. I’m not sure how legit it is as I don’t make a short list. I want to give as many students as possible the chance to participate. And since I can’t justify buying multiple copies of just a few books my list tends to be very long. I think I put about 50 books on the list this year. I star the books that are getting the most buzz or that I think stand the biggest chance. The requirement to vote and attend the live announcement is to have read five books from the list, four of which need to be starred. Some students can barely eek out the five books and two have read all 50. I’m most proud that a few struggling readers have joined and met the goal.
I’ll let you know on Friday how it goes down.
Yesterday, the 4-8th grade Mock Newbery club at Berkeley Carroll in Brooklyn had their final vote.
Medal: WONDERSTRUCK
Honor: OKAY FOR NOW
Honor: SIDEKICKS.
They read at least 3 books from a shelf of about 45 (some 4th graders read 12+!) and then voted to get a finalist list (which also included INSIDE OUT, SMALL PERSONS WITH WINGS and WORDS IN THE DUST). The final result came after only one round of voting and WONDERSTRUCK won by a landslide with the two honors clearly above the rest of the pack.
RI held it’s Mock Newbery voting last night. We discussed the 14 titles on our short list, and then voted for our winners.
Medal: Okay for Now
Honor: Toys Come Home
Honor: Inside Out and Back Again
Honor: A Monster Calls
I can’t wait until Monday!
So glad to see Toys Come Home on the RI list!
There was a lot of love for Toys Come Home among our group members. I am personally happy it is there, too!
The Mock Newbery Committee of Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, comprised of 25 4th and 5th graders, voted on Tuesday:
MEDAL: A Monster Calls
HONOR: The Unwanteds
HONOR: Small as an Elephant
The other finalists were Okay for Now, The Emerald Atlas, Breadcrumbs, and Four Seasons. We had some impassioned discussion, with collective gasps at the two or three members who declared that they did not like A Monster Calls or Small as an Elephant.
Looking forward to Monday!
The members of the Ossining Public Library’s OPLbery Club (a mock Newbery Club) awarded the OPLbery Medal on January 11, 2012 to:
Floors, by Patrick Carman.
OPLbery Honors were awarded to Close to Famous, by Joan Bauer, and The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman, by Meg Wolitzer.
The club members, ages 9 to 13, have been meeting monthly since March 2011 and have read more than 40 book.
Nina, thanks for all the affection you’ve shown my little Mo!
Our results are in, but you will need to keep the info on the downlow. We voted right before school ended on Friday and I won’t announce the winner to my students until after we watch the announcement live.
Because of the sporadic reading, our voting was just a tally of points, without trying for a majority consensus. Not very kosher, I know. Maybe some year I will figure out how to make a short list and still have enough books for everyone to read. Anyway as a result the top three vote-getters were within a few votes of each other. In fact a friends husband, who is a statistical genus made me an excel spread sheet that weighted the books by how many readers they had against the number and placement of the votes. It is very cool and when I plugged in the data a different book won.
Anyway without any further blather here is the official Snow Horse Leubery winner and honors of 2012.
Medal:
BETWEEN THE SHADES OF GRAY
Honors:
ICEFALL
A MONSTER CALLS
Funny thing is that the only reason BTSOG was on my list was because early in the year I was looking for eligible books for our faculty book club. Most of the teachers buy their own copies and then lend them to me during Newbery club. I don’t think I would have put the book on the list otherwise. I told the kids the book might make some of them uncomfortable and not to feel bad if they didn’t feel ready to read it, so of course most of them read it. I suspect that beside the fact that they found the story truly compelling, they also felt included in a more adult world where they were trusted to examine greater issues of human suffering and triumph.
Although many students read AMELIA LOST and universally ranked it high, it didn’t get a single vote. (Well, except mine)
Our group of 3rd-5th grade students at Tuckahoe Elementary in Virginia chose from a shortlist of Amelia Lost, Insided Out & Back Again, Jefferson’s Sons, and Wonderstruck. Our winner was Jefferson’s Sons with Wonderstruck a close second.
From the St. Joseph County (IN) Public Library (SJCPL):
SJCPL Children’s Mock Newbery Club, Friday, 1/20/12:
Medal: Okay for Now, Schmidt
Honors:
Between Shades of Gray, Sepetys
The Trouble with May Amelia, Holm
SJCPL Adult Mock Newbery Club, Sat., 1/21/12:
Medal: Inside Out and Back Again, Lai
Honors:
A Monster Calls, Ness
Okay for Now, Schmidt
Breaking Stalin’s Nose, Yelchin
Thanksfor posting St Joseph!
Eva Perry picked BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY, with honors MONSTER CALLS, BIRD INA BOX, MICHAEL VEY, and WORDS OF DUST
BIRD IN A BOX never really got attention here, which was probably an oversight. Never leapt to the top for me, but strong voice and setting…memorably so.
Results of our Adults Read Youth Books Mock Newbery (Oakland, CA):
2012 Mock Newbery Winner: A Monster Calls Ness, Patrick
2012 Mock Newbery Honor: Blizzard of Glass Walker, Sally
2012 Mock Newbery Honor: Bootleg Blumenthal, Karen
2012 Mock Newbery Honor: Cheshire Cheese Cat Deedy, Carmen Agra
2012 Mock Newbery Honor: Inside Out and Back Again Lai, Thanhha
The Horace Mann School’s Mock Newbery closed voting tonight- both Okay for Now and Monster Calls won medals (we could not break the tie), Wonderstruck won the honor. I’m in Dallas now and so excited for tomorrow’s announcement!