Group Changes Post-October 2013: New Ideas, Missing Threads, Reviving Clubs, etc.

[Jenny]

I would love it too. As picture books take less time to read than Chapter books, I can and do read a lot more of them each month. And the great thing with this Group is that no one has to feel like they have to participate in everything. There are a lot of wonderful Caldecott books. One question...would that mean that we should avoid Caldecott books in the picture book club. I know that in the past Newbery winners were not read in the fiction club...and that makes sense. I am not sure I feel that way about Caldecott winners...there are many, many wonderful books that aren't Caldecott winners so we would still have a large selection of books to choose from, but I am still unsure if I would automatically want them eliminated.

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

It's funny you should mention that, Cheryl, because for the new year I was actually going to ask members if they would be interested in incorporating the Caldecott theme into the Picture Book Club, like perhaps every third month being a "Caldecott Month". I know members have expressed interest in exploring Caldecott winners.

That said, if enough members are interested in having a separate Caldecott Club and don't feel it would add too many books to their monthly lists, or cause them to have to choose between clubs, I would certainly not stand in the way :-)

What do you all think? Would you enjoy a separate Caldecott Club? Or would you like to see a "Quarterly Caldecott" made part of the existing Picture Book Club?

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Jenny, as to your excellent question, I think we should still allow Caldecott winners/honors to be part of the theme months in the Picture Book Club. If there is any overlap, I don't think it would be too much of a problem. Especially because we might look at the books differently as a contribution to a particular theme vs on their merits for the Caldecott.

[Londa]

Kathryn wrote: "What do you all think? Would you enjoy a separate Caldecott Club? Or would you like to see a "Quarterly Caldecott" made part of the existing Picture Book Club?

The Quarterly Caldecott as a part of the existing PBC is a wonderful idea!

[Lisa]

Kathryn wrote: "I was actually going to ask members if they would be interested in incorporating the Caldecott theme into the Picture Book Club, like perhaps every third month being a "Caldecott Month". "

Yes, I like THIS idea best.

[Tricia]

Lisa wrote: "Kathryn wrote: "I was actually going to ask members if they would be interested in incorporating the Caldecott theme into the Picture Book Club, like perhaps every third month being a "Caldecott Mo..."


Great idea!

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Great! I was hoping members would want to incorporate it into the existing PBC as I am quite excited about the idea myself and this way we can keep the monthly reading lists manageable especially since so many of our members will be participating in the revived Newbery and Fiction Clubs, too! :-)

I know we have many years of Caldecotts to cover, so if the "Quarterly Caldecott" is a hit this year maybe we could revisit the idea of a separate Caldecott Club in the future (with your interest to lead it duly noted, Cheryl. Thanks for your enthusiasm!)

[Dolly]

Cheryl in CC NV wrote: "Any interest in a Caldecott club?..."

I keep up with all of the Caldecott Medal winners and we're slowly working our way through the Honors books, too. I don't know if I'd participate as much as in the picture-book club, but I would certainly be interested in the discussion.

[Londa]

Kathryn wrote: "I know we have many years of Caldecotts to cover...

Do you think we could cover several years (3 or 4) at once? For example we could read 1938 - 1940

1938 Animals of the Bible
1939 Mei Li
1940 Abraham Lincoln

and let the remaining 2 or 3 be reader's choice from the honor list for those years. The oldest honor books might be hard to find anyway.

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Thanks for the input, Dolly. That's great you've already been working through them on your own.

Londa, I think working on several years at once would be a good idea. Since these are picture books we should still be able to get through five/month.

I will check into the availability of the older honor titles and see if many are a viable option or too hard to locate (Dolly, maybe you already know this?) I do like the idea of a "reader's choice" on these if enough are available. It would be fun to see the variety of member responses to various titles, especially when we might all have access to different ones anyway due to selective availability.

I suppose the other question would be if we go chronologically or if we do a "then vs now" where one month we do the oldest titles then next time the newest working toward meeting in the middle?

[Londa]

For just the years I listed, I can get all of the Winners at the library. Of the Honors, I can get 3 of 10. I could probably get more on ILL, but the 3 I could get easily. I live in a large (1 million +) city.

