About Jonathan Hunt

I spent Monday presenting a Common Core seminar to elementary school librarians in Knoxville, TN.  Our YMA feed stopped working properly during the Belpre Awards, so I had to wait until our morning break to see the full results.  While the Newbery picks surprised me, all the books did get great reviews, and will now [...]

We had 76 voters which is about 5 times the size of the real committee.  Our results are followed by some analysis.   THE THING ABOUT LUCK . . . 16 (1st) + 6 (2nd) + 3 (3rd) = 88 points FAR FAR AWAY . . . 9 (1st) + 8 (2nd) + 8 (3rd) [...]

It’s time for our virtual edition of the Mock Newbery!  We’ll declare a winner and honor books after the first ballot so it won’t really be very similar to what the real committee will be doing, but it will still be a lot of fun, and that’s what counts, right?  What follows is the list [...]

You’ll recall my Best Books Overlap post which demonstrates the way that Booklist, the Bulletin, Horn Book, Kirkus, School Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly have already come to a kind of consensus.  But each journal champions books that the others do not, and they are not necessarily any less distinguished because of it.  Earlier this [...]

Seven people met at our very first San Diego Mock Newbery, and our results were as follows– Newbery Medal THE TRUE BLUE SCOUTS OF SUGAR MAN SWAMP by Kathi Appelt Newbery Honor ERUPTION! by Elizabeth Rusch We had our winner on our first ballot, and this is how the voting went. CLEMENTINE AND THE SPRING [...]

What follows is the strange and fateful tale of a boy, a girl, and a ghost.  The boy possessed uncommon qualities, the girl was winsome and daring, and the ancient ghost . . . well, let it only be said that his intentions were good. If more heavily seasoned with romance, this might have made [...]

Earlier, Nina described this book as peacocky, and I think that’s an apt description.  No other novel on our shortlist, save FAR FAR AWAY, has such a striking, distinctive narrative voice. OFFICIAL SUGAR MAN SWAMP SCOUT ORDERS keep your eyes open keep your ears to the ground keep your nose in the air be true [...]

Well, it looks like Jen J beat me to the punch.  She must get the print copy of the Bulletin whereas I have to wait for them to post online, so I’m taking her word for the Bulletin Blue Ribbons. six lists- BOXERS/SAINTS five lists– ELEANOR & PARK LOCOMOTIVE MARCH: BOOK ONE MR. TIGER GOES [...]

PICTURE BOOK  VS. POETRY When last we discussed IF YOU WANT TO SEE A WHALE, Leonard brought up a good question: Should we consider this text as a picture book or a single poem?  Ultimately, I’m not sure that it really matters how we classify it, but it’s definitely helpful to look at it through [...]

If a book is challenging, and suitable for 13-14-year-olds but not for younger readers, is it eligible? Yes; but it can be given an award only if it does what it sets out to do as well as or better than other, younger books that are also eligible. Of course, we may say the same thing for [...]