Newbery Picks and Round-Up Invitation

A Message from Franki:

For those of you that don't know the history of our blog, we have been friends for a long time--throughout our teaching careers. A few years ago, we decided to meet more regularly to talk about books and then added a bit of fun to the meetings. We decided to try to predict the Newbery Winner each year. Since we were not very good at this, we changed our goal to have READ the Newbery winner before it is announced, so we started focusing on reading and talking about new chapter books for kids each year. This didn't go so well either. (Last year I won because I had CRISS CROSS in my Amazon shopping cart--had never read or seen it, but I had heard of it!). This is when Mary Lee had the idea to blog about our reading. We have come to terms with the fact that we don't have any idea what will win and we are never right. But it is still fun to play! So, each year, we still give it a shot. Below are our top 5 hopes/predictions along with other chapter books of the year that we've loved. Since we started our blog with this Newbery goal, we'd love to do a round-up of everyone's Newbery predictions/hopes. If you post your Newbery predictions, let us know in the comments and we'll do a round-up in about a week so we have it up and ready before the Newbery is announced on January 22.

Franki's Picks:

Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass
Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy
The Loud Silence of Francine Green by Karen Cushman
Gossamer by Lois Lowry
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

Others I loved:


Part of Me by Kimberly Willis Holt
Penny From Heaven by Jennifer Holm
Fairies of Nutfolk Wood by Barb Bentler Ullman
Babymouse by Jennifer Holm
The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin
to dance by Siena Cherson Siegel


Mary Lee's Picks:

Gossamer by Lois Lowry
Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata
A True and Faithful Narrative by Katherine Sturtevant

Others I loved:

Babymouse by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm
The Book of Story Beginnings by Kristin Kladstrup
Blood on the River: Jamestown 1607 by Elisa Carbone
American Born Chinese by Gene Yang
Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

...and although this is an unlikely pick for the Newbery, I want to highlight it here because the deepest and most topical messages are sometimes found in the most unlikely places:

How to Speak Dragonese (Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III) by Cressida Cowell

"However small we are, we should always fight for what we believe to be right. And I don't mean fight with the power of our fists or the power of our swords...I mean the power of our brains and our thoughts and our dreams.

And as small and quiet and unimportant as our fighting may look, perhaps we might all work together like the numberless armies of Ziggernastica, and break out of the prisons of our own making. Perhaps we might be able to keep this fierce and beautiful world of ours free for all of us..."

Soooo, Happy Newbery Season! Send us your posts for the round-up!

Mail Order Mayhem

MAIL ORDER NINJA, v. 1 and 2
story by Joshua Elder
illustrations by Erich Owen
Tokyopop Manga Readers, 2006
Review copies compliments of the author

Timmy has a problem with bullies...both the thuggy kind, like Brock Breckenridge, and the stuck-up rich girl kind, like Felicity Dominique Huntington. He thinks he'll solve his problem by ordering his very own ninja from the Jacques Co. toy catalog, but wouldn't you know it, having your own ninja and winning the election for student body president causes almost as many problems as it solves. In volume 2, Felicity ups the ante by ordering her very own mail order ninja army which wreaks havoc at the school dance and turns the whole town of Cherry Creek, Indiana into an Orwellian nightmare with Felicity herself as Big Sister.

These books are a whole lot of fun! They are chockful of sight gags and puns, the situations are preposterous, and the characters are exaggerated stereotypes (all except for Timmy's 5th grade teacher, Ms. Sarah Melton, who received a "100 Cool Teachers in Children's Literature" nomination for disco dancing with Timmy's ninja in the second book). Kids will love these books. They are part of Tokyopop's Manga Readers series, and are perfect for the targeted age group: 8-12. An 8 year-old will love the action and adventure, and a 12 year-old will be able to get more of the puns and jokes. With the promise of six books in the series, they will all be anxiously waiting for the next volume. I know I will!

Poetry Friday!

If you haven't seen the book READ AND RISE by Sandra Pinkney, this is the introductory poem by Maya Angelou. I collect books about books and reading that I use to start conversations with my students about their own reading. I just added to this one to my collection. Reading is the pathway From the dungeon To the door Freedom Reading is the highway from The shadow to the sun Freedom Reading is the river To your liberty For all your life to come Let the river run Learn Learn to Read Maya Angelou

Thank You, Tricia!

You supplied the last three teachers we needed to get to 100 Cool Teachers in Children's Literature!

The last three added were Miri, in Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale, a great teacher when she returned to the village; and Mrs. Fibonnaci and Mr. Newton in Math Curse and Science Curse by Jon Scieszka, who must be great teachers based on the mathematical and scientific thinking they inspire their (and our) students to do!

Scaredy Squirrel Sequel

My good friend Larry (who knows more about children's books than anyone I know) told me that a sequel to SCAREDY SQUIRREL by Melanie Watt was coming. I checked it out and found that SCAREDY SQUIRREL MAKES A FRIEND is due out in the spring! I am not a big fan of sequels but I am a HUGE FAN of Scaredy Squirrel. I am VERY excited about this book. Has anyone seen it yet? Can't wait!

More Great 2006 Picture Books

Reading the 111 books for the CYBILS was quite fun! I loved talking about which we would shortlist. But, I also loved finding some surprises in the boxes. I found several GREAT picture books that I hadn't seen before. Emily at Whimsy Books reviewed one of them this week. I thought I'd highlight two others that I fell in love with.


