Coming Soon: Best of the Best Reading Challenge!
We posted a little teaser earlier this month about our upcoming Best of the Best Reading Challenge, and now that it’s only four days away (!), it’s time to share details about the contest with you!
When?
The 2012 Best of the Best Reading Challenge will begin at 12:01AM EST on Sunday, April 1. Once the challenge starts, you’ll have three months (until 11:59pm on Saturday, June 30) to read as many of the 80 titles counted among YALSA’s 2012 Best of the Best as you can.
Only books that you both begin and finish within the challenge period count, so if you’ve read any Best of the Best titles before, you’ll have to re-read them to count them.
What?
The Best of the Best are the winners and honor books for the Alex, Edwards, Morris, Nonfiction, Odyssey, and Printz Awards as well as the Top Ten Amazing Audiobooks, Best Fiction for Young Adults, Great Graphic Novels, Popular Paperbacks, and Quick Picks.
Our reading challenge can be both completed and conquered. To complete the challenge, read or listen to 25 of the 80 titles before the deadline. Everyone who completes the challenge will be invited to submit a reader response (which can be text, audio, video, graphics, or some combination) to his or her favorite (or least favorite!) Best of the Best title, which we’ll publish here on The Hub. Additionally, everyone who completes the challenge will be entered into a random drawing to win our grand prize: a YALSA tote bag full of 2011 and 2012 YA lit titles! (If you’re a librarian or teacher, we’ll also toss in a couple of professional development titles.)
As you read, you’ll also be earning badges that you can post on your blog or website or include in your email signature to show off how well-read you are, and if you conquer the challenge by reading all 80 titles, you’ll earn a super-elite badge.
How?
Keep track of what you read every week and how many titles you’ve finished. Every Saturday, we’ll create a check-in post; comment on the post with what you’ve read or listened to that week (and what you thought of it!). If you’ve completed the challenge, fill out the form embedded in the post to give us your name and email address so we can contact you after the challenge is over. The challenge will run on the honor system, so be good!
Format matters, so the Best Fiction for Young Adults Top Ten novel The Scorpio Races is different from the Scorpio Races audiobook, which was an Odyssey Award Honor title–but the Printz Award-winning When Things Come Back is the same as the Morris Award-winning When Things Come Back. Some titles will be faster reads than others, so if you’re not sure if you can read 25 books in 13 weeks, start with quicker reads (like Quick Picks and graphic novels) first!
Who?
All readers of young adult literature–teachers, librarians, publishers, booksellers, bloggers, parents, teens, anyone!–are welcome to accept our reading challenge. If you’re a librarian or teacher, consider encouraging your patrons or students to give it a try!
Have questions about how the 2012 Best of the Best Reading Challenge will work? Let us know in the comments or send us an email. Otherwise, we’ll see you when the challenge kicks off this Sunday!
– Gretchen Kolderup, who just finished BZRK by Michael Grant
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sounds fun tho you can’t see the 80 titles if you click on that link. seems like you have to be a member. at least I do!
I had the same problem with the link. Hopefully this challenge isn’t just for ALA members, but it still seems easy enough to do just by search for the recent award winners and honor books.
Liana and Annie: you don’t have to be an ALA member to access the Best of the Best list. I think the link I provided indicated that, but I’ve changed the post to link to a page you should be able to access.
The Best of the Best Reading Challenge is open to all YA lit enthusiasts, regardless of their membership status with ALA and YALSA.
Thanks Gretchen!
Still sends me to a login page when I try to see the books using both the link in your blog post and the link in your comment.
Celia: You do have to either log in as a YALSA member or provide YALSA with some really basic information to be able to see the book lists. But once you’ve done that, you should have full access! Try this page to choose one of those two options.
Fun!
I got to the place where there was the best of the best, am I to understand that you have to go under each winner link to access the book titles? Also, how do you register for this contest? I would like to try the challenge.
Thanks
We won’t be publishing the list of 80 titles, but you can find them by looking at individual award or selection lists. That’ll help you pick a format or focus (graphic novel, audio book, adult book, debut author title) that you’re interested in, too! The awards and lists that we’re drawing from are the 2012:
You don’t need to do anything to register; we’ll be publishing check-in posts every week where you can update us with what you’ve been reading.
Good luck!
The Quick Picks link within the YALSA page sent me on a round about quest to find the actual list. I did find it eventually, but the link for 2012 doesn’t automatically send you to the list.
I also noticed that the non-fiction winner link was broken. Do I look on the ala website for it? thanks again!
I was able to access the non-fiction award. sorry!!
No worries! YALSA recently moved to a new website and we’re still working out the last of the broken links. :)
I am so pumped for this! It’ll force me to actually check out a wider variety of books than I otherwise would.
I totally agree with Ariel. This will widen my variety of books! VERY EXCITED!
Is the grand prize only for the american citizens? (But either way, I’ll participate: I need to work on my english skills and reading YA is THE best way I know!)
Non-USians are welcome to participate! (And what a great way to work on your English skills! I love it.)