For the past 3 years, Alyson Beecher has hosted a Mock Sibert on her blog as part of the Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday meme. Mock Sibert has grown! First Alyson from Kid Lit Frenzy and Kellee from Unleashing Readers wrote posts and made predictions. In 2015, I was invited to join in and in 2016 Alyson opened it up to anyone who wanted to participate. Here are links to these posts:

Kid Lit Frenzy: 2016 Mock Sibert

There’s a Book for That: 2016 Mock Sibert

Kid Lit Frenzy: 2015 Mock Sibert

Unleashing Readers: 2015 Mock Sibert

There’s a Book for That: 2015 Mock Sibert

Kid Lit Frenzy: 2014 Mock Sibert

Unleashing Readers: 2014 Mock Sibert

This year, Kellee proposed expanding the Mock Sibert discussion even further by moving it to a year long conversation. She put feelers out to our little book loving PLN about  expanding the Mock Sibert to a Book Group on GoodReads.  By doing this, we get to discuss books all year long.

And . . . you can join in too!

Our plan for the group is for group members to start discussions about any nonfiction books that they feel are 2017 Sibert Award contenders. Then within those discussion boards, we will discuss the books we each “nominate.” At the end of December, we will vote for the books we feel need to be looked at again. We’ll then have a FINALISTS discussion board where we look closer at each of the books with an eye specifically towards the Sibert criteria. Following our discussions, we will vote for what we believe will be the finalists. We’ll then have a WINNER discussion board where we look again at the books we voted as finalists and discuss who we think will win. About a week before the 2017 ALA Media Awards, with enough time to blog about our winner and finalists if participants would like, we’ll vote for the winner.

Personally, I love reading about titles that others love. Their passion often sells me or at least lets me look at books with new perspective and new eyes!

Come join us on Goodreads at the Mock Sibert Book Club!

First, go to GROUPS at the top of the Goodreads home page.

You can search for the book club in the search bar at the top of the groups page.

Please make sure to answer our new member’s question, and we will approve you to jump into our conversation!

Hope you will come join us!

I have only read one 2016 nonfiction title so far. But there are a few I have my eye on (published at various times this year). Will they be Mock Sibert contenders? Who knows? The fun is in the reading! I can’t wait to discover more 2016 titles as the year unfolds.

Squirrels Leap, Squirrels Sleep (November 2016)

Animals by the Numbers (November 2016)

Now You See Them, Now You Don’t: Poems about Creatures that Hide (February 2016)

Giant Squid (September 2016)

Thanks to Alyson from Kid Lit Frenzy for the inspiration to read and share more nonfiction picture books in 2016. Follow the link to Alyson’s blog to read about more nonfiction books you need to read!