Librarian Leaps: Consensus Club 2019

Hey, Seattle?

Are you ready? The librarians are on their way.

3000 miles east, we are.
The books have been read.
The projects completed.
T-shirts almost made.
Golden cookies ordered.
Books debated.
Authors skyped.
Scripts written.
Consensus Club confirmed.
Monday 11:00 EST cannot come soon enough.

This afternoon the winners of Consensus Club were declared. They are...

SILVERS

Out of Left Field by Ellen Klages

Sweep by Jonathan Auxier

The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle by Christina Uss

The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle by Leslie Connor

GOLD

Resistance by Jennifer Nielsen

Wow. As always it was an exciting afternoon locked behind closed doors in Mr. Reischer's room, drinking our "Starbucks" hot cocoa and enjoying a nice variety of salty and sweet snacks while discussing the best books of 2018. The kids were passionate and convincing, closely huddling around the board as we tallied votes time after time. Two kids were absent who were planning on attending. I imagine one would have been pushing more for Mason Buttle and Parker Inheritance. Or even Styx Malone. The other definitely Faithful Spy. That got me thinking about the real Newbery Committee. Every year I'm surprised, sometimes disappointed about the winning books. You hear people say this and now I get it--it really comes down to the make up of the committee. If Connor or Ava had been there today, maybe we would have had a different outcome.

This weekend, fifteen people are going to sit for countless hours in a meeting room in Seattle and discuss all the books we read and loved this year. They will choose their winners based on who is in the room where it happens. What if Ava and Connor were there and Micah was sick? Would our Consensus results been different? Who knows? What I do know, is that, my students (and all the other Mock Committee members around the country) are the true winners. They read the books. And they read some more. And they read even more. How is that not a winning combination? And if one of their favorites actually does win? Bonus. Either way, I guarantee you will hear our screams from Castleton in Seattle.