Tags
Our 2nd Nerdversary and The 2013 Nerdy Award Finalists
The Nerdy Book Club began as a confessional hashtag (#nerdybookclub) among book lovers, but it evolved into much more when Colby Sharp and I started this blog two years ago today. Dissatisfied with annual best book lists that didn’t include the books our students loved to read, we decided to start our own book awards, the Nerdies, and invited fellow teachers, librarians, and readers to nominate and vote for their favorite books.
We were doing it for the fun of it.
Waiting for readers to submit titles for the Nerdies, Colby and I asked friends to contribute essays about their reading lives for the blog. While the Nerdies gave the blog a purpose in those early days, it was these beautiful Reading Lives posts that gave the Nerdy Book Club its heart. As librarian, Kathy Burnette said, “I know the power of books. They can change your life.” In some quarters, an obsession with books labels you a nerd. At Nerdy Book Club, a passion for reading distinguishes you as a member of the tribe.
By the time we announced the 2011 Nerdy Award winners, a thousand people a day were reading the blog. Colby and I were at a crossroads—close the blog until next year’s Nerdies or keep it running and get some help. Thankfully, Cindy Minnich, agreed to join us. Cindy, I hope you still feel good about this decision most days. We also asked our readers what content they would like to see on the blog and invited anyone to submit posts. We will remain a community blog–even when it means we are scrambling for posts at times.
The Nerdy Book Club is yours and mine and ours.
A legion of teachers, librarians, authors and illustrators, booksellers, parents, and readers strive to connect readers with books and create positive reading experiences for children. Unfortunately, we all don’t have equal access to forums that will publish our ideas and share them with each other. Now we do. Whether it’s a peek into your library or a heartfelt review of Where the Red Fern Grows, Nerdy offers all of us a place to celebrate our shared enthusiasm for young readers and their books.
We are doing it for the love of it.
I am grateful to everyone who reads the blog, contributes posts, and proudly calls themselves members of Nerdy. You are my over-the-top book-loving family and I am glad we found each other. I look forward to the happy communion we will share in years to come.
The 2013 Nerdy Award Finalists
I spent the weekend combing through your 2013 Nerdy Book Club Award nominations–discovering many new titles and revisiting many books that my students, colleagues, and I enjoyed reading this year. Thank you to the hundreds of readers who took the time to nominate books. Narrowing a wonderful year of reading into a short list of titles challenges avid readers, and I know you had to make tough choices!
This year’s finalists’ list contains 93 books in eight categories. We planned to shortlist the top ten nominees in each category, but tie votes and landslide nominations for many books resulted in more or less titles than ten in some categories. You don’t mind more books, do you?
In two weeks, we will open the final ballot and invite readers to select our final 2013 Nerdy Book Club Award winners. These two weeks will give readers time to review the finalists and consider titles before voting begins. I plan to spend the next fourteen days catching up on the unread Nerdy nominees I have in my to-read pile. I want to be as informed as possible before I cast my final vote! I hope you enjoy poring over the list and finding new books to read and share. you may download a copy of the list from my slideshare page for easier reference.
Congratulations to our Nerdy Book Club Award authors and illustrators! Your work has been chosen by teachers, librarians, children, booksellers, and readers everywhere as one of the best books of 2013. Thank you for providing marvelous reading experience for the children in our lives (and us). Everyone here at the Nerdy Book Club looks forward to sharing your books with more readers.