As for how to do them, I like the idea of alternating them. Some of the older ones can be culturally and gender insensitive, and I like to see how much progress we have made. :o) Also, I don't keep up with the winners so it would help ME stay current.

[Cheryl, Host of Miscellaneous and Newbery Clubs]

Yay for the Quartely Caldecotts in the PBC! To be perfectly honest, I'd prefer to start at the beginning and work forward, and I'd like to try to read the Honor books, too (after all, participation is, as noted, always entirely optional). But I will def. cooperate with what you and other members decide. Londa makes some good points, I do admit.

[Jenny]

My personal preference would be to start with the most recent and work backwards. But I will participate regardless of what order we go in.

If we start with newer titles (or we rotate back and forth between old and new), then I would prefer to cover just one or two years at a time for newer years and read all of the titles. But for older titles, it makes sense to combine two to four years and read the winners and then have anyone who wants to/has access to honor titles to read and talk about them as well.

[Michele]

I would like a Caldecott club...

[Londa]

Jenny wrote: "I would prefer to cover just one or two years at a time for newer years and read all of the titles

I agree. This makes sense for the recent years. There should be no problem with availability.

[Beverly, former Miscellaneous Club host]

Kathryn: I would also be interested in being a co-moderator, if you need any more.

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Thank you all for the input for the Quarterly Caldecott--duly noted ;-) I'm putting my focus right now on getting our new co-mods aboard, and setting up the December PBC reads, but once I have that underway I will revisit the Caldecott suggestions. I'm so glad there is an interest!

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Beverly wrote: "Kathryn: I would also be interested in being a co-moderator, if you need any more."

Beverly (and any others interested in helping out):

Thank you so much, but I think we are going to be set right now with co-mods as Cheryl, Jasmine and Jane (who expressed an early interest) are coming aboard. We only had three co-mods before, so I think with four we have enough to make sure things keep running smoothly. If we find we need more help, though, we will be sure to let you know! :-)

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

I want to extend a heartfelt "Thank You!" to all the members who have stayed on throughout all the changes of the past month. Thanks to your dedication and positive attitude, the group has stayed strong and I feel confident we will have a vibrant group going forward.

I would also like to officially welcome aboard Cheryl, Jasmine and Jane as new co-moderators. Cheryl will be taking on the Newbery Club and Jane and Jasmine will revive the Fiction Club. I'm so looking forward to working with these ladies! :-)

Finally, I encourage all of you to visit the new "Introductions" thread and introduce yourself officially.

Thanks again, and here's to great children's literature and many wonderful discussions to come!

[Cheryl, Host of Miscellaneous and Newbery Clubs]

And note, we are in the process of making an Authors' Corner folder. Self-promotion is welcome there and only there. Detailed rules to follow, but if we remember that most reader-members of this group want a way to keep author material separate from reader material in the group, we should all be fine.

[Lisa]

Thank you Kathryn, Cheryl, Jasmine, and Jane for not only keeping the group going, but breathing some new life into it.

[Cheryl, Host of Miscellaneous and Newbery Clubs]

It's exciting - mostly because of great members. I know a lot of us are busy, but I hope we can carve time to participate in some of the discussions. :)

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Thanks, Lisa! :-)
As Cheryl said, the group continues to flourish thanks to our dedicated members--and all the enthusiastic members coming aboard.

[Cheryl, Host of Miscellaneous and Newbery Clubs]

Good idea - we're discussing it in the moderator's group and will let you-all know.

[Cheryl, Host of Miscellaneous and Newbery Clubs]

Tanya - we've created a new thread that would be a good place to mention freebies. Check it out: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Cheryl, Host of Miscellaneous and Newbery Clubs]

Ok, I've deleted a set of comments that don't actually belong here. This group has a tight focus on books, and though we do have a folder for authors and another for other book-related resources, I don't think we can expand to other resources that aren't focused on books.

*Brief* mentions (of your resource) are ok for now in Reader Chat: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/.... If that works out, fine. If it becomes annoying, we'll change the rules back again. We do keep trying to be accommodating, but readers come first.

