Tuesday Afternoons Rock!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 
to the Tuesday Slice of Life sponsored by

Two Writing Teachers.

I'm retired, but I spend my Tuesday afternoons with a fabulous group of students in an after-school book club.  We're reading books selected by King County librarians as possibilities for the 2015 Newbery Award.  One of the local King County librarians, Carrie Bowman, has joined us for our discussions.  Our books were purchased by the schools foundation and will be added to the book club collection in our library for teachers to use after the Newbery is announced on February 2.

We met twice in December, and today was our 3rd meeting of the new year.  We started evaluating the titles we've read today.  Next week we'll finish our evaluation and Choose the Next Newbery from the titles we've read.  Today's lively discussion included these titles:

Rain, Reign by Ann Martin

West of the Moon by Margi Preus

The Meaning of Maggie by Megan Sovern

The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm

Next Tuesday we'll discuss the rest of the titles from You Choose the Next Newbery at KCLS (King County Library System):

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing by Sheila Turnage

Then we'll complete our ballots and follow the Newbery guidelines to select the next Newbery from the titles we've read.  This is my fourth year to partner with KCLS and the students at my school to participate in a Mock Newbery book club.  We begin each Tuesday with a lively check-in and check-out period, followed by discussion of books read that week, and a closing of our time together with treats brought by students in our group and cookie bars from my kitchen.  It's a sweet afternoon, and my former colleagues at school look forward to Tuesday afternoon treats too (when we have leftovers)!

We'd love to hear from fellow slicers in the comments.  Which of the books from our list do you feel are strong possibilities for this year's Newbery and Newbery Honor awards?  Also, let us know of other titles you think are possibilities for the 2015 Newbery Award.  Some students in our group have read all seven titles already and are busy exploring other titles published in 2014.   We're watching the countdown clock at the YMA (Youth Media Awards) site where you can learn about all the awards that will be announced on February 2 in precisely 12 days, 9 hours, 38 minutes,  and 6 seconds.  Can you tell that we are excited?