Picture Book Fiction
Battle Bunny by Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett, illustrated by Matthew Myers
Bluebird by Bob Staake
Exclamation Mark by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld
Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle
Journey by Aaron Becker
Little Red Writing by Joan Holub, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown
The Dark by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Jon Klassen
The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
The Story of Fish & Snail by Deborah Freedman
Picture Book Nonfiction
A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909 by Michelle Markel, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Building Our House by Jonathan Bean
Daredevil: The Daring Life of Betty Skelton by Meghan McCarthy
Frog Song by Brenda Z. Guiberson, illustrated by Gennady Spirin
Lifetime: The Amazing Numbers in Animals’ Lives by Lola M. Schaefer, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal 
Look Up: Bird Watching in Your Own Backyard by Annette LeBlanc Cate
Miss Moore Thought Otherwise: How Anne Carroll Moore Created Libraries for Children by Jan Pinborough, illustrated by Debby Atwell
No Monkeys, No Chocolate by Melissa Stewart and Allen Young, illustrated by Nicole Wong
On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein by Jennifer Berne, illustrated by Vladimir Radunsky
Parrots Over Puerto Rico by Susan L. Roth
Something to Prove: The Great Satchel Paige Vs. Rookie Joe DiMaggio by Rob Skead, illustrated by Floyd Cooper
The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos by Deborah Heiligman, illustrated by LeUyen Pham
The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever by H. Joseph Hopkins, illustrated by Jill McElmurry
Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctors?: The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell by Tanya Lee Stone, illustrated by Marjorie Priceman
Early Reader/ Chapter Books
A Big Guy Took My Ball! by Mo Willems
Bink and Gollie: Best Friends Forever by Kate DiCamillo & Alison McGhee, illustrated by Tony Fucile 
Bowling Alley Bandit by Laurie Keller
I’m a Frog! by Mo Willems
Ling & Ting Share a Birthday by Grace Lin
Like Bug Juice on a Burger by Julie Sternberg
Penny and Her Marble by Kevin Henkes
The Quirks: Welcome to Normal by Erin Soderberg
The Show Must Go On! by Kate Klise & M. Sarah Klise
The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes
Middle Grade and Young Adult Nonfiction
The Animal Book: A Collection of the Fastest, Fiercest, Toughest, Cleverest, Shyest–and Most Surprising–Animals on Earth by Steve Jenkins
Courage Has No Color, The True Story of the Triple Nickles: America’s First Black Paratroopers by Tanya Lee Stone
Eruption!: Volcanoes and the Science of Saving Lives by Elizabeth Rusch, illustrated by Tom Uhlman
Lincoln’s Grave Robbers by Steve Sheinkin
Locomotive by Brian Floca
Seymour Simon’s Extreme Oceans by Seymour Simon
Stronger Than Steel: Spider Silk DNA and the Quest for Better Bulletproof Vests, Sutures, and Parachute Rope by Bridget Heos, illustrated by Andy Comins
The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible . . . on Schindler’s List by Leon Leyson, Marilyn J. Harran, & Elisabeth B. Leyson
The Mystery of Darwin’s Frog by Marty Crump Ph.D, illustrated by Steve Jenkins and Edel Rodriguez
The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World’s Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb
Graphic Novels
Babymouse #17: Extreme Babymouse by Jennifer L. Holm and Matt Holm
Bluffton: My Summers with Buster Keaton by Matt Phelan
Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang
Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Donner Dinner Party by Nathan Hale
Lunch Lady #9: Lunch Lady and the Video Game Villain by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Odd Duck by Cecil Castellucci and Sara Varon
Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas by Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks
Poseidon: Earth Shaker by George O’Connor
Squish #5: Game On! by Jennifer L. Holm and Matt Holm
The Great American Dust Bowl by Don Brown
The Lost Boy by Greg Ruth
Poetry and Novels in Verse
Forest Has a Song: Poems by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, illustrated by Robbin Gourley
Follow Follow: A Book of Reverso Poems by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Josee Masse
God Got a Dog by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Marla Frazee
Gone Fishing: A Novel in Verse by Tamera Will Wissinger, illustrated by Matthew Cordell
Salt: A Story of Friendship in a Time of War by Helen Frost
Pug: And Other Animal Poems by Valerie Worth, illustrated by Steve Jenkins
Stardines Swim High Across the Sky: and Other Poems by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Carin Berger
The Pet Project: Cute and Cuddly Vicious Verses by Lisa Wheeler
What the Heart Knows: Chants, Charms, and Blessings by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski
Words with Wings by Nikki Grimes
Middle Grade Fiction
Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle
Counting by 7’s by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Doll Bones by Holly Black
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein
Every Day After by Laura Golden
Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by K.G. Campbell
Hold Fast by Blue Balliet
P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams Garcia
Rump: The True Story of Rumplestilskin by Liesl Shurtliff
The Boy on the Porch by Sharon Creech
The Center of Everything by Linda Urban
The Real Boy by Anne Ursu
The Runaway King by Jennifer Nielsen
The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathi Appelt
The Water Castle by Megan Frazer Blakemore
Wake Up Missing by Kate Messner
Young Adult Fiction
Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Far Far Away by Tom McNeal
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
Hattie Ever After by Kirby Larson
Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool
Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
Paperboy by Vince Vawter
Reality Boy by A.S. King
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
Winger by Andrew Smith
Donalyn Miller is a fifth grade teacher at Peterson Elementary in Fort Worth, TX. She is the author of The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild. Donalyn co-hosts the monthly Twitter chat, #titletalk (with Nerdy co-founder, Colby Sharp), and facilitates the Twitter reading initiative, #bookaday. You can find her on Twitter at @donalynbooks or under a pile of books somewhere, happily reading.
