FES Library Lens: January 2015

On Monday, February 2nd the American Library Association will host the Youth Media Awards at the ALA Midwinter Conference in Chicago. For the past two years I've had attended the live announcements, which was very exciting. It's hard to describe the energy in a ballroom full of librarians and reviewers as the winning titles are announced.

This year I'll be in Maine during the announcements, so I'll stream the announcements for students in the FES library. Here's the link if you want to watch the awards live on Monday at 9:00 a.m. EST.
http://live.webcastinc.com/ala/2015/live/

Students at FES have been busy reading, discussing and voting for their favorite books published in 2014 before the official awards announcements are made.

Here are the results of the K-5 school-wide Mock Caldecott voting.

Winner:

Little Elliot, Big City

Honors:

Three Bears in a Boat

Sparky

Here are the results of the Mock Newbery book club voting.

Winner:

The Mark of the Dragonfly

Honors:

Rain Reign

A Snicker of Magic

Brown Girl Dreaming

The Fourteenth Goldfish

Last year I had the honor of serving on the Sibert Medal committee. I learned firsthand that award committee members devote a year to reading and analyzing hundreds of eligible book based on the award criteria. The discussions and lists of books considered are kept top secret. This makes it really fun to try to predict the winner. There are many books that are contenders for these awards, but I've only listed books that I have read and believe are distinguished compared to other books published in 2014.

Here are my predictions for the 2015 Youth Media Awards.