The ALA Youth Media Awards are coming on Monday! (Livestream here on Mon 1/26/26 at 10 am CT.) This is the Super Bowl of the kidlit world, when many of the major book awards are announced including the Newbery and Caldecott Awards. Every year, I try to have my students participate in at least one mock awards vote.
The past few years we've enjoyed Melissa Stewart's Sibert Smackdown. The Sibert Medal is for informational fiction (nonfiction), and each year Melissa shares her slate of top books for schools to host their own Mock Sibert voting. In coordination with our school librarian, my 5th graders have spent the past month reading, analyzing, and discussing their favorites among this year's choices.
We added four additional books to Melissa's list in order to get a full slate of 16. Our third graders participated in a bracket-style challenge, while my 5th graders investigated all 16.
We read aloud different books with each class, and it was interesting to see how much the voting was swayed by books we read aloud vs. books the students read and discussed in pairs.
And the Winners Are ...
In my first class, the winner was Cassini's Mission: A Spacecraft, a Tiny Moon, and the Search for Life Beyond Earth written by Katie Venit and illustrated by Julia Blattman!
Our honor books were...
- Toes, Teeth, and Tentacles: a Curious Counting Book written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
- In the World of Whales written by Michelle Cusolito and illustrated by Jessica Lanan
- Black Mambas: The World's First All-Woman Anti-Poaching Unit written and photographed by Kelly Crull
In my second class, the winner was Black Mambas: The World's First All-Woman Anti-Poaching Unit written and photographed by Kelly Crull!
The honors books were...
- Cassini's Mission: A Spacecraft, a Tiny Moon, and the Search for Life Beyond Earth written by Katie Venit and illustrated by Julia Blattman
- In the World of Whales written by Michelle Cusolito and illustrated by Jessica Lanan
- Tomatoes on Trial: The Fruit v. Vegetable Showdown written by Lindsay H. Metcalf and illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham.
- Back in December, we used the Mock Trial lesson on Lindsay's web site to stage our own Fruit vs. Vegetable showdown, and the kids really had a blast with it! (Spoiler alert: in both our classes, Team Fruit won, contradicting the historical results.)
Third Grade Bracket Results
Thanks so much to third grade teacher Carol for sharing her student's bracket results. She had each of her classes complete one side of the bracket, then both class's top choice book went head-to-head in a dramatic final vote.
I love how you can see their careful discussions and tallying across different categories of analysis: information, writing, text features, backmatter, illustration, design, and topic.
Above is example of the worksheet we used in 5th grade.
And without further delay, the third grade bracket results ...
- Overall winner: In the World of Whales written by Michelle Cusolito and illustrated by Jessica Lanan
- Other class winner: Cassini's Mission: A Spacecraft, a Tiny Moon, and the Search for Life Beyond Earth written by Katie Venit and illustrated by Julia Blattman
- Honor book: Hurricane written and illustrated by Jason Chin
- Honor book: Make a Pretty Sound: A Story of Ella Jenkins—The First Lady of Children's Music written by Traci N. Todd and illustrated by Eleanor Davis
Who are your top choices for the awards this year! Share a guess in the comments below!
Want more of my 5th graders' favorite books? Click here for all of our #iLoveMG posts.
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