The Winners!

Our 2009 Eva Perry Library Mock Newbery Medal goes to:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

with Honor Books:

The Dead & the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
The Patron Saint of Butterflies by Cecilia Galante
Smiles to Go by Jerry Spinelli

We chose our winners with a Newbery style vote, where each of the 25 club members attending cast their ballot for a first, second, and third place book.  The Hunger Games won our medal by a landslide in the first round of voting.  The Hunger Games also won the Mock Printz award at our library, but that vote was much closer.  This is the 11th year for our Mock Newbery club, and the 9th for our Mock Printz, and the first and only time we’ve chosen the same book for our medals.

In our second round of voting The Dead and the Gone and The Patron Saint of Butterflies emerged as clear Honor Books. In the third round Smiles to Go stood out from the crowd. At that point we were deadlocked over three titles with only two honor book spaces left, so we decided to stop there (we were also running out of time!) and chose just three honor books this year.  For the record, the three books we were haggling over were The Underneath by Kathi Appelt, Tennyson by Leslie M. M. Blume, and Trouble by Gary Schmidt.

We had tons of fun in our club this year, as usual.  We’ll be back in mid-February with some podcasts featuring our members talking about our winners, the official ALA Newbery winners, and some books that never won anything, but that we just like anyway.  Then we’ll start reading for the 2010 Eva Perry Library Mock Newbery’s on April 17!

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Summary: In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss’s skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister’s place. 374 p., Scholastic Press.

Find it at WCPL

Patron Saint of Butterflies by Cecilia Galante

Summary: When her grandmother takes fourteen-year-old Agnes, her younger brother, and best friend Honey and escapes Mount Blessing, a Connecticut religious commune, Agnes clings to the faith she loves while Honey looks toward a future free of control, cruelty, and preferential treatment. 292 p., Bloomsbury.

Find it at WCPL

Smiles to Go by Jerry Spinelli

Summary: Will Tuppence’s life has always been ruled by science and common sense but in ninth grade, shaken up by the discovery that protons decay, he begins to see the entire world differently and gains new perspective on his relationships with his little sister and two closest friends. 248 p., Joanna Colter Books.

Find it at WCPL

The Dead & the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Summary: After a meteor hits the moon and sets off a series of horrific climate changes, seventeen-year-old Alex Morales must take care of his sisters alone in the chaos of New York City. 321 p., Harcourt.

Find it at WCPL