Contact
Subscribe


  • From the Mixed-Up Files... > Book Lists > A Good Kind of Mocking

  • OhMG News!


    March 28, 2013: Big at Bologna

     

     

    This year at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, the focus has shifted to middle-grade.  “A lot of foreign publishers are cutting back on YA and are looking for middle-grade,” said agent Laura Langlie, according to Publisher's Weekly.  Lighly illustrated or stand-alone contemporary middle-grade fiction is getting the most attention.  Read more...

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    March 10, 2013: Marching to New Titles

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Check out these titles releasing in March...

     

     

     

     

     

    March 5, 2013: Catch the BEA Buzz

     

    Titles for BEA's Editor Buzz panels have been announced.  The middle-grade titles selected are:

     

     

    A Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1: Magic Marks the Spot by Caroline Carlson

     

     

    Counting By 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

     

     

    The Fantastic Family Whipple by Matthew Ward

     

     

    Nick and Tesla's High-Voltages Danger Lab by Bob Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith

     

     

    The Tie Fetch by Amy Herrick

     

    For more Buzz books in other categories, read more...

     

     

     

    February 20, 2013: Lunching at the MG Roundtable 

     

    Earlier this month, MG authors Jeanne Birdsall, Rebecca Stead, and N.D. Wilson shared insight about writing for the middle grades at an informal luncheon with librarians held in conjunction with the New York Public Library's Children's Literary Salon "Middle Grade: Surviving the Onslaught." 

     

     

    Read about their thoughts...

     

    February 10, 2013: New Books to Love

     

     

     

     

     

    Check out these new titles releasing in February...

     

     

     

    January 28, 2013: Ivan Tops List of Winners 

    The American Library Association today honored the best of the best from 2012, announcing the winners of the Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz awards, along with a host of other prestigious youth media awards, at their annual winter meeting in Seattle.

    The Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature went to The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. Honor books were: Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz; Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin; and Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage. 

    The Coretta Scott King Book Award went to Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America written by Andrea Davis Pinkney and illustrated by Brian Pinkney.

    The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, which honors an author for his or her long-standing contributions to children’s literature, was presented to Katherine Paterson.  

    The Pura Belpre Author Award, which honors a Latino author, went to Benjamin Alire Saenz for his novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, which was also named a Printz Honor book and won the Stonewall Book Award for its portrayal of the GLBT experience.

    For a complete list of winners…

     

    January 22, 2013: Biography Wins Sydney Taylor

    Louise Borden's His Name Was Raoul Wallenberg, a verse biography of the Swedish humanitarian, has won the Sydney Taylor Award in the middle-grade category. The award is given annually to books of the highest literary merit that highlight the Jewish experience. Aimee Lurie, chair of the awards committee, writes, "Louise Borden's well-researched biography will, without a doubt, inspire children to perform acts of kindness and speak out against oppression."

    For more...

     

    January 17, 2013: Erdrich Wins Second O'Dell

    Louise Erdrich is recipient of the 2013 Scott O'Dell Award for her historical novel Chickadee, the fourth book in her Birchbark House series. Roger Sutton, Horn Book editor and chair of the awards committee, says of Chickadee, "The book has humor and suspense (and disarmingly simple pencil illustrations by the author), providing a picture of 1860s Anishinabe life that is never didactic or exotic and is briskly detailed with the kind of information young readers enjoy." Erdrich also won the O'Dell Award in 2006 for The Game of Silence, the second book in the Birchbark series. 

    For more...

     

    January 15, 2013: After the Call

    Past Newbery winners Jack Gantos, Clare Vanderpool, Neil Gaiman, Rebecca Stead, and Laura Amy Schlitz talk about how winning the Newbery changed (or didn't change) their lives in this piece from Publishers Weekly...

     

    January 2, 2013: On the Big Screen

    One of our Mixed-up Files members may be headed to the movies! Jennifer Nielsen's fantasy adventure novel The False Prince is being adapted for Paramount Pictures by Bryan Cogman, story editor for HBO's Game of Thrones. For more...

     


  • Subscribe!

    Get email updates:

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

A Good Kind of Mocking

Oct 6, 2010
Book Lists, For Kids, Inspiration, Uncategorized

If you love middle grade books, join the club! The Mock Newbery Club, that is.

The real Newbery Medal is awarded annually by The Association for Library Service to Children, to the ‘…author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.’ However, many of us have our own ideas as to which was the year’s best children’s book and would love to have a say!  For this reason, many libraries and bookstores have started Mock Newbery clubs, with their own lists of this year’s favorite books which they feel are Newbery-worthy. Participants read the books and vote at the end of the year. Sometimes their picks match up to the real Newbery picks and sometimes they don’t, but either way, it’s a great way to get students and adults alike excited about some terrific middle grade books.

