I wasn’t familiar with this award though I do know about the Simon Wissenthal Museum from living in Los Angeles. My art teacher had a piece exhibited there and he said that it was the highlight of his career. I went through the past winner list and I haven’t read all the books, but the ones I have read (Though My Eyes, The Year of Miss Agnes, So Far from the Sea) are OUTSTANDING so it makes me want to read the entire list of winners, both past and present.
This is what I was thinking when I came up with this kooky list:
-Summer read, preferably on the beach or on vacation
-Has to be a good read but not too strenuous
-The book is about the summer and/or beach and/or beachy vacation vibe
-A great lead GIRL character
-Counts towards summer homework book assignment but was thoroughly enjoyable
For incoming grades 4-6
If your elementary school is like my elementary school, kids entering grades 3-5 need to read 5 or so books during the summer (and do a book project on one of the books). It’s not normally a struggle to get my kids to read 5 books during the summer except for the selection of the books because the summertime reading has to be especially engaging to compete for their time! These 10 books should do the trick. And if your child reads 5 books and fills out a form from Borders Bookstore, she or he can get one of ten selected books for free.
Reading Lists for 2nd -5th graders of books that deserve a Newbery Award plus Newbery Award winners that are appropriate for elementary school children.
I am excited about the Newbery Awards! Amanda Struckmeyer served on the Newbery Committee that selected Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book and her list, I believe, is dead on. Here’s a link to the post that has her Mock Newbery event. But more importantly, here’s her list:
Ok. So these are not really the list of Caldecott and Newbery candidates for 2011 but School Library Journal Blog’s best guess… but I have feeling that they know what they are talking about. We shall see when the awards come out next year, but I’m betting they got quite a few correct.