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It’s Time for the Nerdy Book Club Awards by Tammy Mulligan and Clare Landrigan

Posted by on December 17, 2015 in 2015 Nerdies | 1 Comment

Donalyn Miller’s post, Happy 4th Anniversary, Nerdy Book Club made us smile. It’s time again for the Nerdy Book Club Awards!   Each week, Nerdy Book Club features a “Top 10 List” so we thought it would be fun to share the Top Ten Reasons Why We Love the Nerdy Book Awards:

  1. Time to Reflect – In order to choose which books to nominate, we looked back over what we had read this year.   As we thought about the books we read, we realized how many different ways we keep track of the books we read:

 

  1. Remembering Titles – Even if the book didn’t make the “Top 5 Cut,” looking at the titles helped us remember the books from 2015 that we loved.

 

  1. Remembering Our Year – As we talked about our favorite books we asked each other, “Did we read that one for #bookaday?” “Was that part of our graphic novel challenge in October?”   “Didn’t we listen to that one while driving in Alaska?”   Books are a big part of our lives and seeing these titles brought back memories of our year.

 

  1. Remembering Our PLN – As we discussed which books to choose, we remembered the person who recommended the book to us. Names of teachers and fellow bloggers came rushing back to us.   Remembering the book helped us to remember important people in our lives.

 

  1. Remembering the Authors – As we looked at each title, we thought about the author behind the book.  The authors of the books we love are co-teachers in the classroom.  Saying their names and remembering the books makes us smile.

 

  1. Talking About Books: As we begin selecting books, we begin conversations with others about the books they love.   We will be asking teachers this month about their favorite books from 2015.

 

  1. Learning About New Titles: When the Nerdy Book Club awards are announced we inevitably learn about new titles too. These books go right to the top of our “To Read” pile and launch us into a new year of reading.

 

  1. Recommending Texts: The Nerdy Book Club award posts are a great way to expand the types and ranges of text we can recommend.   Since we work in K-6 classrooms, most of what we read is for this age group.   The Nerdy Book Club awards help us learn about young adult titles that we missed.

 

  1. Setting New Goals: As we reflect on our reading lives, we set some new goals.  In 2016 we want to read more poetry and texts for early readers.   We didn’t read as much in these categories as we would have liked.

 

  1. Increasing the Number of Winners: The Nerdy Book Awards gives more authors and their books a chance to be recognized.   Since not all books will win an award at the end of January, these awards are a way to tell authors that their books impacted us.

 

Now that you know why you should nominate books for the Nerdy Book Awards, here are our top picks:

 

Picture Books: Fiction

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Picture Books: Nonfiction

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Graphic Novels

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Middle Grade Fiction

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If you would like to submit your nominations, here are the Nerdy Book Club Guidelines:

The 2015 Nerdy Award Nomination ballot is open until December 20th at midnight Eastern Time. Nominate up to 5 books in each of the following categories:

Picture Books: Fiction

Picture Books: Nonfiction

Early Readers/ Chapter Books

Graphic Novels

Poetry and Novels in Verse

MG/YA Nonfiction

Middle Grade Fiction

Young Adult Fiction

 

You do not need to nominate books in every category or nominate a full slate of 5 nominees. All nominees must have been published in 2015 and written for children or young adults. In order to prevent ballot box stuffing for beloved titles, we have restricted the surveys to one response per computer.

After tallying the ballots, we will announce the 2015 Nerdies winners in daily category posts beginning December 26th.   We can’t wait to see the results!

Tammy Mulligan and Clare Landrigan currently lead Teachers for Teachers. They provide professional development to several districts as external staff developers. Tammy and Clare are the authors of Assessment in Perspective: Focusing on the Reader Behind the Numbers.You can find more of their writing at teachersforteachers.net.