Join an award-winning group: the Middle School Book Group
By Library Assistant Kate Bell
YORK VILLAGE - It's November again and that means the start of the Middle School Book Group.As the weather gets colder, what better time to settle inside with a good book! Last year the Middle School Book Group read new young adult books. We reviewed them and discussed them once a month. Our reviews are in a binder located in the young adult section.
This year we will be reading titles on the Maine Student Book Award list. The Maine Student Book Award was established in 1989, by Augusta School Librarian Ernest Bradbury. Each year a list of books is generated for students to read over the course of the year. In the spring, students in grades 4 through 8 vote on their favorite book of the year. The winning book is announced in April at the annual Reading Round-Up Conference in Augusta. This is a chance for young readers, not adults, to choose an award-winning book.
The reading list for the award is created by a committee of public and school librarians and teachers. These committee members represent the Maine Library Association, the Maine Association of School Librarians and the Maine Reading Association. The books for the list are chosen from book reviews that are submitted by teachers, librarians, parents and students. To be eligible, the books for the current list had to be written in 2005, had to be original pieces of work or the culmination of original research and can be either fiction or nonfiction.
To find out more about the books on the list, and to read what other students think about them, head here: http://www.msba.msad56.org/myweb/index.htm. Here's the link to a straight list of books with descriptions: http://www.windham.lib.me.us/msbaan.htm.
As someone who loves to read new books, I am working on reading all the titles on the current list; I'm never bored as long as I have something to read. I'm excited to see which books students prefer because I think learning to gauge popular tastes is what will help me become a good young adult librarian. This year the book group will do a combination of reading the same book together and reading individual titles to share with the rest of the group. I'll be asking the book group members to review the books that they read individually. We'll also be working on group projects.
If you have any questions or want to find out when we are meeting next, please contact me, Kate Bell, by email at kabell@york.lib.me.us or call me at 363-2818.
