2011 Mock Newbery Results

Around 16 people gathered to join in on our 3rd Mock Newbery Discussion. I liked so many of our mock books and didn't have a clear favorite that I think I enjoyed this year's discussion even more than last year's.

Our Winner:
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Honor Books:
Only One Year by Andrea Cheng
The War to End all Wars by Russell Freedman
The Water Seeker by Kimberly Willis Holt

We ended up picking three honor books because the number of votes they got were so much higher than any of the other books. Poor Night Fairy, it only had one person vote for it (and that was me. ahem.) so when we did our second vote for honor books it was one that got removed. The other books that were removed were Farm, Keeper, and Sit In.

No one seemed too bothered by my major complaint against The War to End all Wars, which was that the author would be talking about Canadians or Australians and then mention British casualties. Which is plain *weird* if you ask me (and maybe a little offensive to people who live in those countries because they have national identities despite being part of a commonwealth). Anyhow, the discussion raised my opinion of the book, strange lumping of commonwealths aside, and in the honor vote I ended up voting for it. In my 3rd place spot, of course. heh.

The most interesting thing to me was that Water Seeker got an honor despite the fact that people seriously questioned whether it was a book for children. I am still pondering that and for the record, that is why I didn't vote for it. Loved the book, but a book about the journey to manhood as told by adult women? Also it was the only one I didn't have time to reread and that probably hurt it in my view only because it wasn't fresh in my mind.

Anyhow, it was a great discussion and I am seriously excited about our Mock Printz in two weeks.