Workings of the Mock Newbery Club

As our group reads different titles from our Mock Newbery choices, we will write posts, commenting on six different areas: character traits and development, setting, plot, theme, word choice/language, and voice.

WARNING: Because we are discussing each of the titles in detail and determining whether each title should move on to be part of our final vote, there may be spoilers in the posts.

Character Traits/Development: This will cover the main characters and any supporting characters that seem important and/or interesting. What are the traits of these characters? What type of people are they? Do we see him/her change throughout the course of the story? If so, how and why?

Setting: Where and when does the story take place? Why do you think the author chose this setting? How does it lend itself to helping the development of the story?

Plot: What are the main events in the story? What are the events that take place that cause a change to happen in the main character(s)?

Theme: What are the big ideas? What lesson does the author want us to learn from this story?

Word Choice/Language: Describe the word choice used by the author. How does this help the reader to understand and visualize the events, characters, and message of the story?

Voice: How does the author develop the distinct voice of the characters in the story? Why do you think the author did that? Does it make the reader respond in a certain way to the different characters? How?

Finally...
What is your opinion? Do you think this should be considered for a final vote for our Mock Newbery Award? Why or why not?

Each area will be graded on a scale of 1 - 5, and those books with the highest scores will move on to our final voting round.

Welcome to We Brake for Books!

We Brake for Books is a brand new blog created as a space to showcase our opinions and thoughts about books we read. Our contributors will be our school librarian, myself - a Language Arts teacher, and a multitude of students from fourth through eighth grade. This is a place for our students to have a voice, an authentic audience, and where we hope discussion will take place through thoughtful posts and comments from our students, and you, our readers.

We are beginning the year with a Mock Newbery Committee. We chose twenty-one books from lists of possible Newbery contenders and have divided them up into three sections of seven. Here's the current breakdown by month:

September:

1. Pax
2. Raymie Nightingale
3. Summerlost
4. The Key to Extraordinary
5. The Wild Robot
6. Wolf Hollow
7. Soar

 

 

October:

1. Save Me a Seat
2. Ruby Lee and Me
3. Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics
4. Fortune Falls
5. Forest of Wonders (Wing & Claw)
6. Free Verse
7. Some Kind of Courage

  

November/December

1. Counting Thyme
2. Weekends with Max & his Dad
3. Booked (YA)
4. Maybe a Fox
5. The Land of Forgotten Girls
6. Going Where it's Dark
7. Grayling's Song

 

  


We will choose a book or books to read from the list for each month, create a post about each one, and through comments, gather opinions from others that have read that same book. At the end of the month, we will meet and vote on two books to move forward. By the Holiday Break in December, we should have six contenders for the Newbery Award. When we return from break, we will hold a vote on which book we believe should be the winner. Then on the day the Award is actually granted, we hope to show it live in the classroom.

We would love for you to join us on this journey. Read as many books from each month as you can and join us here for a lively discussion about each one.