Mooning Over Book Lists
Voting for our first Nerdy Book Club Awards, the Nerdies, closed at midnight. We received 682 votes from all over the world. Thanks to everyone who voted. We will announce the top five winners in each category throughout the week in special posts. At this moment, I am the only person on Earth who knows the final results. I feel giddy. I will share the winning list with the other Nerdies panel members soon (and Colby Sharp if he is nice).
Reading our Nerdies Finalists list, I’m proud of what the Nerdy Book Club accomplished. The 97 books you nominated include those titles you believe represent the best children’s and young adult books of 2011. With librarians, teachers, parents, book reviewers, book vendors, authors, and scores of readers in the Nerdy Book Club, the 2011 Nerdies Finalists list came from the best reading community around. It’s a great list full of worthy titles, and it stands alongside the many Best Books lists flooding the Internet and review publications this time of year.
You might be a nerdy reader if you adore analyzing book lists.
I have a love/hate relationship with book lists. I love reading book lists because I discover so many things about myself as a reader when I do, and I hate reading book lists for the same reason. I love book lists for what they include and hate lists for what they omit. I question the categories, the nomination guidelines, or committee members’ taste. I’m still stunned that Moon Over Manifest won the Newbery Award last year, but my friend, Teri Lesesne, reminds me to, “Trust the process.”
It’s OK. I believe that all readers travel through similar stages while skimming book lists.
The Stages of Reading a Book List
- Curiosity: Hmm. A book list? I wonder what books are on it?
- Nostalgia: I fondly remember reading so many books on this list. Perhaps I should read them again/ share them with more people/ find more books by the same authors.
- Validation: Hey, I have read a lot of books on this list! This proves that I am well-read and knowledgeable. Other readers like the same books I do.
- Embarrassment: Gee, there are a lot of books on this list that I have never heard of—I wonder if this means that I am not as savvy about books as I thought. Although I have read almost 600 books this year, I still haven’t read some major book list titles.
- Discovery: I haven’t heard of Bake Sale by Sara Varon, which appears on the Nerdies list. It sounds like another cupcake-themed middle grade romance. Dashing over to goodreads, I happily learn that it is a new graphic novel by the author of Robot Dreams, and order a copy.
- Superiority: Several reviewers thought that (insert title here) was one of the best books of all time? Are they kidding? Can you say plot holes?
- Inferiority: Colin Meloy’s Wildwood appears on many favorite 2011 books lists. I abandoned this book on page 75, desperately hoping that ravens would carry off the major characters for good. I must not be as smart as I thought– because I just didn’t get it.
- Debate: I cannot believe (insert title here) is on the list. Closely followed by, I cannot believe (insert title here) is not on the list. I call my best friend, Mary, and discuss whether or not The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (a book we both loved) was really written for kids.
- Goal Setting: Chime by Franny Billingsley has been sitting on my bookshelf all year. So many people liked it; I need to move it to the top of the pile. Determined to improve my reading chops, I order more books from Indie Bound and reserve four more from the library.
- Rabbit Hole: I can make a better list than this one! What would be on my Best Books list this year? I spend the next three hours combing through my goodreads shelves, making my own book list.
- Reading: Looking at all of these titles makes me want to read something– anything!
No matter how many or what books you read, book lists provide us with an opportunity to reflect on our reading and make reading plans. I hope looking through end-of-year book lists provides you with inspiration and validation for your reading lives.
**For the ultimate book discussion of the year, join Colby Sharp and me for the monthly Twitter chat, #titletalk, which takes place tonight (Sunday, December 18th) at 8 pm EST. We will talk about how we use book lists to inform our reading lives and our book promotion to kids and invite participants to share their favorite of 2011.
**For an interesting analysis of four major book review lists, Kirkus, Horn Book, School Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly, visit Kelly Jensen’s “Best of Lists By the Numbers” post on YALSA’s The Hub. You can access links to all of four lists through her post.
