Shortlist!
After much reading and deliberation, Nina and I have decided on the following nine–nine!–titles:
DROWNED CITY . . .
ECHO . . .
GONE CRAZY IN ALABAMA . . .
GOODBYE STRANGER . . .
THE HIRED GIRL . . .
MOST DANGEROUS . . .
MY SENECA VILLAGE . . .
ROLLER GIRL . . .
RHYTHM RIDE . . .
We strive for simulation rather than prediction and we feel like we have a good mix of diversity in terms of audience, format, and genre–with a pinch of controversy thrown in for good measure. Additional details are forthcoming, but the San Diego Mock Newbery will be held on Wednesday, December 16th, while the Oakland mock Newbery will be held on Sunday, January 3rd.
We welcome your thoughts on the list as a whole. We’d also like to see other mock Newbery lists in the comments.
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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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My 6th graders will participate in the first elimination round next Wednesday, so this number will be halved. But here’s our list: http://www.northallegheny.org/Page/20285
I’m adding My Seneca Village next week because I think it’s a strong contender. I hope it doesn’t get knocked off in the next elimination.
Love your sixth graders’ list, Joe. I particularly enjoyed Fish in a Tree and The War That Saved My Life this year. Did the kids participate in picking this list? Or how’d you come up with these titles?
Hi, Gail –
To develop the list, I troll multiple Mock Newbery sites (this one and For Those About to Mock) are my most-visited stomping grounds. I combine some of the books I read about there with books that I’ve read and books that I think will have strong appeal to 6th graders. I have 45 participants this year, so I’ve been buying a ton of multiple copies – and I hope the medal appears on one of them!
Joe
That’s a great list! I’ll be curious to hear what your students choose. I also want to say thank you for putting A Night Divided on my radar. I don’t know how I’d missed it!
I’m shocked to see that The War That Saved My Life didn’t make this list. I’m curious as to why it was left off. I’m also surprised to see nothing for younger readers. These titles all appear to be middle grade or above.
The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, the Lane Libraries (north of Cincinnati in Butler County), and a bunch of other folks from the Cincinnati area are reading:
* Stonewall – Ann Bausum
* Stella by Starlight – Sharon Draper
* The Boys Who Challenged Hitler – Phillip Hoose
* Listen, Slowly – Thanhha Lai
* The Story of Diva and Flea – Mo Willems
* Gone Crazy in Alabama – Rita Williams-Garcia
The Sullivan County BOCES School Library System (100 northwest of NYC, very rural) has selected the following titles for their Mock Newbery shortlist:
The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen & the Churchill Club – Phillip Hoose
Echo – Pam Munoz Ryan
Fish in a Tree – Lynda Mullaly Hunt
The Hired Girl – Laura Amy Schlitz
This Side of Wild – Gary Paulsen
The War That Saved My Life – Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Stella by Starlight – Sharon M. Draper
Great list! I haven’t read This Side of Wild (animal-heavy stories are my kryptonite) but I saw it made the National Book Award longlist last month. Is it worth reading?
Our school’s Mock Newbery Committee (4th-6th grade) is still working with our long list of 35 books. We’ll vote for finalists in a couple weeks and I can update you then, but for now (in alphabetical order by title):
ANOTHER KIND OF HURRICANE by Tamara Ellis Smith
BAYOU MAGIC by Jewell Parker Rhodes
THE BOYS WHO CHALLENGED HITLER by Phillip Hoose
CHASING SECRETS by Gennifer Choldenko
CIRCUS MIRANDUS by Cassie Beasley
CRENSHAW by Katherine Applegate
THE CURIOUS WORLD OF CALPURNIA TATE by Jacqueline Kelly
THE DETECTIVE’S ASSISTANT by Kate Hannigan
ECHO by Pam Munoz Ryan
FIREFLY HOLLOW by Alison McGhee
FISH IN A TREE by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
FUZZY MUD by Louis Sachar
GEORGE by Alex Gino
GONE CRAZY IN ALABAMA by Rita Williams-Garcia
A HANDFUL OF STARS by Cynthia Lord
THE HONEST TRUTH by Dan Gemeinhart
LIKE A RIVER by Kathy Canon Wiechman
LISTEN, SLOWLY by Thanhha Lai
LOST IN THE SUN by Lisa Graff
THE MARVELS by Brian Selznick
A NEARER MOON by Melanie Crowder
A NIGHT DIVIDED by Jennifer Nielsen
OLD WOLF by Avi
