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Mock Caldecott balloting
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From: Melody Allen <melody_allen>
Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2003 09:05:15 -0500
I have conducted Mock Caldecotts since the 1985 publishing year. If memory serves me correctly, we have only once had a winner on the first ballot. Most of the time, we do not have a clear winner by the third ballot, which is as far as we have time to go. We announce the leading book as winner and select honor books based on the results of that ballot.
I think neither Katy nor Eliza mentioned that in selecting honor books, they can be determined from the ballot that provided a winner or the committee can agree to one more ballot for choosing honor books. Needless to say, when all the votes, whether 1st, 2nd or 3rd place, that went to the winner are redistributed, the results in terms of honor books can shift. I have seen this in the Mock sessions when we have had time for the extra ballot.
I have been lucky enough to be on the real Caldecott committee twice. The committee has a certain amount of latitutde to determine the process by which titles are eliminated during the discussion process, but once "off the table" (and this should be taken literally as books are ususally tossed on the floor), a book cannot be brought back for honor book consideration. I don't remember automatically dropping books that received no votes. Ginny McKee who was on the group that determined the 8/8 voting system always used to insist that there must be at least 8 books on the ballot - some mathematical consideration. When we have the Mock sessions, we simply adjust the 8/8 to fit the size of our group as we often have more than 15 people participating.
This year since I am not attending Midwinter, we will hold our Mock session for Caldecott on Jan. 12 and then have some pizza while waiting for the announcement to come up on the web site. With the three hour time difference, we will get the results at 1:00 here in RI. Please no snow that day! Of course, the exposure to the best titles of the year and the discussion of the books outstanding features are the most important parts of the day whichever books win. Melody Allen
Received on Mon 08 Dec 2003 08:05:15 AM CST
Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2003 09:05:15 -0500
I have conducted Mock Caldecotts since the 1985 publishing year. If memory serves me correctly, we have only once had a winner on the first ballot. Most of the time, we do not have a clear winner by the third ballot, which is as far as we have time to go. We announce the leading book as winner and select honor books based on the results of that ballot.
I think neither Katy nor Eliza mentioned that in selecting honor books, they can be determined from the ballot that provided a winner or the committee can agree to one more ballot for choosing honor books. Needless to say, when all the votes, whether 1st, 2nd or 3rd place, that went to the winner are redistributed, the results in terms of honor books can shift. I have seen this in the Mock sessions when we have had time for the extra ballot.
I have been lucky enough to be on the real Caldecott committee twice. The committee has a certain amount of latitutde to determine the process by which titles are eliminated during the discussion process, but once "off the table" (and this should be taken literally as books are ususally tossed on the floor), a book cannot be brought back for honor book consideration. I don't remember automatically dropping books that received no votes. Ginny McKee who was on the group that determined the 8/8 voting system always used to insist that there must be at least 8 books on the ballot - some mathematical consideration. When we have the Mock sessions, we simply adjust the 8/8 to fit the size of our group as we often have more than 15 people participating.
This year since I am not attending Midwinter, we will hold our Mock session for Caldecott on Jan. 12 and then have some pizza while waiting for the announcement to come up on the web site. With the three hour time difference, we will get the results at 1:00 here in RI. Please no snow that day! Of course, the exposure to the best titles of the year and the discussion of the books outstanding features are the most important parts of the day whichever books win. Melody Allen
Received on Mon 08 Dec 2003 08:05:15 AM CST
