Award Committees

Today is the finish line for a year of work for the readers on the Newbery and Caldecott committees.

The NCTE Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts committee is starting the final sprint towards our finish line in mid-February. We have 65 books for grades K-8 on our "top shelf" right now, and we've received +/- 250 nominees since the beginning of October that need to be read and evaluated.

You'll forgive me if I've been paying attention to this...

The charge of the seven-member national committee is to select thirty titles each year that best exemplify the criteria established for the Notables Award. Books considered for this annual list are works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry written for children, grades K-8. The books must meet one or more of the following criteria:

1. deal explicitly with language, such as plays on words, word origins, or the history of language;
2. demonstrate uniqueness in the use of language or style;
3. invite child response or participation.

In addition, books are to:

4. have an appealing format;
5. be of enduring quality;
6. meet generally accepted criteria of quality for the genre in which they are written.

...rather than Newbery criteria and Caldecott illustrations.

But that doesn't mean I won't be anxiously awaiting today's news!!