Lack of Top Scores

As I've been perusing sites for Mock Newbery possibilities one thing has become apparent: people don't like giving out top ratings. No matter if the top end is 4 or 5, you seldom see it. Now it isn't to say that I am dishing out top scores left and right, but I couldn't help feeling a little angry. "Angry?," you say. Yep, angry. Why is that?

In the day and age of everyone getting stars and ribbons, I'm here to tell you the top score should be given out cautiously. Let's be frank: some books are better than others. This is obviously subjective, but I think we can agree that not all books are "great". Some books are ok for one reason or another- plot, storyline, character, author's voice, etc. Additionally, some books just aren't very good because of a similar set of characters as those that are ok but usually with more deficiencies. You can add onto that other issues like font and styling which are the publisher's work, not the author's, and play a big role in a book's perception. Would you bring every book into your classroom? I doubt it.

Now that we've established that there is a gradiant, my question is why do we see so few top end scores in reviews? Is it because there just aren't great books out there? To me both arguments fail to hold water. Great literature does come out every year (umm, the Newbery Award? various local awards like Sasquatch and Young Readers Choice?). The awards aren't foolproof, but they do often have a stringent criteria and aren't to be taken lightly.

Is it because we are comparing books to childhood favorites? I'm not comparing Okay For Now to Where the Red Fern Grows to see if I feel the same. Instead I need to assess the book based on some sort of written or unwritten criteria, and decide if it is great or worthy of that top end score. I use Okay For Now because it I felt like it was great. For a book set in the 1960s-70s to make someone not having lived through that era to make someone enter that world is incredible. The depth of character was fantastic, and the storyline kept you wanting to read on in a non-action story. I don't expect everyone to have the same feeling, but I can't help wondering why it is 4 out of 5 out 4.5 out of 5. That is the equivalent of saying it gets an 80% or 90%. Really? Not in that top percentile?

I don't expect every book to receive a top rating. But as I scroll through reviews I can't help but feel like people are holding unattainable standards. When you see 30+ books and they have 1 (or 2) that is top end, you start to question those doing the rating. The same can be said if all reach 5 stars- it just isn't likely!

Mock Newbery

As I have been laying around this afternoon (nice to say, finally!) I've been scanning the Internet for books. I plan to hit the bookstore tomorrow to create a stack of books I want to read. Of course that makes me think of possible Newbery Award winners. I loved this year's selection, Moon Over Manifest, particularly because it came out of nowhere to win the Newbery.

That leads me to a plan for next year. This summer I am going to use some of the various resources out there to compile a list of 10-12 books that I want to circulate, and get kids to read in the fall. That will be in hopes of having our own Mock Newbery discussion in the fall. This will work well with our movement to Communicator, an online system that essentially creates a hub for blogging and wiki-ing. I'll share some of those resources I've found soon!

Reading Challenge

I've finished the first four books in the Percy Jackson series. Thus far they have been very entertaining. I've enjoyed how Riordan mixed mythology into the stories without being teachy. The books were action-packed, and moved along fairly quickly without an overwhelming amount of downtime.

Having read all four, and planning to purchase the fifth when it comes out in paperback on July 27th, I couldn't help but think of my previous class of kids. They would eat the books up (some were reading them during the year). But going further, I think I am going to create a 40 Book Reading Challenge or something like that. Essentially I'll be going through ALA Notable books, Newberry Award winners, etc to create a list of books that kids *should* read. We'll also do some book talks during the process. The end goal being to get kids reading books that are widely recognized as being good literature. I'm going to stay away from some of the older books that I plan to use for novel study, if for no other reason than they are older (kids and older books can equal pulling teeth). Where did the idea come from? The Reading Zone... the idea came from here.

Looking Forward, Thinking Back

The calendar is about to turn to June, which means school is nearly over. There are still a myriad of projects to finish up and content to cover, but we're certainly in the home stretch. Novel study is wrapped up with only a quick survey of kids' favorite books remaining on my to-do list. We're in the midst of some report writing linked to the World Cup. It is pretty neat to see kids deciphering information on countries, and trying to put it into writing that makes sense to a reader.

As I look ahead, I am excited to get started for next year (with a break included of course). Having a variety of novels to pick from in novel study will be paramount. I was more than slightly hamstrung by a lack of volume in my novel study selections. Yesterday I started the process of adding additional copies of books to my library. From Wringer to Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat, I found second, third, and fourth copies of books. The hope is that I can have a mixture of old and new literature to chose from next year when we get started. I've tried to focus in on Newberry Award Winners and other books of note, wanting be steer kids towards books that have been recognized as quality works. But I'll admit that I've also been looking for books that are popular in the classroom, or that I've seen through the Reading Zone. The School Library Journal Top 100 has been helpful too, along with the Sasquatch Book List.

After completing A Wrinkle in Time this morning, I've moved on to When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead with the Lightning Thief coming up soon after. My goal is to read all of my prospective novel study books by August, and add on a few others as well. The days of reading a ton of school policy, education books are likely in my rear view mirror (aside from those aimed at instruction).