First off, thank you for your interest in being a committee member in our very first Bellingham Library Book Awards. Even though we have never done this before, we are excited to see what happens! It’s all in your hands.
Think of yourselves as judges. Committee members are expected to read 15 books over the course of 2013. These books will be chosen by Mr. Steve and they will all be copyrighted in 2013. All books will be appropriate for students in grades 3-6. Titles will be added to your list throughout the year as they are released.
The email address that you gave when you registered will be used to email new titles as they are decided so you can keep up to date on your reading. The library will have purchased a copy of each of the books on the list but it is likely that you will need to use our free interlibrary loan system to get several of the titles. This generally will take about a week.
As you are reading the books, keep in mind that you will eventually be giving us your opinion for the winner in eight different categories. These categories are:
Favorite Book Cover
Favorite Male Character
Favorite Female Character
Favorite Grown-Up
Funniest Character
Best Ending
Best Written
Favorite Book
You will get your voting ballots in early December. All ballots are to be turned in by Friday, December 20. We will have our awards ceremony near the end of January 2014 to coincide with the announcement of the Newbery Medal winning books. We want this to be a special event and are hopeful to get input by some of the winning authors.
Since you will be reading 15 books over the course of ten months, you may easily confuse characters and books. I would therefore suggest keeping in mind the eight different categories and writing down possible contenders for the various categories along the way.
We will meet periodically to see how everyone is doing. If you would like to join, please email sfowler@cwmars.org. Remember: the most important part of this is to HAVE FUN!!