The conference I went to a couple of weeks ago was awesome. The most exciting event was to hear the announcements of the winners for:
2009-2010 Missouri Readers Awards.
Show-Me Readers Awards Winner:
Some Dog by Mary Casanova
Mark Twain Award Winner:
Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn
Truman Award Winner:
The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Eighth Grade Bites by Heather Brewer
Most of the MLE winner predictions were confirmed. However, I was pleasantly surprised about the winning of Mary Casanova's book,
Some Dog.
MLE had voted for
Orange Shoes by Trinka Hakes Noble. MLE is a community of big thinkers and naturally choose
Orange Shoes for the incredible story of Delly Porter who enjoys the feel of soft dirt beneath her feet as she walks to and from school, but after a classmate makes her feel ashamed of having no shoes she learns that her parents and others, too, see value in things that do not cost money.
Some of you may remember last years Truman Award winner:
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. The book tells the story through the journal entries of sixteen-year-old Miranda. She describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.
It is probably one of the most powerful books I have read in a long time. I was very fortunate to meet Ms Pfeffer at the conference. She used a great deal of humor when reflecting about how she thought of her ideas for
Life As We Knew It. In short, she watched an old movie called
Meteor. Ms. Pfeffer shared that she wasn't exactly impressed by the movie but it did inspire her to think....what if.
She went on to say that there is a story everywhere you look. We just need to slow down and think about different setting, characters and problems and wonder...what if.
Next week: We will be talking about the
Summer Reading Challenge