PAPER THINGS by Jennifer Richard Jacobson
THE PENDERWICKS IN SPRING by Jeanne Birdsall
RED BUTTERFLY by A. L. Sonnichsen
ROLLER GIRL by Victoria Jamieson
STELLA BY STARLIGHT by Sharon Draper
THE THING ABOUT JELLYFISH by Ali Benjamin
TURNING 15 ON THE ROAD TO FREEDOM by Lynda Blackmon Lowery
UNTIL I FIND JULIAN by Patricia Reilly Giff
UNUSUAL CHICKENS FOR THE EXCEPTIONAL POULTRY FARMER by Kelly Jones
THE WAR THAT SAVED MY LIFE by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
THE WAY HOME LOOKS NOW by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
WISH GIRL by Nikki Loftin
Well, this shortlist threw me for a loop! I had been considering adding MY SENECA VILLAGE to our list, but there were also three books that weren’t even on my radar! Now all four have been added to our mock Newbery list. Here are our books: http://www.sunrisenewberyclub.com/#!what-were-reading/c21kz
(In retrospect, I wouldn’t add LOST IN NYC again)
So far my students are most in favor of:
THE WAR THAT SAVED MY LIFE
ECHO
CIRCUS MIRANDUS
FIREFLY HOLLOW
CRENSHAW
Their favorites might change as more students dive in to the books we added just a few weeks ago. I’m surprised to see FULL CICADA MOON doesn’t appear above. That book really resonated with me and with the kids in my club who’ve read it (we just added it).
Surprised THE WAR THAT SAVED MY LIFE did not make the list. It is still one of my top titles! Three titles on the list haven’t made it into our system yet – need to catch up!!
Thanks for posting all the shortlists. I love to see the variety.
I was very sad to leave THE WAR THAT SAVED MY LIFE off the list. We have an awfully crowded field with historical fiction already–ECHO, GONE CRAZY IN ALABAMA, and THE HIRED GIRL–but I think THE WAR THAT SAVED MY LIFE is arguably just as popular and may actually be easier to build consensus around and it still features some subtle diversity issues.
I also feel disappointed about the dearth of younger titles, although I do think DROWNED CITY, ROLLER GIRL, and ECHO all reach down to third grade for the right readers. Still, it would have been nice to have a picture book, easy reader, or transitional chapter book. FIREFLY HOLLOW may have been the best candidate, but I’d love to hear about others that may have flown under our radar.
All things considered: 1 poetry, 2 graphic novels, and 3 nonfiction titles (including one of the GNs).
Any chance you guys might change your minds and add The War That Saved My Life? Going back and looking at the Serious Work post, I noticed that many of those who commented said that they were looking forward to that particular title getting its own post so it could be discussed further. Come on, 10 is a nice even number! 🙂
I’m sure we will continue to have a running discussion of THE WAR THAT SAVED MY LIFE, but we were kind of pushing it with 8 titles, and then to choose 9 on short notice. It’s hard to do. We had talked about creating separate shortlists to cover more titles, but decided that it would seem weird to do that during Nina’s final year.
My Mock Newbery Committee voted today. About 30 kids in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade chose the following books as our finalists (a couple surprises in there):
GEORGE
THE WAR THAT SAVED MY LIFE
THE HONEST TRUTH
A NIGHT DIVIDED
A HANDFUL OF STARS
RED BUTTERFLY
LOST IN THE SUN
THE THING ABOUT JELLYFISH
Now that I’ve had time to dive into MY SENECA VILLAGE, I am surprised this made your list. It has content that seems far too mature for Newbery consideration. I’m not finished yet, but the poem “The Park Theatre” references whores in the balcony around her, and finishes with, “She was so entranced by the tiny distant drama/ that, when one of the pleasure-purveyors gave a cry/ of release, Elizabeth woke up with a start./ She looked around the industrious balcony…” I know many of my students wouldn’t understand this, so it might go unnoticed, but it does point to this writing being geared toward an older audience.
Now I haven’t read My Seneca Village (free verse poetry is not my cup of tea) but that passage is indeed disconcerting. I remember all of the hullabaloo that surrounded the use of the word “scrotum” in The Higher Power of Lucky. (when the conversation really should have centered around how mind-numbingly boring that book is) Maybe My Seneca Village is more of a Printz candidate.