Mock Newbery

I’ve got to get better at adding posts to this blog. Never having kept a journal, I’m just not used to putting my thoughts on paper. Guess I need some discipline here.

I’ve been busy with two library related projects since December. One is participating in the Mock Newbery meetings that take place every fall into January. Since I started my reading later than usual, I pretty much read every spare minute through the holidays. In my opinion this year’s crop of children’s fiction is quite good. We didn’t consider any non-fiction although I understand that the real Newbery committee can do that since the award is given to the author of the “most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published in the United States during the preceding year”.

Still, given the range of genres and subject matter in children’s lit and the 8 to 14 age range, it was no easy matter deciding on our winner, especially when there wasn’t a title that jumped out as a clear favorite. Our final/voting meeting occurred Wednesday. After a terrific discussion, several votes and no more time, we decided on Keeping Score (Park) as the winner by 1 vote over Waiting for Normal (Connor). The actual Newbery committee members would have to keep voting until a clear winner emerged.

Other titles that were contenders included my favorite, Masterpiece (Broach), The Hunger Games (Collins), Diamond Willow (Frost), Greetings from Nowhere (O’Connor) and the title I think will actually win, Shooting the Moon (Dowell). Hopefully the winner and several honor books are on this list but I’ll have to wait until the announcement on January 26th to find out.

I have to mention one more title that won my heart, Alvin Ho, Allergic to Girls, School and Other Scary Things (Look). It will probably be the first in a series but Alvin is someone worth knowing. He's funny, smart, wants friends but can't bring himself to speak to anyone in school. The father/son relationship depicted is especially winning. It's a perfect book for 2nd and 3rd graders, but older children will enjoy it too.