Great Middle Grade Reads discussion

Time for nominations for a book (or two) to read in August.
The Theme for this month is AWARD WINNERS.

I'm thinking UK Costa award (formerly the Whitbread) or Carnegie awards; in the US, of course, the Newberys. You can find lists of these on Wikipedia (the new Goodreads police won't allow me to link them )

This is definitely not the first (or even fifth!) time we've had an award-winner theme, so please save me the effort and you the disappointment, by checking what we've read before. It's the MASTER LIST in this section of the forum.

If there's sufficient interest I may pick a US and a UK one as the final reads, but you'll be voting on them as usual.

Nominations by mid-July, please :)

Flour Babies (Carnegie Medal) by Anne Fine

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis) by Judith Kerr

And of course, Judith Kerr won the award for the German translation.

Sarah, Plain and Tall (Newbery Award) by Patricia MacLachlan

When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller (2021 Newberry Award)
Starfish by Lisa Fipps (2022 Michael L. Printz Honor Titles)

I nominate the book Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan. I also make sure it's an award book. BEA Buzz Book for Middle Grade, North Carolina Young Adult Book Award for Middle-school, and Children's Literature Council of Southern California Award for Excellence in Juvenile Fiction.

A Kind of Spark by Ellie McNicoll (2021 Blue Peter Book Award)

The River between Us by Richard Peck

I'm going to add three recentish Costa Children's Awards: Voyage of the Sparrowhawk by Natasha Farrant, Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse by Chris Riddell, which I think we've shortlisted before as it's on my booklist(!), and Asha & the Spirit Bird by Jasbinder Bilan.

Good job everyone.

Nominations are closed.

The poll is up - here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

You have ten books to choose between, nearly all of which are in my library one way or another. The only one I dropped was Starfish, because it is probably too new to be in many libraries at present (and not in mine). But a good shout-out for a future read.

I'm going to have difficulty choosing. We'll see how it goes, and I'm aiming to choose a UK and a US award-winner anyway.

If there are many close ones, I'll call a halt around the 20th and cut the list down to the leaders. Then clear the votes so everyone can vote again.

Good luck!

PS Make sure you check the right River Between Us - the Richard Peck one.

I've already voted! Can I ask something? Are the results of the poll no longer hidden, but visible for everyone while the voting is still going on? So, this will let people choose another book if their first choice ends too low on the list to take a chance.

Patricia wrote: "I've already voted! Can I ask something? Are the results of the poll no longer hidden, but visible for everyone while the voting is still going on? So, this will let people choose another book if t..."

They should be hidden till the end of the poll. Did they show up for you?

Jemima wrote: "Patricia wrote: "I've already voted! Can I ask something? Are the results of the poll no longer hidden, but visible for everyone while the voting is still going on? So, this will let people choose ..."

No, the polls didn't show up.

I 've cut out three that so far had no takers, but it's very very close between the others. I'll give it another few days before whittling it down again and reopening voting (so that you can vote again).

I've now cut it to the four books that were on equal votes, cleared the voting.

PLEASE VOTE AGAIN.

Voting ends at 11.59 pm (Pacific time) on Wed 27th.

Not long...

Note: Sarah, Plain and Tall is included in the current Audible Summer Sale and is available for only $2. That's a great price, and that way you can still read it regardless of whether or not it wins the new vote.

Just reminding everyone to vote in the tie-breaker!

Well, a last-minute flourish made a tie between The River Between Us and When You Trap A Tiger.

So you can read either or both in August.

That's a shame because when I last checked, I forgot to vote for Sarah Tall and Plain, which I could have got from the library (along with Counting by 7s), but I can't get either of the winners!
And having said I might pick a UK and a US winner, all the UK books went out in the earlier rounds.

Maybe it's just that most readers here are based in the US, but it doesn't help diversity if we only choose books available in the US. Am I whingeing? Any ideas how to improve the breadth/scope (and possibly participation) are welcome.

Jemima wrote: "Well, a last-minute flourish made a tie between The River Between Us and When You Trap A Tiger.

So you can read either or both in August.

That's a shame because when..."

Well I can only get Sarah Plain and Tall as well, which is why I voted for it and because the book is lovely. I am also a bit annoyed that far too often the books that win are not that readily available in Canada and that the Canadian MG novels I feel like suggesting are often not that popular in the USA. Not sure if I am going to bother joining.

Jemima wrote: "Well, a last-minute flourish made a tie between The River Between Us and When You Trap A Tiger.

So you can read either or both in August.

That's a shame because when..."

How about specifically asking for nominations from Canada, the UK, Australia etc. as well and limiting the USA nominations to say three or four maximum.

Jemima wrote: "Well, a last-minute flourish made a tie between The River Between Us and When You Trap A Tiger.

So you can read either or both in August.

That's a shame because when..."

I heard great reviews from when you trap a tiger but I don't have a copy of it and also the river between us. But I'm going to try to check my library, if both of them available:)

Jemima wrote: Maybe it's just that most readers here are based in the US, but it doesn't help diversity if we only choose books available in the US. Am I whingeing? Any ideas how to improve the breadth/scope (and possibly participation) are welcome.

Perhaps we have a month with the theme of Books Around the Globe in which we seek authors and books from beyond our American borders.

Alternatively, a sequence of 6 months with each one highlighting a different continent (Books from Africa, Books from Asia, Books from South America, etc.). For the month highlighting North America, we could then exclude the United States of America, since so many of the books we read already come from there and there are many other countries in North America.

Thanks for your suggestions. Part of the problem is simply having fewer members outside the US, so voting always leads towards what US members can get hold of.

Jemima wrote: "Thanks for your suggestions. Part of the problem is simply having fewer members outside the US, so voting always leads towards what US members can get hold of."

I lived outside the US and it's okay for me if voting always leads toward the US members:)

Patricia wrote: "Jemima wrote: "Thanks for your suggestions. Part of the problem is simply having fewer members outside the US, so voting always leads towards what US members can get hold of."

I lived outside the ..."

I have to say that how USA centric the books voted for often are can tend to get a bit tedious simply because there are so many great English language novels from outside of the USA that deserve coverage and reading.

Jemima wrote: "Thanks for your suggestions. Part of the problem is simply having fewer members outside the US, so voting always leads towards what US members can get hold of."

With the popularity of translations these days, I have been able to find many books from International authors in my library. But, there are also American writers who set books in international cultures that might help with this problem. Two examples that come to mind immediately, both of which I discovered through my library, are:

Ikenga - Nnedi Okorafor - takes place in Nigeria

The Last Gate of the Emperor - Kwame Mbalia and Prince Joel Makennon (grandson of last Egyptian Emperor) - set in futuristic Egypt