Nerdy Book Club 
Thanks for the wonderful list. Having major foot reconstructive surgery on 12/3 in NYC, so these books will keep me busy… gotta get to my local Indie store, Byrd’s Books in Bethel, CT, fast!!!!!
I have never once regretted saying yes to helping you and Colby on this project, Donalyn! Happy birthday, Nerdy!
These are going to be some tough choices to make in two weeks!
Happy Anniversary, NBC! And what a great list–congrats to all nominees!
I’m campaigning for everyone to read The Quirks by Erin Soderberg. It is my favorite new chapter book series.
I just ordered The Quirks for my third grade daughter — thanks for the recommendation! Is there just one book in the series at this point?
Woo hoo! This is such an exciting day for The Quirks. Yes, Lauren, the first book is out now – the second comes out in February (third next November). I hope your daughter loves it!
Had to follow up on my earlier comment. We bought my daughter and my nephew The Quirks for Christmas. My daughter stayed up late last night finishing it and came in to my room announcing, “GREAT book!” We pre-ordered #2 together this morning. I’ll be sharing this book!
Ooh, I think I got it at NCTE. Yay!
This is the highest honor imaginable — to be on a list of books chosen because kids actually like reading them. And now I have my reading list for 2014!
Congratulations, Chris! Thank you for writing another great book to share with our students.
I loved your book! Thank you for a wonderful novel to read aloud to my 5th graders!
You’re welcome. I’d love to hear your Russian accent! : )
My kids (4th graders) are LOVING your book!! Congrats! We have a list of the contestants and are crossing them off as they’re eliminated! 🙂
Colby-I hadn’t heard of The Quirks! So excited to read it! A perfect example of why I love Nerdy Book Club and these awards!
I think The Quirks would make a great second grade read aloud.
Awesome! I will read and share it! 🙂
Thanks for doing this work, Donalyn. Cindy, and Colby. Happily, I have many of the YA books in my classroom and found more middle grade books to buy my granddaughter. I just gave her “Flora and Fauna.” It’s such a cute book.
I was delighted to find a book review blog that fitted my own nerdyness! TY for existing!
Hurray! I am so glad that you found us. Congratulations on your second Nerdies nomination, Seymour.
Thank you all for the pleasure of reading this blog. It’s a pleasure every day! Great list, and happy birthday!
Happy Nerdversary!!! I appreciate you, Donalyn, Colby, & Cindy, for your work! There are several books in each category I haven read yet so I’d better get cracking. Thank you so much!
Strong work, tribe. Strong work.
I had an interesting conversation with Alyson Beecher today about the line between MG and YA. There are several books like Counting by 7’s, Hattie Ever After, Paperboy, and Navigating Early that it is difficult to identify a clear audience based on age-range alone. Tallying ballots, I put the books where they garnered the most votes. As Alyson so wisely said, what we need are teachers and librarians who are knowledgeable enough about the books to match them with the right reader. Do we need a different designation than MG and YA? As someone who taught 6th grade for a decade, I ignore these labels. Do they benefit readers? Do they benefit authors? Sounds like the topic of a much needed Nerdy post.
I struggle with that same issue as a middle school (6-8) ELA teacher. It’s all about knowing the kid and sometimes knowing the family when recommending a book. My class library runs the gamut so I can have variety and choice– it makes it so much easier to help match books to kids that way.
I am now a retired librarian who can’t tear myself away from your wonderful blog, posts and fantastic books. As a high school librarian (grades 10-12) the middle school library always sent up books that were deemed YA due to content and if parents would have issues. I definitely think there are SO MANY GREAT MG books and SO MANY GREAT YA books that there should be two separate categories. There will always be books that overlap but what fun to read from both categories!
