'Twas the Night Before...

#ALAYMA20

I am surprised I slept so well last night. 

While dozens of librarians are coming to final decisions this weekend, I am holding my breath that the books my students have read, critiqued, passionately debated and genuinely loved are the same books as those of the committees. Considering the spinning going through my brain right now, I may not be as well rested tomorrow morning.

When I first started my months-long award predicting projects many years ago, I would be disappointed when our favorites would not align with those of the committees. How could they not make the same decisions for Newbery as my fifth graders? After my students booed one year because the winner was not at the top of any of their lists, we had to have a full on lesson on sportsmanship.  These days, I remind myself and my students that each committee is made up of a set number of librarians and those gold and silver decisions are based solely on who is "in the room where it happens." Were different people in the room, the outcome could be entirely different. Some years we may agree wholeheartedly and unanimously (ie 2015 for Newbery, 2018 for Caldecott); some years not so much. As I write this, I wonder what kind of year 2020 will be.

But does it really matter if we agree? For months my students have fallen in love with reading "Newbery books" after checking in and out what I deem to be distinguished literature. They have boisterously entered the library searching for yet another "Newbery" book, perhaps the winner or perhaps not.  They have kindly argued on behalf of their book deserving a gold medal in the classroom, the hallway, and at home. My fourth grade nonfiction fans have hugged their books and designed t-shirts with the hopes that on Monday they will be wearing a winner. First graders and their teachers have consistently given 4-5 stars to the beautiful Caldecott contenders we have read aloud this month of "Caldec-ary." If we were committee members, we might have to award ten or more honors across the board.

If you, like me, may not be able to sleep tonight, and you don't want to start another episode of ____ on Neflix, you can scroll down for some Sibert contender recommendations and 2019 middle grade/Newbery contender book trailers.  Maybe, just maybe, there's a winner or two or three in there.

SIBERT SMACKDOWN

Sibert Smackdown Day 1: November 4, 2020

We read and read, determined our favorites, recorded our persuasive paragraphs via Flipgrid and finally designed t-shirts to wear to the Youth Media Awards.  Flipgrid videos that made me ooze with pride are here 👇

Newbery

Need more distractions? Check out some of these awesome book trailers:

The Year We Fell from Space by Amy Sarig King

Ruby in the Sky by Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo






Born to Fly by Steve Sheinkin (We love this for Newbery and Sibert)




The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman (This book won our Consensus Club.)





My Jasper June by Laurel Snyder



Beverly Right Here by Kate DiCamillo (So awesome that Jess got to meet Kate this fall!)



A Time Traveler's Theory of Relativity by Nicole Valentine


Just a few other books we had lots of love for this season:

Here's the link for the awards: http://ala.unikron.com/ As I hit "publish" there are 11 hours to go.  See you on the upside!

2019 Newbery Contender Book Trailers

Grab your popcorn and a comfy spot. Maybe a pencil and paper, too. It's time to watch a bunch of book trailers of 2019 Newbery contenders created by my fifth graders.  I have even more--these are some of the best and I really didn't want to overload you too much! BUT if you want to see more, just send me a message!

One week (!) from today we will know the winners! In this year of really awesome, incredible children's literature, I have NO IDEA what books are going to rise to the top in those closed door meetings next weekend.  NO. IDEA. 

The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle
by Leslie Connor




Louisiana's Way Home
By Kate DiCamillo




Rebound
By Kwame Alexander




The Faithful Spy
By John Hendrix




Front Desk
By Kelly Yang




Bob
By Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead


 

Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish
By Pablo Cartaya


 

The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle
By Christina Uss



And one that could really win Caldecott and/or Sibert:

Otis and Will Discover the Deep
By Barb Rosenstock and illustrated by Katherine Roy




More books that we loved that just didn't make the video cuts:

The Night Diary
Amal Unbound
The Season of Styx Malone
Sweep 
Lions and Liars
Out of Left Field 
Betty Before X 
The Day You Begin
Small Spaces 

SO? What books do you think will win GOLD next Monday???

My fan post to Kelly Barnhill

Kelly Barnhill probably doesn't remember meeting me at the Princeton Book Festival this past September.  She was sitting behind a table among the swarms of authors, illustrators and other swooning book fans like myself. I went up to her nervously and told her that she was going to win the Newbery award.  She smiled nicely, disagreed kindly and proceeded to sign my book and take a picture with me.  I was so confident she was going to win that when my son asked for a copy of the book, I gave in and bought two.  I wanted my own copy signed to me by the future Newbery winner. (Sounds like I should go to Vegas, huh?!)

