And the Winner is . . .

The winners and honour books for the Newbery and Caldecott Awards were announced last week. The Newbery Medal was first awarded in 1922 and is awarded by the American Library Association for the most distinguished American children's book published in the previous year. The Caldecott Medal is awarded to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

The 2016 Newbery winner is Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena, published by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers.  The choice was surprising to some as this is a picture book and the Newbery usually goes to a chapter book! 

The Newbery Honor books include:

The War that Saved my Life. Author Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson.

Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan.

Recent Newbery winners include The Crossover by Kwame Alexander (2015), Flora & Ullysses: The Illulminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo (2013), and The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.

The Honor Books are also very well-known titles including El Deafo by Cece Bell and Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson in 2015.  If you want a list of recent winners, go to the ALA website here.

The Caldecott Medal was awarded to Sophie Blackall, illustrator of Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear. The author is Lindsay Mattick and the publisher is Little, Brown and Company.

The Honor Books include:

Trombone Shorty.  llustrator Bryan Collier, Author Troy Andrews.

Waiting. Illustrated and written by Kevin Henkes.

Voice of Freedom:  Fannie Lous Maner, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement. Illustrated by Ekua Holmes. Author Carole Boston Weatherford.

and

Last Stop on Market Street. Illustrator Christian Robinson. Author Matt de la Pena.

Recent winners of the Caldecott include The Adventures of Beekle:  The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat (2015), Locomotive by Brian Floca (2014) and This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen (2013).

The Newbery and Caldecott books are staples for your library collection, whether it be your classroom library or school library.  They appeal to a wide audience of readers, including adults!  I also find that it is not unusual for a book to be honoured in different categories (even though a book does not usually win in both Newbery and Caldecott categories). This year The War That Saved My Life was named the top audio book as well as being an honor book. The Crossover in 2015 earned several awards as well as the Newbery.

Many schools and teachers have a Mock Caldecott and/or Newbery process in their schools. The students nominate books and eventually vote on their own winners.  You can find many samples online to guide you if you would like to try this out.

John Schumacher from The Nerdy Book Club is making an attempt to read ALL the Caldecott and Newbery winners from 1922 to the present (some are difficult to find). Check out the lists and see how many you could already check off your list!

Twitter Buzz

Are you following the Pembina Escarpment Reading Council on Twitter @PercReads? We tweet and retweet lots of interesting information.  Since starting the twitter feed in the fall, we have been retweeted by many Manitoba Reading Association followers and many authors! It is exciting when an author replies or retweets to your tweet!

@mra_mb is hosting its first twitter chat on January 21st with Tanny McGregor. Many of us are becoming good friends with Tanny through the tweets we share and we are looking forward to sharing the Twitter chat with her and then hearing her in person in April in Winnipeg.

If you are not familiar with Twitter, there are many tutorials available to help you learn more.  Just signing up and following a few people is a great way to get started. Follow @percreads and @mra_mb to get a taste for world of Twitter.

What interesting information have I found on Twitter in the last few months?  Check some of these out:

• Jonathan Auxier won the 2015 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award. Author of The Night Gardener, a chilling novel about orphan who become servants in a haunted mansion. MRA invited to be on an author's panel.  Jonathan will be a new father in the spring so is unable to join us.  Check out his middle-grade novel. I also heard him interviewed on CBC by @terrymacleod and ordered the book. Expect a blog post about it in the upcoming months.
• Check out the other nominees for the TD Children's Literature Award. I had also ordered From Vimy to Victory:  Canada's Fight to the Finish in World War I by Hugh Brewster and shared it with a grade 6 class prior to Remembrance Day.  It seemed to be a popular pick.
• The 2014 winner was The Man with the Violin by Kathy Stinson, illustrated by Dusan Petricic. This is a book I shared at the PERC workshop in previous years.  I really appreciate this book and it has caused me to follow up on Dusan Petricic's work. 
• I subscribed to the Canadian Children's Book Centre newsletter and get great information every month. Do you know Family Literacy Day is January 27th? What are you doing to celebrate Family Literacy?
• American Library Association Awards will be announced on Monday, January 11th! Lots of tweets from classrooms on who the winners should be! Stay tuned.

If you are not on Twitter, you probably think it is one more thing that will require your valuable time.  Yes it will take time. Personally, I spend much less time on other social media now and find far more useful info on Twitter.  Try it and send me feedback.

Barb Lepp

PERC Past-chairperson

Faye Brownlie Canceled

Unfortunately, Faye is unable to travel to Manitoba in February as she needs to attend to some family health concerns.  We will stay in touch with her and hope to schedule another time.  Thanks to Darlene Keith for all her hard work organizing this event for parents and teachers.

Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead

Goodbye Stranger is in the running for a Newberry medal and I certainly can see why.  Classified as a middle grade novel, the story unfolds from three points of view.  Bridge and Sherm, both students in junior high, take turns revealing their story in alternating chapters.  However, every now and then a third person adds to the story, but we are not told who the the speaker is. Bridge survived being hit by a car at a younger age and when she was in hospital a nurse said to her that she had survived for a reason.  Bridge is perplexed as to what that reason might be. Her two best friends, Tab and Emily, play an important role in the story and readers will relate to the situations each of the girls experience as they make their way through the seventh grade.

