Thursday, November 16, 2006

Participating in the mock Newbery discussion

If you're in the greater Bay Area (CA), please consider coming to mock discussion on January 7th. Here's what happens:

  1. You read the books (listed right).
  2. You show up.
  3. We set in place the groundrules and procedures that the actual Newbery committee uses, and --abracadabra-- we become the committee, discussing the titles and taking a vote. It is intense, illuminating, quirky, and fun!

Just contact me directly to sign up.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Yellow Star

I'm not going to include Yellow Star in our discussion...only because it's proven difficult to get a hold of. Somehow my library system missed it entirely, and it is very lightly held at neighboring libraries...and my bookstore tells me out of stock! Not enough to deter me getting it for my library and reading it eventually, but enough to deter me including it in the discussion, because it's become clear to me over the years that no matter how much I want participants to read everything on the list: if it's hard to get, it won't get read.

It sounds, however, fabulous...and with a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor and other great reviews, I encourage you all to do the extra leg-work to find this book.