Two years ago, Bill and I started a little segment at the end of December that ran through the announcement of the ALA awards, and we called it Looking for Newbery. It was fun for us to start thinking critically about some of the books we had read that year, and whether we thought they deserved the Newbery Award. We either reviewed, or looked back at a review we already had written, each day for a month leading up to the Newbery.
We had so much fun the first year, we brought it back last year. Once again, we blogged about the books we thought were the best and the brightest of the year. What made last year especially fun (at least for me), was that the book I loved from the start won the award. When You Reach Me was a perfect choice for a winner last year.
So, with all that fun and thinking, Bill and I have decided to announce our 3rd annual Looking for Newbery. The ALA awards are quite early this year (January 10), so we won't have as many posts as the last few years. We will start our Looking for Newbery posts on December 26, and post daily through January 9.
With all the online chatter about the Newbery, it has been easy to stay current with the books that people believe have Newbery qualities. We have combined the thinking from the GoodReads Mock Newbery group, the Allen County Library's mock Newbery list, Heavy Medal's list, and Fuse#8's half-way list.
With only 14 days to post this year, we might not get to every deserving book, but we will sure be trying! :) We hope you will join us starting December 26th as we start our 3rd Annual Looking for Newbery.
What fun! I love this and can't wait to read your posts. And it will help me to select books for my 5th grader who is reading so fast, my bookshelves can't keep up. What fun to read and predict the winners ourselves too!
ReplyDeletePragmatic Mom - So glad you'll be joining us for the fun starting next Monday! :)
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