Mock Caldecott Voting Results

The American Library Association awards the Caldecott Medal to the artist of "the most distinguished American picture book for children." This year, first- and second-graders chose a title for the Garden City Mock Caldecott by the same illustrator that won an 2013 ALA Honor: Peter Brown, who drew the pictures for Aaron Reynold's Creepy Pair of Underwear!

Here are some of the reasons why it won:

• It is creepy and funny.
• The bunny kept throwing away the underwear but it kept coming back.
• He was afraid at first but now he's not.
• Jasper cut the underwear but it came back.
• It's funny and fun to read.
• The kid was trying to get rid of the pair of underwear and it was funny.
• It is funny and it makes you face your fears.

Two other finalists got lots of votes, so they are our Honor Books:

Splat, written and illustrated by John Burgerman

• It's very funny and crazy.
• Because the birds put ice cream and there was a splat.
• Because every other page it says "Splat!"
• It has a lot of color..
• He looks like an ice cream.
• It is so funny when it says Splat! and Squish!

Bob, Not Bob!, written by Liz Garton Scanlon and Audrey Vernick and illustrated by official 2018 Caldecott winner Matthew Cordell (for his book Wolf in the Snow)

• The little boy kept saying, "Bob! Not Bob!" but he really wanted his mom. But his dog kept coming.
• He tries to yell, "MOM!" instead he said "BOB!"
• When a boy is sick in bed, he tries to call his mother, but because he is sick, he has a weird voice. He tries to call his mother, but he keeps calling his dog Bob. 
• Because Bob comes to lick him.
• Because the dog came when the boy tried to call for his mom.

Password Protection with Room 10

We're discussing "Rings of Responsibility" in Grade 4: ways to be responsible to yourself, to your friends and family, and to the community (both in person and online). Common Sense Media has a great lesson on building strong passwords, which connects to digital citizenship at the self level.

The number one rule is ... don't share your passwords with anyone but the grownups you live with!

After that, try and make sure nobody can guess said passwords. We talked about avoiding dictionary words, substituting symbols for letters, and using phone keypad numbers instead of letters.

Using a Common Sense handout, the kids came up with "weak" and "strong" passwords for famous people. For example:

Person: Taylor Swift
Weak password: Tswift
Stronger password: c0un1ry

Person: Pea Shooter (Plants v. Zombies character)

Weak password: starterplant
Stronger password: #cR@Z3DaV3

Person: Selena Gomez
Weak password: IamSelena1234
Stronger password: Se1euag0wez

How strong are YOUR passwords? 

What Ms. Moore Read in February

Here are some of the most recent books I've read and recommend for my students. They're all available from the public library, but any donations towards getting them into our collection are most welcome! Cover images and descriptions are from Goodreads. 

Picture Books

Rot is a mutant potato. Like most mutant potatoes, Rot loves all sorts of games and contests. So when he sees a sign for the “Cutest in the World Contest,” he can’t wait to enter.But when Rot realizes who he’s up against—an itty-bitty baby bunny, a little-wittle cuddly kitten, and an eenie-weenie jolly jellyfish—he loses confidence. Will the judges find room in their hearts for an adorable mutant potato?  

Dear Girl, is a remarkable love letter written for the special girl in your life; a gentle reminder that she’s powerful, strong, and holds a valuable place in the world.

Through Amy and Paris’s charming text and Holly Hatam’s stunning illustrations, any girl reading this book will feel that she's great just the way she is—whether she enjoys jumping in a muddy puddle, has a face full of freckles, or dances on table tops.

Dear Girl, encourages girls to always be themselves and to love who they are—inside and out.

Middle Grade

Olivia Bean knows trivia. She watches Jeopardy! every night and usually beats at least one of the contestants. If she were better at geography, she would try out for the show’s kids’ week. ... One day Olivia’s friend-turned-nemesis, Tucker, offers to help her bulk up her geography knowledge. Before Olivia knows it, she’s getting help from all sorts of unexpected sources: her almost-stepdad, superannoying Neil; her genius little brother, Charlie; even her stressed-out mom. Soon she has breezed through the audition rounds and is headed for Hollywood! But will the one person she wants to impress more than anyone else show up to support her?

Mason Buttle is the biggest, sweatiest kid in his grade, and everyone knows he can barely read or write. Mason’s learning disabilities are compounded by grief. Fifteen months ago, Mason’s best friend, Benny Kilmartin, turned up dead in the Buttle family’s orchard. An investigation drags on, and Mason, honest as the day is long, can’t understand why Lieutenant Baird won’t believe the story Mason has told about that day.

Both Mason and his new friend, tiny Calvin Chumsky, are relentlessly bullied by the other boys in their neighborhood, so they create an underground club space for themselves. When Calvin goes missing, Mason finds himself in trouble again. He’s desperate to figure out what happened to Calvin, and eventually, Benny.

A funny and poignant debut middle-grade novel about a foster-care girl who is placed with a family in the witness protection program, and finds that hiding in plain sight is complicated and dangerous. ... 

Nicki swears she can keep the Trevor family safe, but to do so she’ll have to dodge hitmen, cyberbullies, and the specter of standardized testing, all while maintaining her marshal-mandated B-minus average. As she barely balances the responsibilities of her new identity, Nicki learns that the biggest threats to her family’s security might not lurk on the road from New York to North Carolina, but rather in her own past.




No one likes or wants to take the statewide assessment tests. Not the students in Mrs. Woods's sixth-grade class, not even their teacher. It's not like the kids don't already have things to worry about. . . .

Under pressure to be the top gymnast her mother expects her to be, RANDI starts to wonder what her destiny truly holds. Football-crazy GAVIN has always struggled with reading and feels as dumb as his high school-dropout father. TREVOR acts tough and mean, but as much as he hates school, he hates being home even more. SCOTT's got a big brain and an even bigger heart, especially when it comes to his grandfather, but his good intentions always backfire in spectacular ways. NATALIE, know-it-all and aspiring lawyer, loves to follow the rules--only this year, she's about to break them all.

The whole school is in a frenzy with test time approaching--kids, teachers, the administration. Everyone is anxious. When one of the kids has a big idea for acing the tests, they're all in. But things get ugly before they get better, and in the end, the real meaning of the perfect score surprises them all. 

Nonfiction

By the 1930s Elsa Schiaparelli had captivated the fashion world in Paris, but before that, she was a little girl in Rome who didn’t feel pretty at all. Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelliis the enchanting story for young readers of how a young girl used her imagination and emerged from plain to extraordinary.