COUNTDOWN
TO ALA NEWBERY 2014 WINNERS!
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Many schools and libraries put
together Mock Newbery Award book clubs, rallying their students to read the
books that are getting “winner buzz” each year and then putting together
discussion groups to talk about the books they’ve read.
In December or January, ballots are
assembled and the students can vote on their favorites and see which book “won”
that year’s Mock Newbery Award. Sound like fun? It is!
Here are a few links for more
information to get started at your school:
If you’re on Goodreads,
there is a forum filled with librarians, teachers and readers, who discuss
books all year long as books are published. They discuss the pros and cons
about each title’s potential as a Newbery Medal contender.
I’ve often learned about new books
that I’ve missed, and I enjoy the conversation about good books in these
forums.
In case you’ve been a bit swamped
with lesson plans or life (who isn’t?!), here are a few of the books (down
below!) folks have been buzzing about all year long as potential Newbery winners.
(We’re focusing on the Newbery since this is a Middle-Grade Savvy Site. Of
course, all the awards from Picture Books through the Young Adult Printz Award
are at the links below.)
Let us know which are your favorites
for the 2014 Newbery Medal, and don’t forget to watch the ALA Newbery Broadcast
next Monday, January 27th. (This link takes you to a full page from ALA with
all the info and details!)
Information about how to log in and
watch it LIVE is right here: Live ALA Youth Media
Awards Broadcast (This is a direct link to the *live* broadcast Monday morning
at 8:00 a.m. ET).
Just
a *few* titles – and there is NO predicting what will happen!
Kimberley Griffiths Little’s next
Middle Grade novel, THE TIME OF THE FIREFLIES, will publish July, 2014 by
Scholastic. (Her Young Adult debut, FORBIDDEN, launches November 2014 with
Harpercollins). You can find her hanging out a lot on Facebook. Enjoy Teacher’s Guides, Mother/Daughter Book Club Guides,
and “filmed on location” book trailers at her website.
speech-language
pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for
Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute
of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading
list. She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers
including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random 
Acts of Haiku." 
