Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday 1.27.16 Mock Sibert Announcement

Every Wednesday I join Alyson Beecher from kidlitfrenzy and other

kidlit bloggers to share wonderful nonfiction picture books.

The intention of today's blog is to give educational professionals

new nonfiction reading material and ideas to use 

with students to promote a love of reading nonfiction materials.

The Sibert Award.... it's an award that I've paid attention to more and more because of the significant uses of it for the classroom and library. I'm always looking for quality nonfiction. To use as mentor texts. To use to teach, wonder and inspire.
For the past 3 years, Kellee at Unleashing Readers, Alyson at KidLitFrenzy and Carrie at There Is A Book For That have hosted or participated in a Mock Sibert. I've loved reading their posts and formulating my own guesses. This year I'll be joining them! If you want to take a glance at their posts, here they are!

Kid Lit Frenzy: 2016 Mock Sibert

There's a Book for That: 2016 Mock Sibert

Kid Lit Frenzy: 2015 Mock Sibert

Unleashing Readers: 2015 Mock Sibert

There's a Book for That: 2015 Mock Sibert

Kid Lit Frenzy: 2014 Mock Sibert

Unleashing Readers: 2014 Mock Sibert

Recently, Kellee asked a few of us if we were interested in starting a Mock Sibert group on Goodreads. I always check the Goodreads Mock Newbery and Mock Caldecott groups to help me form my Mock lists. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a Mock Sibert group? Maybe the award won't be such a dark horse for me - maybe I'll be able to predict a few more books this year! And above all, it will help me have conversations with other educators and librarians about nonfiction and help me find even more great literature to share!

How will this work? I'll let Kellee explain it:

Our plan for the group is for group members to start discussions about any nonfiction books that they feel are 2017 Sibert Award contenders. Then within those discussion boards, we will discuss the books we each “nominate.” At the end of December, we will vote for the books we feel need to be looked at again. We'll then have a FINALISTS discussion board where we look closer at each of the books with an eye specifically towards the Sibert criteria. Following our discussions, we will vote for what we believe will be the finalists. We'll then have a WINNER discussion board where we look again at the books we voted as finalists and discuss who we think will win. About a week before the 2017 ALA Media Awards, with enough time to blog about our winner and finalists if participants would like, we'll vote for the winner.

Come join us on Goodreads at the Mock Sibert Book Club!

First, go to GROUPS at the top of the Goodreads home page.

You can search for the book club in the search bar at the top of the groups page.

Please make sure to answer our new member’s question, and we will approve you to jump into our conversation!

Hope you will come join us!

This past year I put together a post detailing some of my favorite nonfiction picture books that I read in 2015. Here are a few:

I'm looking forward to reading more great nonfiction in 2016. Here are some books that come out in January, February, March that I'm looking forward to discussing:

Two Friends by Dean Robbins (published January 5)

This is the Earth by Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander (publishes February 23)

Every Day Birds by Amy Ludwig VanDerWater (publishes February 23)

Run For Your Life by Lola Schaefer (publishes February 1)

Miss Mary Reporting by Sue Macy (publishes February 16)

The Wildest Race Ever by Meghan McCarthy (publishes March 1)

Dorothea's Eyes by Barb Rosenstock (publishes March 1)

Crossing Niagara by Matt Tavares (publishes April 12)

What 2016 books are you excited to read this year? What books should we discuss in our Mock Sibert Goodreads group? Hope to see you in the conversation!