[Cheryl, Host of Miscellaneous and Newbery Clubs]

(I got a query in a PM this morning, so:)

Members note - we haven't archived old threads. Feel free to contribute more suggestions for book recs, or respond to a BotM discussion, or tell us about libraries & bookstores in your community - whatever! Participation is a Good Thing. ;)

(If anyone does see any old threads that maybe should be archived, feel free to PM me.)

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Just had to delete a post that didn't follow our group rules. As a reminder, the only place authors may mention their books by title is their designated thread in the Author's Corner. Thank you.

[Stephanie]

Are you going to have a bookshelf dedicated to children's books that have characters with special needs?

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Stephanie wrote: "Are you going to have a bookshelf dedicated to children's books that have characters with special needs?"

There actually is a thread in the "Themes, Topics & Categories" section dedicated to books featuring characters with disabilities. Just click on the "showing 5 of 16 topics" icon to expand and scroll down.

If you have the book featured in the author's section, and people read the book, they will also likely add the book to the lists in the thread.

I do think that it would be a good idea to add more specific thematic shelves for the group bookshelves and to add books according to their themes (because many people do thematic searches and read books according to themes). What do the moderators think about this? I would be willing to help with adding some of the books to thematic shelves if the moderators agree.

[Cheryl, Host of Miscellaneous and Newbery Clubs]

We are discussing your suggestion, Gundula - it does appeal to us. Thank you for posting it.

[Cheryl, Host of Miscellaneous and Newbery Clubs]

Sorry it took so long to get back to this.

Yes, please, Gundula, we'd love it if you want to set up thematic shelves and start filling them in.

Everyone, I think it would be a good idea to let Gundula get a good start on this, to lay the foundation. "Too many cooks spoil the broth" if someone tries to help her (too likely to wind up with overlapping &/or redundant shelves).

Gundula, will you please let us all know what kind of help you do need, when you're ready?

Thank you! And thanks again for your patience.

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Cheryl wrote: "Sorry it took so long to get back to this.

Yes, please, Gundula, we'd love it if you want to set up thematic shelves and start filling them in.

Everyone, I think it would be a good idea to let ..."

I will see if I can start setting up some thematic shelves this coming weekend. And honestly, Cheryl, I don't mind people helping me once I have set up some of the shelves. I am not going to be able to figure out any and all thematic shelves and I think input from other members is important.

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

I have one small question, Cheryl. If I am to organise books into shelves, do you want me to just organise (or to start orgnising) the existing books into shelves, or do you mind if I add to the list? Please let me know as I do not want to add books if that is considered to be a no-no.

[Cheryl, Host of Miscellaneous and Newbery Clubs]

Good question. I think if you have some themes that you would like to see in the list of shelves, but we have few or no books that fit, it would be helpful to "seed" those shelves with apt books drawn from your personal knowledge.

I think the theme list can come, in part, from the different categories already requested in the Themes, Topics folder, and also from (some of) the monthly reads in the Picture-Book Club. But of course you have your own ideas to start with, also.

However, *for now,* I don't believe we'd like the bookshelves to get unwieldy with too many extra additions. Later, when a firm foundation has been laid, let's talk about adding more books.

Does all that make sense to you?

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Cheryl wrote: "Good question. I think if you have some themes that you would like to see in the list of shelves, but we have few or no books that fit, it would be helpful to "seed" those shelves with apt books d..."

I'll see what I can do. I actually have mostly thematic shelves for my own books, so I thought I might use some of them and some from the picture book club etc.

[Cheryl, Host of Miscellaneous and Newbery Clubs]

Thanks again, for whatever you feel up to doing!

[Cheryl, Host of Miscellaneous and Newbery Clubs]

announcement: I'm in the process of moving a few threads out of General Discussion and into more specific folders. I hope this will help make the group a better resource for readers and families, especially those looking for specific kinds of books or other references.

[Cheryl, Host of Miscellaneous and Newbery Clubs]

I also have created a new folder for queries re' forgotten titles, something like the group What's the Name of that Book?? https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

Anybody who wants to help others is encouraged to check out those threads.

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Great! Thanks, Cheryl.