Birds of a Feather Mock Together* 

My first opportunity to participate in a mock award committee was in 2015 when I was still in library school. Nina Lindsay, ALSC President (2017-2018) and School Library Journal Heavy Medal blogger (2008-2016), hosted a mock Newbery gathering at Oakland Public Library. There I met a group of enthusiastic librarians who shared their insights and experience and engaged much more deeply with Newbery-eligible titles than I ever had before. Plus, there were networking opportunities and snacks. I was hooked! 

After that I joined a mock Newbery group of interested adults, some from the library world and some not, that met at a local school. In just a few more years I would discover my new employer, San Francisco Public Library, held a mandatory annual mock discussion as professional development for youth-serving librarians. These SFPL mock discussions are now organized by Youth Services Librarian, Sarah Stone, who shared “One reason I love mocks is that I always come away from these discussions feeling inspired by my insightful and clever colleagues.” She noted that “People can do mock awards for all sorts of reasons, but why I like to do them with other librarians is that it’s a professional development activity that builds skills that we need inside and outside our libraries.”

Since my introduction to the mock process I have led or participated in mock discussions for the Caldecott Award, Printz Award, Coretta Scott King Book Award, Pura Belpré Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and the Stonewall Book Award. Reading for the awards for the best books by people outside your own culture or lived experience has the added reward of allowing you a deeper look into other ways of moving through this world. For example, as a white person, reading 20+ books by Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (AAHNPI) creators in a year has the ability to open your mind and heart in a truly unique way. If you are fortunate enough to live in a culturally and racially diverse community, there is the added likelihood of a multicultural gathering of librarians, booksellers, parents, and children’s literature enthusiasts with whom you will be able to connect to discuss each year’s titles. Those voices sharing their experience of the same AAHNPI titles you read, will allow you to re-experience those books in a very different way. 

These discussions have taken place in many different formats. For a while I collaborated with a local middle school teacher to host a mock Newbery for the students and we read eligible titles throughout the school year. My local professional development organization, the Association of Children’s Librarians of Northern California hosts a different mock award program each year and we usually start reading in June. Another local group of mock Caldecott fans doesn’t start reading until November and meets in December to discuss and vote on their favorite titles of the year. There are endless ways to model your mock award program.

The stakes are also different for each group and each participant. Sometimes the participants are really eager for their choices to match the actual committee’s choices and they base their success each year on how closely their selections parallel the award winners. Other times, participants are just excited to go through the process and discuss books with other librarians, booksellers and lovers of children’s literature. Participants such as Armin Arethna of Berkeley Public Library appreciates that mocks cause her to enjoy the books a whole lot more as participating calls her to “listen to other readers’ opinions with an open mind, marvel at what I have missed in my reading, and consider the possibilities! Hearing other readers’ opinions enhances my understanding of the book.”

An added bonus is that mock award activity is usually most intense following the winter holidays and for me January can feel a little glum, so I am excited to be turning my attention toward reading children’s books with a greater goal in mind. Alli Angel, Senior Librarian at Benicia Public Library shared “I love mock award committees because they fall at a time of year (between semesters, during winter vacation) when I have more time to read. It’s a great chance to read some of the previous year’s best books and take time to re-acquaint myself with the award criteria, then apply them to the pile of books I have just enjoyed. Discussing the books with people who have also put time into that process is always very rewarding.”

Lillian Whithaus of Oakland Public Library is fond of the mock award process, “I have so enjoyed the two mock awards I’ve participated in… I love that they stretch my reading habits and make me pick up titles I might not otherwise have considered. And …they really serve to remind me why I chose to work in libraries and bring me some much needed joy and connection that can be missing in my day-to-day work.”

Are you convinced? You can find tips for identifying books to select on this ALSC post, Hosting Your Own Mock Awards, and here are some tips to help you get started on pulling a group together:

• If you are in a public library in a town with an elementary or middle school with a staffed library or willing teacher, try teaming up with them to collaborate on a mock award with students. Be sure to check out ALSC’s blog post Hosting a Mock Newbery Book Club for great ways to structure this partnership.
• If you’re in a library or school system with multiple children’s librarians, connect with some of them to see if they might be interested in participating with you.
• If you have a group of friends who enjoy children’s literature, talk to them about joining you for an experimental year of reading. This can be especially fun if there are parents in the group reading books their own children might enjoy, as it gives them opportunities to read and recommend books to their kids.
• If you prefer to mock virtually, look for one of the many on-line groups such as Heavy Medal for a mock Newbery or one of the many Goodreads groups such as mock Caldecott or mock Printz.

However you do it — I encourage you to give it a try. Or, in other words…

Mock on!**

*I cannot take credit for this clever title. I went looking for mock puns and the internet did not disappoint. 

**Mine.

Angela Moffett is a Children’s Librarian at Alameda County Public Library and the librarian at Children’s Fairyland, a storybook amusement park in Oakland, California. She is currently co-chair of the ALSC Program Coordinating Committee and serving on the 2026 Caldecott Award Committee. 

The post Birds of a Feather Mock Together*  appeared first on ALSC Blog.

 My first opportunity to participate in a mock award committee was in 2015 when I was still in library school. Nina Lindsay, ALSC President (2017-2018) and School Library Journal Heavy Medal blogger (2008-2016), hosted a mock Newbery gathering at Oakland Public Library. There I met a group of enthusiastic librarians who shared their insights and experience and engaged much more deeply with Newbery-eligible titles than I ever had before. Plus, there were networking opportunities and snacks. I was hooked!  After that I joined a mock Newbery group of interested adults, some from the library world and some not, that met at a local school. In just a few more years I would discover my new employer, San Francisco Public Library, held a mandatory annual mock discussion as professional development for youth-serving librarians. These SFPL mock discussions are now organized by Youth Services Librarian, Sarah Stone, who shared “One reason I…
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