MCBA stands for the Massachusetts Children's BookAwards. Each year 25 books are chosen to participate. Massachusetts students in grades 4-6 can choose to read a minimum of 5 of those books and vote for their favorite in March. At Birch Meadow, the voting coincides with our Read Across America event. It's always fun to see how the Birch Meadow favorite MCBA book compares to the rest of Massachusetts! Below is a list of the MCBA books for the 2018-19 school year.
MCBA Book Trailer Project 2018-19
Dear Parents of In-coming 4th and 5th Graders,
When school resumes in August/September, I would like to do a video project with the 4th and 5th grade students and make book trailers for an MCBA book of their choice. I am asking that each student read ONE book from the attached MCBA list over the summer so that we may begin our project when school begins (the entire project takes 4 to 5 library periods). If a student has NOT read a book by the time school starts, I will give them two weeks to complete the reading. Please see the complete MCBA list above. Some students set a personal goal to read all the books from the list during the school year. However, I wanted to mention that even though students may read any book from the list, several titles deal with difficult topics (Ghost, Towers Falling, Ms. Bixby’s Last Day, Took) and might best be suited for older readers. You know your child best and I would recommend reading a summary of the book your child is interested in and go from there. There is a great website which has all the book summaries: MCBA website Reading Public Library will have multiple copies of all the MCBA titles. I also noted on my spreadsheet what other formats the library has. Many come in a downloadable audio file, CD audiobook, or Playaway—great for long car rides on vacation! Students always ask me if it "counts" if they listen to a book--YES! Thank you in advance for your support with this project. As always, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to email me. Happy Reading! Paula Falvey, Birch Meadow Library Media Specialist