**I have created an annotated list of the 2011 Nerdy Book Club Award nominees and uploaded it to slideshare. Enjoy!
Donalyn Miller is a 6th grade language arts teacher at Trinity Meadows Intermediate School in Keller, TX. She currently writes a blog, The Book Whisperer, for Education Week Teacher. Donalyn lives atop a dragon’s hoard of unread books and spends her spare time traveling, visiting old friends, and daydreaming in the pages.
Nerdy Book Club 
I am always nice:)
As soon as I finish creating my own book list, I’ll send the Nerdies list to you, Colby. I may need to read a few more books. I’ll get back to you.
If It makes you feel any better Donalyn, I abandoned Wildwood too.
But, I would also be on the side of the debate that The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland is not a book for kids. I’m an adult and I had a hard time understanding the language and syntax. I really struggled with that one.
Clearly, we are readers of a kind, Beth. Thank you for validating my feelings about Wildwood and Girl Who Circumnavigated.
I’m in the “please let the characters be carried off by ravens” club. Did. Not. Get. Wildwood. Man, it’s pretty, though.
I actually abandoned The Girl, but made it through Wildwood. I felt that The Girl’s writing was actually too complicated for the story and I kept getting distracted by the language and not in a good way.
Wildwood wasn’t necessarily my favorite, but it was a long one that didn’t feel all that long.
From the covers, I thought that the result would be just the opposite, but it is really hard to predict likability sometimes.
I love your breakdown of the stages of reading a book list. There were MANY books on the list that I had not read, especially in the middle grade and picture book categories, and several that I have sitting on my GINORMOUS to-be-read bookshelf. Like you, there were several I had not heard of.
It’s great to see how many people voted, and as a member of the panel who put together the final list, I can’t wait to see the winners!
Thanks for participating on the Nerdies panel! I plan to read the nominees I haven’t read by the end of 2011. Reading plan! I still have 20 to go.
Thanks so much for giving me another place to go to for great children’s literature discussions and nerdy book talk! I currently keep book lists on my phone. That way I can get to my lists or add to my lists anytime! I have lists for chapter books for my class, non-fiction books, books to add to my library and a separate book list for myself. It is so cool to be a nerd!
Love this post! So true… I go through all those stages when reading a book list, too. 🙂
Completely agree. Even when you sent me the final list I read through it thinking, “Love this one, love this one, wait! Where is … How could it not be a top book?” 🙂 And then I checked to see what time my library is open so I could go get a few books.
Katherine
Now that I think about it, most of the books I read probably came on my radar via some list or other.
When I see a listed book that I thought was a dog, I usually skip the “Inferiority” stage and assume that the book made it on the list because of a massive marketing campaign.
And then the question becomes. . .what do I do now that a book is on MY list? And as many of the “nerds” here know, it’s hard to honor a publisher’s wishes for a narrow window between review and publish date when you are sitting on that hot book for May of the next year. I love Donalyn’s stages here. . .especially “discovery.” The wide range of titles is what I appreciate most. I would’ve missed HOUND DOG TRUE had I not been following the Twitter discussions. I hope that I help a reader or two to discover a new title in 2012, but it’s getting harder and harder to do with this savvy reading group!
You always know about books we haven’t heard about yet, Paul. I am sure you have already read some great 2012 titles that you will share with us soon, yes?
Discovery is a stage I hit every day. I also probably land on Inferiority and Embarrassment a lot of the time too.
Excellent job categorizing all the different stages. I hit embarrassment A LOT! 🙂
Jasmine and Paige- The only people who should be embarrassed when looking at a book list are folks who choose not to read at all.
My goal for 2012 is to have more “nostalgia” than “embarrassment”!!
Shannon
http://extremereadingandwriting.wordpress.com/
This is exactly why I love and hate book lists!!! My favorite two are SLJ’s Battle of the Kid’s Book, in which I try to read ALL of the books (last year only missed one!) and The Morning News Tournament of Books in which my lowly goal is 4!
Wildwood – managed to finish it because I kept hoping it would redeem itself. Can’t wait to see if it’s just me or will students abandon it!
Girl Who – to aware of itself for me but not sure if that was just a factor of many books being like that this year or of this book.
Sara Varon – LOVE Robot Dreams ::adding Bake Sale to LIST::
Great post!
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