My Newbery Pie, started in the summer of 2010, was never properly baked. Over the last year, I have read three more of the 1922 books, but neglected my Pie something awful.
So let's do this right. First, an outline of exactly what I am doing here.
I have a master list of all of the Newbery titles, both winners and nominees/honors. It is heavily highlighted in both pink and yellow, indicating winners and titles I have already read. There are two different colors of blue dots indicating whether the titles are available at my library or in the metropolitan system, both, or neither.
My stats:
385: number of books on the list, as of 2011
22: number of Newberys read prior to project launch, 11 were winners, 11 were honors
56: number of titles not available anywhere in my metropolitan system
I was not prepared for dealing with the very rare books on this list. I thought that since nominees from the same year are "honor" books, and really considered to also be distinguished, this meant every book on the list would be somewhere in my area. Some research into the matter informed me that before 1971 the Newbery "Honor" title was not in use, and the other titles nominated each year besides the winner were just that - nominees. There was much less ceremony for runners-up before 1971. That, plus the passage of so much time since the birth of the Newbery equaled a dismal beginning for this project.
But still, I figured if I couldn't get them through my library system, I could purchase them! Why not! I am constantly jacking up my personal library with nerdier materials! But quick online search promptly demonstrated that I would be bankrupted by this move. Those sellers know those old Newberys are rare, and 56 is too large a number.
Then came my instruction on how to use I-SHARE, the huge 76 library consortium in Illinois. I quickly got my hands on what I needed.
Now it's on.
