MVMS Students Get Out the Vote for Their Favorite Books
Every March, nominations from teachers, students, and librarians across the state flood into California Young Reader's Medal offices recommending books for the honor of the award.
Of these nominated authors, twelve (three for each of the four categories) are chosen for a book that they have written in the last five years. This year, the nominees for the middle school category are The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman, Day of Tears by Julius Lester, and Chicken Boy by Francis O'Roark Dowell.
Voting closed on Friday, March 28th and winners will be announced May 1. Every student who voted will receive extra credit from their language arts teacher. In addition, a pizza party will be thrown in the library for all students who voted. According to teacher-librarian Jonna Palmer, all three books have been in tight competition since voting opened a few months ago.
"I don't know which is going to win," said Palmer. "It's really close."
Nicolette, an upper sixth grader, voted for The Schwa because she enjoyed the story.
"I voted for The Schwa Was Here because I liked the invisible part- he was all alone, with no friends," said Nicoletter. "It was a different kind of invisible."
Rebecca, also in sixth grade, strongly disagreed. She voted for Chicken Boy.
"To me the other books were kind of boring," said Rebecca. "Chicken Boy was definitely the best."
It seems certain that this year’s competition for the California Young Reader's Medal is going to be close.
by Emma
STAFF WRITER*April Issue