A PLACE WHERE SUNFLOWERS GROW by Amy Lee-Tai—
This story is told in English and in Japanese. It is the story of a little girl living in the Japanese Internment camps, homesick for the beauty of her old life. This story is based on a true story of the author’s grandmother and is a a great story of hope.

A COACH'S LETTER TO HIS SON by Mel Allen is an essay in picture book form. I am always looking for great essays to share with my students, either for booktalking or for samples of good writing in the genre. A father speaks to his son about the way baseball has changed and hopes to regain the joy of the game in this time of competitive, organized sports.

Donald Murray's Influence

Those of us in literacy education have all been impacted by the work of Donald Murray. His work with teachers and writers has taught us all so much. He passed away last week and his final column for the Boston Globe was published this week. I never knew him personally, but his work has been a huge influence on my own work and my own writing. The literacy community will definitely feel his loss.

PlanetEsme Picks

Esme of PlanetEsme picks her top 2006 books. She has some great categories and some great book titles. She has great categories ("Favorites for Sharing in a Classroom", "Mad me laugh the hardest"...)If you have any bookstore gift certificates left, there are some great books listed. (Ha! I know, it has been DAYS since you received those gift certificates. I know mine are all gone:-(

What a Great Year to be a Blogger!

Happy Birthday to A Year of Reading! We are one year old today! What a great year it's been! We feel very lucky to be part of an amazing group of kid lit bloggers! We have so many people to thank--people who have made the kidlitosphere such fun!

We can use the term "kidlitosphere" thanks to Melissa's post at Here in the Bonny Glen when she invented it in June. It hit big and fast and was picked up by Wands and Worlds and made official by Liz at A Chair, A Fireplace, and A Tea Cozy. As of today's post, the word gets 538 Google hits when searched! Thanks Melissa!

Here are some other highlights from 2006!

In JANUARY, we had no idea what we were doing. So, there was probably a lot of great stuff going on but we totally missed it all!

In FEBRUARY, Betsy at Fuse#8 revealed her first Hot Men in Children's Literature which has become quite the tradition! Aside from her great book reviews and her knowledge of what is going on in the children's book world, the Hot Men are another fun thing to look forward to regularly from Fuse #8.

Also in FEBRUARY, Kelly at Big A, Little a published the first issue of The Edge of the Forest! This has been a great monthly online journal that we all look forward to!

In MARCH, Gregory K at GottaBook started to share his ODDAPTATAIONS which have been quite fun to read and try!

Poetry Friday was also instituted in MARCH! So many of us participate in that each Friday. Thanks, Kelly!

In APRIL, Gregory shared his first Fib which have also become something we all look forward to on his blog.

In MAY, Mother Reader issued the 48-Hour Book Challenge. We did not notice this until it was well under way. (We had just discovered Mother Reader and became quickly addicted!). We were VERY disappointed about not participating but we are anxiously awaiting the 2007 Book Challenge as well as any other contests that Mother Reader devises!

Read Roger was the first kid-lit blog that we discovered! He hooked us into the blogging world and connected us to so many of our other favorites! In JUNE, Read Roger let us know that Nina, of Nina's Newbery would be the 2008 Chair of the Newbery Committee. Since our blog started out as a way to think about the Newbery, we were very excited to start reading Nina's blog!

In JUNE, Jen Robinson had the great idea to compile a list of Cool Girls in Children's Literature and Cool Boys in Children's Literature. What great lists! She inspired many of us to start our own lists. In JULY, we started collecting our list of 100 Cool Teachers in Children's Literature. The Bookdragon compiled a list of Librarians in Children's Literature. Jen started a great trend and the kidlitosphere created some popular lists!


In AUGUST, we celebrated Blogday when we got tagged by A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozywith a blogday meme . We participated along with many other bloggers everywhere!

In August, Rick Riordan posted about summer reading and got many of us thinking and writing about that topic.


In SEPTEMBER, Educating Alice became one of our new beloved blogs and shared with us her thoughts about naming a blog .

In OCTOBER, BookBuds and Big A little a unveiled the CYBILS and Children's Literature Book Club created the logo. So many of us have had such a great time talking about the great books published in 2006 and the publishers have been very supportive. Thanks to Anne and Kelly.

In NOVEMBER, Amy at the SLJ Blog interviewed us for her blog!

We also attempted our first author interview in NOVEMBER with Ralph Fletcher.

DECEMBER was an exciting month!
3 Silly Chicks revealed the winner of their caption contest. We are still laughing and are amazed at how many clever entries there were! We had fun following the contest. More exciting news when author Mo Willems started a blog!!

Thanks, everyone! We've had a fun time blogging with all of you! Looking forward to our 2nd year:-)
Franki and Mary Lee

Happy New Year!

Lots going on in the Kidlitosphere today!
CYBILS are posted on several sites.
Many bloggers have posted favorites from 2006.
Liz at A Chair, A Fireplace, and A Tea Cozy has already started her list of Best Books of 2007!!

The very fun and creative Golden Fuse Awards have been unveiled.

Gregory at Gotta Book has a new Fib contest!

SLJ Blog has favorite posts of 2006 listed.

And one of my favorite January 1 posts, a great guest post by PunditMom on Mitch McDad's blog. A must read for all of us writing New Year's Resolutions.