Donalyn, I know that the age classifications set by the publishing and book-selling industries are a bit different than what I find in the library. The publishers/booksellers have to classify simply so people can find the books or subject matter they’re searching for. Typically it is the age of the protagonist that dictates what slot it’s filed under. But, of course, as we know, many times this does not indicate the target audience! I mean, look at Harry Potter! He went from 11 years old at the beginning of the series, to 17 at the end. The content blurs throughout as far as what is considered age-appropriate. Meanwhile, the readers span from very young to very old. It’s all relative, and I do agree that so much is up to the knowledgeable, observant teachers and librarians to put the right book in the right hands 🙂 Good booksellers try to do the same, though they are usually dealing with strangers who try to convey what type books they’re looking for, whereas teachers and librarians often know the readers on a more familiar level.
I totally agree, Donalyn. Some of those books are great for fourth graders and some, not so much. However, labeling them as one or the other takes them out of view for many (including me, since my focus was for so long on first grade!) I haven’t read Paperboy yet, but the rest you listed are books I’ve recommended to some of my fourth graders already. We DO need to come up with some other designation so we can include these in both categories!
The lines between advanced MG and not inappropriate for slightly younger readers YA are really really blurry. Just as children hit MG at widely varying ages, they cross the MG/YA line in many different ways. Add that there are so many different ways that school districts divvy up the grades between 4 and 9 (in my local area there is every thing from K-5 + 6-8, 4-8, 4-6 + 7-9 and any other combo you can dream of). I think your decision to classify books that were nominated in both categories in the one where they had more votes was a reasonable call.
I don’t know if I will vote -having only read 2 or 3 in any category and with little time to read before the deadline, but I am looking forward to exploring the nominees throughout 2014.
You guys are the best. Thank you for all your dedication and love.
I didn’t realize Poetry also meant novels in verse:( The Good Braider was reviewed by Paige Tucker) and they were always in high demand by our students in the high school library.
Wow, talk about heavy lists! lol I’m sorry, but I find it impossible to pick an absolute “best” in any of these categories ’cause so many are exceptional in their own way *sigh*
I agree! I think the nomination list is my favorite part of the Nerdies. It’s a nice list for folks who want a survey of some great books for the year. It’s a mix–there’s something for every reader:)
Warmest thanks for the nomination for THE RUNAWAY KING. It is an honor to be listed with all the books there, and I don’t envy your club the difficult task of narrowing it down. But if it’s got to be a problem, what a wonderful one to have! My congrats to all the finalists!
Congratulations to you! And thank you for writing such wonderful books!! I’m working very hard to get an early-release copy of The Shadow Throne for one of my kids!! He says he can’t wait! 🙂
I can’t let this anniversary go by without thanking the Nerdy community, and especially Colby, Donalyn, and Cindy, for this great resource. More than ever, folks in education need forums for sharing ideas and finding inspiration and support. The Nerdy blog and extended Twitter family do just that. I’m very grateful for what I’ve gleaned here, and for how it’s benefitted my students. So again I say, Thank You! (Now I’m off to read more books on the finalists lists.)
Thank you Nerdy Book Club for being “home” for so many of us! I am so glad I found this group! Happy Nerdversary!
Congratulations on the second anniversary of this amazing community that you’ve created!
I just finished reading Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library and am glad to see that it made this list. The list is good timing for me as a school librarian as I get ready for finalize my book orders for the end of the year. Thanks so much for being such a valuable resource for so many people!
Happy Nerdversary! Thank you Donalyn, Colby and Cindy for giving all of us “Nerds” a place to connect with each other!
No matter what the final outcome is of these nominations, every title is a WINNER in my book because each has placed a story within its covers that will lead readers of all ages to find their own “reading life”. After all, that’s why writers write and why parents, librarians, teachers, and book sellers work so hard to get these books into readers’ hands.
Looking forward to sharing this list with my readers tomorrow! Well done Nerdy friends….well done!
Hooray for nerdy girls everywhere! Congrats to all the winners.
Wow! I happened upon this site last year, and I was thrilled to have a post on it this past summer. I had no idea until today that you were only two years old! You have accomplished so much in such a short time. As an avid reader of your posts, I am always amazed at the warmth and depth of the nerdy community. Keep up the fantastic work, and thanks for letting us be a part of it.