We spent a lot of time with this book from late Fall-early Winter.  It's all here.  The lucky book group members to book trailers with moon drinks to letters that lead to a Skype and more.  It's so exciting to love a book so much and then watch it win the Newbery Award.  CES loves Kelly and looks forward to one day breaking out our red carpet for another award winning author!

In Which the CES Newbery Project began

It's November 1, 2016 and we kicked off Newbery.  Every fifth grader received a pamphlet with "buzzing" books listed.  What book did I put in my column with the most "buzz"?  Check it out:

In Which we had a Book Group

Mr. Reischer loves fantasy so even though I really wanted to lead The Girl Who Drank the Moon book group, I gave it to him.  I know he was excited to read fantasy with kids.  I love seeing the kids thrilled to read no matter what book it is.  The kids in this book group got lucky--each one of them went home with a poster thanks to Kelly's publicist at Algonquin.  Thank you, Trevor!

Here's the poster in the top left hanging in our "Newbery Nook"

The lucky "Girl Who Drank the Moon" book group with their posters!

In Which we created Animotos

Ashlyn (the girl in the striped shirt above and the one I couldn't stop hugging at the YMA announcements) and her partner, Liam, chose to do this book for their Animoto book trailer project. Even though they left out some parts and my favorite characters, Glerk and Fyrian, I hope it will still get you interested in reading the book, if you haven't already!

At the Animoto party, Ashlyn brought in "moon drinks" and "moons" as book related refreshments.

Two other students also did an Animoto which touched on a few other aspects of the book.

In Which we wrote letters Lead to the Author

Here are some excerpts from the letters students wrote to Kelly (I couldn't include the whole letters because they had spoilers in them):

In Which we Skyped with Kelly

In Which we took a leap with Kelly

In Which we performed a Reader's Theatre

If you'd like to see the video of their Reader's Theatre, let me know.  It's was too big to upload. Here's a picture of the group:

In Which we CELEBRATED!

Except for Kelly and the folks at Algonquin, I can't imagine if anyone else was as excited as we were when we watched the Newbery Award announced.  For over two months, these kids spent so much time with Luna, Xan, Glerk, Fyrian, the madwoman, Antain, the Sorrow Eater and all the other characters, how could we not leap and scream and scream and hug and leap when the book we championed from Day One received its well deserved gold sticker.

I know I posted this video already but I just love it so much. OMG! A book we loved won!

"Just because you don't see something doesn't mean it isn't there.  Some of the most wonderful things in the world are invisible.  Trusting in invisible things makes them more powerful and wondrous.  You'll see."

-Kelly Barnhill from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

The American Library Association's Youth Media Award selection process is invisible to us. We trusted in the invisible process and now so many more young people will have the opportunity to meet the characters we laughed and cried with, supported and cheered for, but most importantly just plain loved.

"Sometimes people are more than one thing.  I am Glerk.  I am your friend.  I am Luna's family.  I am a Poet.  I am a maker.  And I am the Bog. But to you, I am simply Glerk.  Your Glerk.  And I do love you very much."

-Glerk to Fyrain in The Girl Who Drank the Moon

And Kelly we love you for writing such a beautiful and magical story that we couldn't put down from Day 1. Congratulations!

2017 Mock Newbery Book Trailers

Three weeks from today will be the day we've all been waiting for--The ALA Youth Media Award announcements.  Out of the Dolby into Atlanta, Oscars.  Turn the down the music, Grammys. And glad-the-theatre-is-dark-on-Mondays Tonys, for January 23 is our day to celebrate!

Just before break, we had our Animoto Party.  A little Hollywood twist on movie trailers for our books.  We even had some book related food:

WISH JELLO

GHOSTS lollypops

MOO Oreos

SNOW WHITE apples

THE GIRL WHO DRANK THE MOON treats 

Now go and grab your popcorn, cuddle up on the couch and enjoy!

Gertie's Leap to Greatness

When The Sea Turned to Silver

Towers Falling

The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Wolf Hollow

The Wild Robot

Hour of the Bees

All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook

Booked

Raymie Nightingale

Full of Beans

Maybe a Fox

The Inquisitor's Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog

Ghosts

Counting Thyme

Pax

Moo

I'm so proud of all my students and the hard work and creativity they put into producing these book trailers.  I know they hope you will be inspired to read (or re-read) a book based on these videos. And the big question of the month is, "What's at the top of your Newbery 2017 list?"