Monday, January 4, 2016

Announcement: Plans for Next Year!

Welcome to 2016! We hope everyone had a great holiday season. We've hinted before that this year, we might be taking a bit of a different direction here at For Those About to Mock, and we're finally ready to unveil our plans.

Since we started this blog four years ago, we've used the preponderance of our space to review new books that could be contenders for the Newbery (and, to a lesser extent, the other Youth Media Awards). However, we've also written other posts, including our Winner's Circle series, in which we've looked at some of the past Newbery winners.

This year, we've decided as a team to focus on looking more carefully at the past winners of the Newbery Medal, which means we get to fire up our
Each month, we'll feature reviews of winners from a different decade, starting with the 1920s here in January.* Expect lively discussion and a (hopefully) entertaining look at prizewinners from the days of yore! We hope our readers (especially our noble #nerdbery forebears) will chime in with comments about favorite (or less than favorite) winners.

We may also review some current books in contention for the 2017 Newbery, but expect our main spotlight to be on past winners. We hope you enjoy!


* Fortunately, I've already reviewed Smoky, the Cowhorse. *shudder*
** Thanks to Kacey Martin for our awesome Newbery Wayback Machine logo!

11 comments:

  1. I'm so excited about this new format! On my bucket list is to read all the Newbery winners, so this will give me a great reading list for 2016!

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  2. This is awesome! I cannot wait!

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  3. Awesome! I chose to focus more on past winners in 2015, which I loved, but now I feel really out of the loop for the ALA announcements on Monday! Can't wait to read your thoughts on many winners from the past!

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  4. Oh, the 20s should be interesting. I've only managed to steel my own nerves enough to read three of those (Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, Shen of the Sea, and Tales from Silver Lands). My worst decade though is the 50s.

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    1. I've only actually read two of the '20s ones (Shen of the Sea and Smoky, the Cowhorse, which makes it my worst decade. If I get through Story of Mankind fast enough, I may end up doing a couple more.

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  5. This is just what I have been looking for! I have read nearly half of the 404 winners and runners up in the past 6 months or so. Only over 200 titles left to go! I have read 7 from the 1920s with a few more, including Smokey the cow horse, in the pile beside my bed. I am currently reading My Side of the Mountain, and have just finnished Pageant of Chinese History a 1935 runner up. I look forward to reading the reviews and hope you enjoy reading the books as much as I have.

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    1. Wow! Color me extremely impressed!

      Also, good luck with Smoky. Man, that one's dire.

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    2. I would have to agree that the 20s are a bit of a challenge. I have spaced them out amongst more recent books. So far Smoky the Cow Horse doesn't have much to recommend it. It makes me wonder if the criteria for winning have changed or if children just read more back then

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