Welcome!

[Mary]

Hello!

If you are new to this discussion board, welcome. I hope that you will join as a member and add to the discussion.

If you are already a member, thanks! I hope you will participate even more in the 2007 Allen County Public Library's (ACPL) Mock Newbery Online Discussion and possibly join us in January 2007 in Fort Wayne, IN, to discuss and vote in our Mock Newbery.

The children's librarians at ACPL have already started a database of children's books published in 2006 which have received starred reviews in professional journals. From this list, we will create a suggested reading list for our Mock Newbery. Typically, we add titles that have received at least two starred reviews, but that isn't always the case. Sometimes we add titles by well-known authors. We also add titles that are recommended by our participants.

There are four editions of the list. The first list will be available in May 2006, the second list will be available in August/September, the third in October and the fourth in November.


This discussion board was started in order to narrow the focus of the ACPL Mock Newbery participants prior to our meeting in January to select our mock award winners. This has aided participants with limited time (basically, everyone) to share the books which they feel are truly contenders or which they simply want to discuss with others.

We appreciate the input of all members of the discussion board, whether or not you can join us in January at our library for our Mock Newbery Election.

Whenever you have a title you want to discuss, please add a thread for it in the folder called Recommended Titles of 2006 for the 2007 Mock Newbery. It is useful it you include the author's last name as well as a portion of the title in the subject line.

The home page of this discussion board has links to the library as well as to the official Newbery Medal page. Please check out the criteria for the Newbery Medal if you aren't familiar with it.

If you have trouble with any aspect of the page, please feel free to send me a personal message through this page. If you are having trouble joining, please email me at [e-mail].


I think that about covers it. I look forward to our 2006 discussion of books for the 2007 award.

Sincerely,

Mary

[carla]

Hi Mary,

I have been using your list of books for the past 4 years. I teach 6th grade at Newbury Elementary School in Ohio. This years books are outstanding! I wrote a grant to help cover the cost of the books, we received over $1,700 to purchase the books (Marth Jennings Grant)that looked interesting enough for 5th and 6th graders. I think we ended up with 29 titles, 6 hardback copies of most and our students are devouring them! We have a newbury's newbery book club that meets once a week for lunch and discussion. There are 5 teachers involved this year and over 50 students, out of 120 in those grades. I wanted to let you know that this has been a very successful way to get children into reading all sorts of books. We will be voting also in January and will check to see if we have chosen the winner. My favorites so far are Bread and Roses, Too and Firegirl. I have read almost all of the 29 selections that we bought and I can say I can't wait to use many of them in my homeroom. Also, the group that gave us the grant money is doing an article on the bookclub, would you like me to forward it to you?

Thanks for the Mock Election and the selection of such fine literature

Carla

[Mary]

Carla -

What an exciting project! I am so pleased that you are using this opportunity to expose your students to a variety of quality, new, literature. By the middle of next week, we will post our 4th and last Mock Newbery reading list for the year; keep your eyes open for it! I would love to see a copy of the article that is being written about the success of your program. Thanks! (I'll also be very interested in seeing what book your students choose when they vote.)

[Tess]

How VERY cool!