Check It Out

Most normal people would still be sleeping. It is a holiday but even without the alarm set I wake up early.  It has been a weekend for me to take a few good long breaths and relax.  Naps, that’s what I like, naps. And I take them.

A small group of librarians met last week to decide which eight books would be on our district’s reading choice list.  Our titles come from two other reading lists; Sasquatch(Washington State’s list) and the Young Reader’s Choice Award (a five state list). See all the titles here.

Our goal is to engage students in reading the nominees and vote for their favorite.  And the beauty is that by reading from our lists they can vote for their favorite on the other two lists.

We selected the following after discussing the criteria:
engaging students 
something for both boys and girls
promoting familiarity of authors(some of the authors have been on previous lists, some titles are the beginning of  a series)
eight titles
We also decide to go for quality instead of four from one list and four from the other.   It was clear that some of the titles on the two lists were more appropriate for middle school.  I select all the titles form both lists for Silver Star’s collection but our target is fourth and fifth grade with our list, therefore Airball and The Day Joanie Frankenhauser Became a Boy didn’t make the list. Interstingly neither did Owen Foote. The one librarian gave it to a fourth grade teacher and it just did  not go over well. The characters were third graders, hmmm, wonder if that was why.

The 2008 “Our Evergreen Readers’ Choice Award” (OERCA, pronounced OCRA like the whale)nominees:

Legend of Murphy Spud by Eoin Colfer
Abby Takes a Stand by Patricia McKissack
Ghost’s Grave by Peg Kehret
Misadventures of Maude Marche by Audrey Couloumbis
Giant Rat of Sumatra by Sid Fleischman
Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan
Whales on Stilts by M.T. Anderson

One of the librarians has been very active on the nominating committee for Sasquarch.  She also book talks the books in the spring with her fourth and fifth graders.  She has a sense of which books sell.  Right now she can’t keep Ghost’s Grave on the shelf. She is retiring so next year someone else will need to step up to the plate to promote these programs.
I have read two on the list, Whales on Stilts and Abby takes a Stand.  My own version of “48 Hours of Reading” takes place next weekend as I will be out of town at a conference the following weekend when the real challenge takes place. I don’t qualify for the fabulous prizes but I am looking forward to the challenge.  The six remaining books are on my stack (I do have to borrow Giant Rat of Sumatra)along with The Sisters Grimm, Defiance,  and Chicken Boy.

Enjoy the day. Happy reading.

MsMac