So much happens in this book. Really! Em is a talented athlete and singer who is interested in an older (8^th grade) boy. Em and her friend Patrick share selfies with each other, but as you can guess, suddenly Em’s selfie is shared far and wide. Tab is enamored with her feminist teacher Ms. Berman who becomes known as The Berperson. Sherm’s grandfather leaves his grandmother after a very long marriage and Sherm has difficulty with the family dynamics.  Our unknown author skips school and hides out a coffee shop owned by Bridge’s Dad. Bridge’s brother Jamie is constantly in some challenge or dare with his friend Alex. Bridge connects many of the characters in the story (good choice for her name) and is relied on by her friends. Bridge seems like a very typical middle school girl, except she wears a cat ears headband to school every day.

Oh . . . and the three girls have pledged to never fight.  Middle school girls . . . who cannot have fights . . . even when they are really annoyed with each other.

The title is intriguing as well. Sherm asks, “Is the new you the stranger? Or is the stranger the person you leave behind?”

I really enjoyed this book! The author had me thinking as to who the third voice was and how it connected to the rest of the story.  I liked the characters and could connect with them and their experiences. As I often do, I then went to Goodreads to read other reviews.  I recommend that you do so also, but read the book first.

One reviewer stated that this was really a book written for adults masquerading as a middle school novel. 

I read as much, if not more, young adult and MY literature than adult literature. I like it. I like making recommendations.  The reviewer has made me think. I rate this book very high, but would middle schoolers do the same? The publisher rates it for ages 10 and up and I do think it appeals to an older audience not 10-year olds.  Young readers may miss much of what is happening in the story and the back story.  The book has the potential for a great book club discussion.  It certainly has diversity, but it is not front and centre.  Bridge talks about her Armenien family; Tabitha’s family is Hindu, and Sherm’s Italian family live together as several generations. Will student readers recognize the family expectations that have shaped the young characters?  The selfie sharing certainly provides opportunity for discussion on internet safety. The many ups and downs in the relationships among the characters also provide much for discussion purposes. I think young readers will simply enjoy the story as it unfolds.

So is Goodbye Stranger written for adults or youth? Does it matter?

I am off to find a middle schooler who has read the book so we can have a discussion. I will let you know what kind of feedback I receive.

If you are looking for a book trailer for Goodbye Stranger, I recommend this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVCfqBjfdJE

"How to Foster 
a Love of Reading"

with Faye Brownlie

ATTENTION PARENTS:

(and anyone else who works with children!) 

You are invited to attend this FREE session.

February 17, 2016 7:00 p.m. Maple Leaf School 225-12th Street Morden, MB

 FREE BOOK DRAWS, 
ON-SITE CHILD CARE 
AND REFRESHMENTS FOR ALL!

This session will look at the following ideas:

• Why one should read with their child daily

• How to support this life-long skill in our ever-changing world

• How to create a literacy-filled environment

• Read now for their future!

Sponsored by: The Pembina Escarpment Reading Council (PERC), a group of teachers, librarians and literacy specialists who value and encourage the love of literacy for both youth and adults.

A Writing Workshop with Kate Messner

How can you help your students become better writers?  Encourage them to read! You can also connect them to other writers and authors. In October, I watched Kate Messner’s live webinar sponsored by WeAreTeachers. The Google Hangout is archived here. In a 38 minute video, Messner shares her writing process with younger students and describes her experience writing Rescue on the Oregon Trail (Ranger in Time #1). Students from several classrooms ask her questions about writing, researching, revising and publishing. She prefers to write her first draft from start to finish and to save editing for after the first draft is complete. She mentions that revising takes much longer than the original writing!

Author Kate Messner

The webinar was a Google Hangout, a great way to connect with others. You can be an actual live participant (Google Hangout on Air) or you can send comments and questions by typed message. It is a similar or alternate application to SKYPE. Many authors also provide FREE 15-20 minute SKYPE conversations with classes, too.  I found Kate Messner’s website to be very useful in providing a list of authors who do so.  Check it out here to find more information and be sure to let me know your feedback on the experience. I will be researching to determine if there is a similar list for Canadian authors (although some authors/illustrators on Kate’s list are Canadian).

Fish In A Tree by Linda Mullally Hunt

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid. Albert Einstein

If you do not have this book in your classroom or library, get a copy right now! I have already bought two copies and passed them on. The wait list will be huge once your students hear about and read this book.  Ally Nickerson will do anything to keep her secret.  She hates words and hates reading. A grade six student, she has moved from school to school as her military family moved. In grade six, her regular teacher goes on a maternity leave and Mr. Daniels enters her life. Mr. Daniels is completing work for his Masters degree and has ideas about Ally's difficulty with reading. Ally helps him while he helps Ally. Ally discovers that great minds don’t think alike.

FIAT will appeal to many readers as Hunt forms strong characters that students will relate to and know. The theme is uplifting, but not unrealistic. You will find the bullies, the mean girls, the popular clique, the brainiac, and more in this story. Ally's insecurities and struggles should resonate with young readers and every teacher. 

Now is a great time to read this book as it is one of the featured books in the Global Read Aloud.  You can find a book trailer for the novel and several videos of Hunt reading chapters from the book on her website.  If you follow the Goodreads Choice Awards, you can vote for it as one of the best Middle Grade and Children’s books of 2015. I have already cast my vote in the first round.