Sunday, December 7, 2014

Emerson's 2015 Mock Newbery Nominations (ages 9-14)

Kids love talking about books, especially when you ask them their opinion about books they love. At Emerson, our lunchtime book club is in the midst of reading for our Mock Newbery discussions -- a chance for our 4th and 5th graders to talk about the best books of the year.

We started off in September by talking about the Newbery Award, what it is and how we look at books. Each year, librarians gather to discuss all of the books published for children in America that year and select the most distinguished. It isn't a popularity contest, but rather a chance to see which author creates distinctive characters, an engaging story, nuanced themes, a memorable setting. We talk about how they must look only at the words -- and so this means many of the graphic novels my students love won't be particularly eligible.

After reading throughout the fall, our students started nominating the eligible books they felt were most distinguished. It is creating terrific buzz around many amazing books. I just love the way kids are championing some books, convincing friends that they just have to read them.  Below is our list of nominated books and a slideshow I share with all our classes.

Wow! Our students have nominated seventeen terrific titles. I particularly like how diverse this range of titles is--covering a wide range of writing styles, genres, and characters. We will work hard to compare books as different as The Crossover with Life of Zarf! But throughout our discussion, we will keep bringing it back to the qualities of good literature: characters, plot, setting, dialog, themes and language.

In early January, we will help them narrow this down to the books with the most readers -- so we can have an in-depth discussion comparing different books.

I hope you enjoy trying out some of these titles. They are books that speak to readers and create conversation. I couldn't ask for anything more.

A wide range of publishers have been very supportive sending us books for review, and we have purchased more copies of each book. If you make a purchase using the Amazon links on this site, a small portion goes to Great Kid Books. Thank you for your support.

©2014 Mary Ann Scheuer, Great Kid Books

4 comments:

  1. I really like the idea of a Mock Newbery Nomination. What a neat activity.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for sharing. It's always particularly interesting to see kids' choices.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey, Mary Ann :) I love these mock Newbery and Caldecotts the schools do. It really helps kids examine the value of these books and creates more appreciation as readers throughout their lives :D

    In case it's handy, I just put up a post about John Newbery:

    http://writersideup.com/2014/10/25/up-john-newbery-the-man-behind-the-medal/

    Also, I'm compelled to mention a wonderful book I wish had more buzz about it that I think is a Newbery-type book:

    WHEELS OF CHANGE by Darlene Beck Jacobson

    I sincerely feel it should be on every school library shelf :) And yay for you and your students! Some GREAT choices here! :D

    ReplyDelete