I don’t know how to thank ALL of you–I am a high school English teacher and every week I find new books to buy for my kids through this site—am LOVING the LIST today–will buy ALL of the nominated books for young adults and devour them…although I must admit I pre-ordered ALLEGIANT and read it the day it arrived–fantastic book–the WINNER in my fairytale world! Thanks again….I bless all of you every time I read a post!!! ❤
This a good list of books that are interesting and that kids like to read.
I can’t wait to share this post with my fourth graders tomorrow. They’ll be thrilled to see some familiar titles and will want to get their hands on some new ones. Thanks so much for The Nerdy Book Club. I read it every day (although I usually don’t comment) and love reading everyone’s stories.
It’s almost silly how lucky I feel to have been noticed by you all. ALMOST silly.
Thank you for flying the nerd flag high. Long live literacy.
I can’t thank all of you enough for the book love you spread around. Truly. And Happy Nerdversary! xo
Cannot even believe that was 2 years ago! Best thing to happen to reading and the internet.
Happy second birthday, Nerdy Book Club. Thank you Colby, Donalyn and Cindy for all your work running NBC. Thanks to everyone else who authors posts as well. I love this place (and hope for many more Nerdversaries to come!)
Wow! What a fantastic list. So many books I loved and others I now need to go find!
For lovers of THE QUIRKS… from now until 12/8 you can bid on a print from chapter 11 donated by Kelly Light herself. Proceeds benefit typhoon survivors in the Philippines.
See it here: http://bit.ly/1cUP6jG
While you’re there, I hope you’ll poke around and see what else might interest you. The full list of items is on my homepage, along with details about the auction.
Pingback: Never More Proud to Be a Nerd - Vince Vawter - Paperboy Vince Vawter
As Bingo and J’miah would say: Wowie zowie! Thank you so much.
Kathi
Thank YOU all for your dedicated work! Hooray for the Nerdy Book Club and to all the nominees. What a great list. What a great community!
Pingback: It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 12/2/13 | the dirigible plum
Happy happy nerdversary! And thank you for all that you share and teach to all of us. It is an honor (pinching self) to see my FOREST HAS A SONG sitting alongside these books. Much gratitude!
Pingback: Good things, and flamingos, come in threes… | Idle Illustration
I just wanted to add how nice it is to see the appreciation of authors and illustrators posting here by stating the value of a site like this and of the people who run it. I’m a recent follower here (and around cyberspace) and am SO glad I finally got here. Thanks!
I had the privilege of sitting next to Donalyn at a recent NCTE dinner, and I’m *still* laughing over some of her insights, particularly re: Texas politics. Happy Nerdversary, from one nerd to another!
Such a wonderful list! Makes my heart sing.
Pretty decent choices there is. Also, seems that I’m hearing something going on with NYC ?
My reading list just got longer and I am thrilled. Now to get them reserved for when we land in the States. (Do I really have to socialize over Christmas Break or can I just read?)
Pingback: Looking for some good reads? Great! I’m looking for your thoughts! | Mrs. Minnich's Room 216 Online
Thank you for a wonderful list. The teacher librarian and I are beginning to plan picture books for our 2014 schoolwide Book of the Month. We try to choose recent picture books, so this list will be a wonderful resource. Plus I’m excited to have some new titles for middle grade fiction to check out.
Pingback: Little Red Writing by Joan Holub, Illustrated by Melissa Sweet, Reviewed by Wendy Lucy | Nerdy Book Club
Pingback: Book Lists: “Best of 2013″ Lists | Granite Media
Pingback: Top Ten Ways to Encourage Children to Read Over Winter Break by Katherine Sokolowski | Nerdy Book Club
Pingback: Celebrating (a bit late) | Charting By the Stars
Pingback: It’s Monday – What Are You Reading? | Assessment in Perspective
Thanks to the brains and hearts of thus blog … I appreciate all you do to help professionals connect to great books!
Pingback: Top Ten Ways to Endcourage Children to Read Over Winter Break | Sandwich Literacy
Pingback: It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 12/16/13 | Unleashing Readers
Pingback: It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? | Assessment in Perspective
Pingback: Making Plans for Vacation Reading | NSES Reading Blog
Pingback: Readers Have Plans | the dirigible plum