If your library or school doesn’t have a Mock Newbery club, consider starting one. Otherwise, you can check out these online lists, read the books and make your own predictions! You may also want to read the official list of criteria the Newbery committee must adhere to before choosing your own ‘winners.’

(NOTE: Not ALL books on these lists are middle grade – some are YA. The Newbery Award criteria specifies the intended reader shall be ‘persons of ages up to and including fourteen’ which does cross into YA territory;)

A FEW OF THE MORE WELL-KNOWN MOCK NEWBERY CLUBS AND BLOGS

The Wake County (North Carolina) Public Library has a club consisting of 25 6th through 9th graders who ask to join the club early each year. Although members have already been selected for this year’s club, they encourage everyone to read what they are reading and post comments on their blog, the Eva Perry Mock Newbery Book Club.

The Allen County (Indiana) Public Library has a club for teachers, librarians and interested adults. You may join at any time and are welcome to sign up to vote in their mock Newbery election, December 11th!

For the “Heavy Medal” blog on Newbery picks click here.

State of Rhode Island Mock Newbery has a list and blog geared towards librarians

There’s a library blog called Newbery Visionaries

And a list for librarians on Early Word.

Anderson’s Bookshop also hosts a Mock Newbery award for it’s local school children. Though this year’s list does not appear to be up yet, check back here for when it becomes public.

Lastly, if you’d like to start your own Mock Newbery club, this post should get you started!

I, for one, have a lot of reading to do!

Written by Beverly Patt, who is thrilled that her own book, BEST FRIENDS FOREVER: A WWII SCRAPBOOK, is on the Allen County Mock Newbery list and shown here, far right, with fellow authors Fran Cannon Slayton and Ellen Jensen Abbott with 2009 Newbery winner Neil Gaiman!



Written by: Beverly Patt on October 6, 2010.on July 11, 2012.
9 Comments
Tags

9 Comments

  1. Laura Marcella  •  Oct 6, 2010 @8:06 am

    This sounds so cool! I’ll have to ask my library about it. Thanks for sharing the info!

  2. Fran Cannon Slayton  •  Oct 6, 2010 @8:20 am

    And if you absolutely can’t get enough Newbery buzz, check out the frequently-posted Mock Newbery Blog “Heavy Medal” at School Library Journal! (Sorry, Bev, this one will add to your reading!)

    http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/heavymedal

  3. Mary Dunn  •  Oct 6, 2010 @9:10 am

    Hi, Bev,

    Thanks for your post about the Mock Newbery lists. My plan is to analyze the various lists you mention here and compile my own master list of the overlapping titles from each. I started with Falling In by Frances O’Roark Dowell. I met her at the International Reading Association meeting here in Chicago last spring and I see her book on Anderson’s list.

    You’ve spurred me on!
    Mary Dunn

  4. Laurie Beth Schneider  •  Oct 6, 2010 @1:10 pm

    Thanks Beverly. I love to follow these discussions, and now I have a few more to follow!

  5. S. Terrell French  •  Oct 6, 2010 @3:42 pm

    These mock Newbery’s are always good ways to find good books for your kids/students! Love the photo!

  6. Bev  •  Oct 6, 2010 @5:14 pm

    Thanks, ladies!
    Mary, I love Frances O’R Dowell’s writing – lucky you to have met her!
    I’ve read a good handful of the ones that occur on all lists but I have a long way to go.
    And, ahem, Fran, HEAVY MEDAL is #3 on my list;)
    hee!

    Bev

  7. Rosanne Parry  •  Oct 9, 2010 @2:58 pm

    Great round up of blogs, Bev! I was only familiar with the Heavy Medal and the Allen County public library one.

    I did a bunch of Newbery Club visits last year in my local school district. What I loved about them was seeing a community of readers forming in the grade school. Sometimes avid readers feel like the odd one out in their class but this drew them together with other avid readers and gave them a canon of common stories to talk about.

  8. Pragmatic Mom  •  Oct 10, 2010 @3:21 pm

    Thanks for the info on the Mock Newbery clubs and blogs. What fun! I will check them out and I’m sure I’ll discover some great finds!

  9. Bobbie  •  Oct 14, 2010 @4:40 pm

    This is such a timely posting! Several of us were just talking about this at the library the other day. Two I’m rooting for: Ninth Ward, and Mockingbird.