2017 Newbery Consensus Club

Check it out.  Fourteen kids read at least 10 books in 10 weeks so they could get an invite to this closed door meeting.  One went running around to local libraries last night so he could squeeze in the final book. Another one spent over three hours after school reading a whole book from start to finish. Someone else had five chapters left and was going home to read them with his Mom.  Another one had her Mom bake special "book related" cookies from her favorite book just for our meeting. This is what you call passion about reading and boy is it contagious.

There was buzzing about books for weeks and this was the place you wanted to be at 2:30 if you were in fifth grade at Castleton Elementary School.

Consensus Club Committee Members with their Top Choices

The HOUR OF THE BEES cookies!

We definitely had lots of nourishment!  Notice the Starbucks hot cocoa?  That's my little homage to the real Newbery Committee.  What's a Newbery Committee without Starbucks?  So I go out and get a box that I fill with hot water, add Trader Joe's hot cocoa and presto--"Starbucks!"

First Step

We looked at all of our books and started eliminating ones that just may not be the most distinguished.  Even this first step was tough. We also went around and talked about our favorite books, why we loved them so much and why it deserves a Newbery medal.

There's Mr. Reischer, our fearless leader!

Discussing the Books

The passion. The energy. The enthusiasm.  I wish you could have been in the room where it happened.  We had a deep discussion about Ghost by Jason Reynolds. Afterwards, the three kids who were totally into it, got up and just high fived each other.  Kids debated whether Sharon Creech's Moo had a slow start or not. The many themes in The Wild Robot by Peter Brown and how they were addressed made for another meaningful discussion. We could have talked books for hours.

And the winners are...

After serious debating and voting, fingers crossing and screaming, we came to a decision.  Drum roll please:

Gold Medal

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

by Adam Gidwitz

Honor

Ghost 

by Jason Reynolds

Honor

Hour of the Bees 

by Lindsay Eager

Kids were happy that their book won something.  Others were disappointed that their book didn't win the gold. All of the books are winners in my mind.  In the words of The Inquisitor's Tale "each book is a lot of lives. Dozens and dozens of them....And each life a whole world." All of these books, works of art with their many lives, touch the lives of the dozens and dozens of our students, get them excited about reading and for that I am grateful.

Now the waiting begins...

Three more days!  If you haven't bookmarked the live webcast yet, here it is:

ALA YOUTH MEDIA AWARDS

ps-Lucky us! We Skyped with two of the three of our winners.  Exciting!

Our gold medal winner, Adam Gidwitz

Lindsay Eager with her biggest fans!

A reflection on friendship in books from 2016

Friends for 34 years, way before the "selfie" was invented!

My favorite part of the New York Times Style Magazine is the back page.  That's where they ask someone famous to draw the answers to everyday questions.  Every once in awhile I have a minute to scan through it to see if anything else draws my attention.  Today, as I was just about to recycle the November magazine, I happened upon an article that touched me so deeply, about the old friends we can't let go of, whether they are gone from our lives or not:  http://nyti.ms/2glYGoV

There are many that I think about that have left:

• After third grade, one of my very best friends, Allison Zeith, moved to Staten Island from our haven in Briarwood, Queens.  We saw each other a few times after that and then never again.  I always wonder what happened to her.  I have vivid memories of hanging out in her apartment, and watching old, black and white King Kong movies together.

• Thanks to FaceBook, I am "friends" with dozens of my early childhood friends (ie, PS 117,  JHS 217), so many of whom I haven't seen face to face in 30+ years and would love to meet for coffee some day to catch up. If you are reading this, can we make it happen in 2017?  I don't make resolutions, but if I did this could certainly qualify.

• There are many from Cardozo HS, Bayside, Queens I would love to see, too.  Our 30th HS reunion is this year (oh my!) so if something is organized, maybe I will actually have the opportunity to do this.  A lot has happened since big hair and Reaganomics.

• What about my orchestra mates at SUNY-Binghamton.  Would I even recognize you 25 years later?

• I had a couple of housemates in graduate school that would be fun to connect with.  It's a problem because I can't remember how to spell Matt K's last name so there is no way I can look him up.  He owned the house but goodness knows those checkbooks with his name in it are long gone.  Rick Mitchell, with a common enough name, makes him challenging to look up on social media.

But, I do have one true friend who I met at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires in 1982 and who has not left my side since.  Back then Queens to New Jersey felt like an eternity apart.  We counted long distant minutes on our rotary phones and mailed each other long tomes of who we liked but who didn't like us back (mostly me) and what crushes crushed us that week (again me).  Today, in spite of the now 3000 miles separating us, we still remain very close. This post is dedicated to my BFF, Beth.

But because this is a library blog, I'm not just writing about my friends, but tying it all together by giving you a taste of five books published this year that I love, with a strong friendship theme:

Booked by Kwame Alexander

Two friends, Nick and Coby.  They play some serious soccer.  Throw some family issues in there and a girl, and this book touches it all--perfect for anyone from 9-99.

Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart

Screenshot from Overdrive

Two eighth graders you would never imagine to become friends, do, in a backdrop of Dunkin Donuts, plastic pink flamingoes, a special tree and family members you want to hug one day and shake up the next.  A must read for every middle schooler.

Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo

The Three Rancheros meet at baton twirling lessons.  All have a different reason for wanting to win the "Little Miss Central Florida Tire Contest."  When the friendship becomes solidified, you can't help but feel happy.  People are wondering if boys will like this book.  I can attest that they do as I had several in my book group who, not only liked it, but who were quite engaged in our discussions at our group meetings.

Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan

A giant book cover from our MOST event

From the alternating point of view Joe and Ravi, two fifth graders, this is their story of how they became friends after a week of school lunches. A must read for every upper elementary school class, even as young as third grade.  

Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Three kids, three different stories, coming together in fifth grade while learning about 9/11 during the 2016-17 school year on the fifteenth anniversary and beyond.

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

If you doubt that a book about a robot getting stranded on an island could have such strong themes about friendship, family and the environment, then you need to get a copy of The Wild Robot today. We are all surprised at how much we like the book, but the truth is, we do!

My "Wild Robot" book group with arcs thanks to Little, Brown

We Found a Hat by Jon Klassen

Yes, it's a picture book but that doesn't mean it can't belong here. I can't get enough of it--Two turtles, one hat.  It could end up badly but the bond of friendship keeps it from going that way.  Simple illustrations with a short but meaningful story.

Just a few where old friends were left behind when family came first...

Counting Thyme by Melanie Conklin

Thyme moves across the country for her brother's health and struggles with missing her old friends and making new ones in the city.

Ghosts by Raina Telgeimer

Similar to Counting Thyme, in Ghosts, Cat and her family move down the coast of California to protect her sister's health.  Little do they know that the new friends they make could be harmful.

Hour of the Bees by Lindsay Eager

Boy is it hard to be away for the summer, discover things about your family and roots that you never knew and then go back home and start middle school with friends you haven't seen all summer. 

Speaking of friends, here's a text from one after she read "Hour of the Bees."

Here's hoping you have a wonderful holiday season filled with lots of time with family and FRIENDS and maybe even a connection or two with ones that may be gone from your life but never forgotten.

Our last "Hour of the Bees" book group meeting

My fifth grade all-girls book group just finished Lindsay Eager's Hour of the Bees.  We celebrated with punch, suncakes (pancakes), chips, salsa and snowcones.  Here's what they had to say about the book.  Needless to say, it's a winner for them!

"I'm speechless.  The contract says '10' but this book went to '11'."

"There are so many words to describe this book.  It's beyond amazing.  I wanted to keep reading but it was like, 9:30 at night."

"I like how it started the stories 'Once upon a time...'and then at the end of the story it would say 'Once upon a time...' again.'"

"The ending was really sad and a shock to me."

"The book is amazing. It is above the stars."

Kate and her "suncakes"

"I really wanted to be in this book group and am so glad I got in!  I love this book so much!"

The girls have some questions for Lindsay:

• What inspired you to write the book?
• If the stories are real, how old is Raul?
• Were you like Carol when you were little?
• Where did the names in the book come from?
• What's your recipe for suncakes?
• Will there be a sequel?  If so, you have five girls who will be standing in line the day it comes out to read it!
• Did you ever live in Albuquerque?
• Where did you get the inspiration for the settings like the ranch and the city development that Carol lives in with her family?

To wrap up, they said "Lindsay Eager's book is going to win the 2017 Newbery Award and it is the best book we ever read!"  You gotta love kids who totally fall for a book!  I know I do!  The biggest question they have now is "What should I read next?"  Suggestions?

Leaping for Lindsay!

Hour of the Bees

Before I finished "Hour of the Bees" I received this text from my extraordinary volunteer, Mrs. Warland: 

She couldn't be more right. Right about the wow-factor and so right about the tissues. 

Rising 6th grader, Carol and her family go to the desert from Albuquerque for the summer with the intent to pack up and move her grandfather, Serge, "a crotchety, demented, thousand-year old man" off the family ranch to an assisted living home. While  Serge suffers from dementia, Carol struggles to figure out so much more. There in the openness of the ranch, Carol discovers that she is "...nothing...less than a smudge on the pages of the world's history, tiny on the number line of forever. The lost sheep, Alta, Serge's dementia, even junior high -- everything seems laughably small." 

The language in this book is incredibly rich and as beautiful as a New Mexico sunrise. I cannot believe that this is Lindsay Eager's first book. I can't even imagine what other "Once upon a times" are in her future. 

"Death hangs on Serge like a wet towel, tangled in his salty-white hair, dripping down his shoulders..." 

"Stories don't end," Serge says. "They just turn into new beginnings." And this book, my friends, is one story you will not want to end. Beware also to those around you, for if they don't give you time and space to relish in this novel tell them it will become "the witching hour."

This is one of those books that is not strong in just one story element. Not only is the setting vividly described and plot riveting, there is strong character development--a supportive and hard working mom, a dad who is trying to come to terms with his past in the present, an older teenage sister, Alta (need I say more?), an adorable baby brother, an adventurous grandmother and Grandpa Serge. Carol grows so much in this one summer that what she feared in June just doesn't seem important any more. "I don't think I've gotten braver; I think I've just found other things to be scared of than tripping in the lunchroom or walking down the wrong hallway."

The magic in this book seems so real that I almost forgot to mention it. It's there alright but weaved in so well that this book could define the magical realism genre. 

We had a great book group last night. The sun was setting. We were four people in a vast open parking lot munching on chips and salsa. Close your eyes and you could almost believe we were having a snack on the ranch while waiting for Mom's delicious Mexican themed dinner to be ready. And yes, Mrs. Warland joined us!

Three kids, three favorite characters: 

"Rosa because she is adventurous."

"Serge because he has great stories."

And Carol "because no matter what she'll never give up on Serge."

Mrs. Warland chimed in on how much she admired Mom.

And finally, I asked for words to describe the book:

Emotional 

Heart warming

Informative 

Breath taking 

Magical

Unforgettable 

Tear jerker

...with two strong themes: "Live life to the fullest and be grateful for what you have." Personally, I can't even tell you how I truly learned those lessons this summer. Thank you, Lindsay Eager, for the beautiful reminder.