Mock Award Program

Welcome to The Sydney Taylor Shmooze Mock Award Program! 

If you've explored this website, you know that the Sydney Taylor Book Awards recognize the best Jewish children's and young adult literature each January, and that our blog reviews books of Jewish content against the criteria of the award. The Mock Award Program empowers teachers, librarians, and other leaders to help groups engage with Jewish literature in a deep and critical way.

Why do a Sydney Taylor Mock Award?

  • To increase awareness of new Jewish books for youth and celebrate the genre of Jewish literature
  • To encourage participants to engage with the greater community of book lovers
  • To help participants find their voices in advocating for the books they believe should win, and to critically evaluate books beyond personal likes and dislikes

How to do a Sydney Taylor Mock Award?

  1. With your group, share information about the Real Award, read some past winners, and talk about the criteria.
  2. Read a few books (suggested titles below) and evaluate them according to the official criteria or kid-friendly criteria. This can be done as a group, or done individually and then shared. You can choose to read books in just one age category or in more than one.
  3. As a group, discuss the books and select a Mock Winner, the book you think best adheres to the criteria and that you think is most likely to win the Real Award. You might also decide to select Mock Honor and Notable books.
  4. Submit your results to the ALSC blog (Association for Library Services to Children). 
  5. Vote in The Sydney Taylor Shmooze poll in early January to help select the blog's Mock Winners.
  6. Make plans to watch the Youth Media Awards livestream on January 27, 2025 to hear the announcement of the Real Sydney Taylor Book Award winners, honors, and notables (as well as other book awards). 

 THIS YEAR'S SYDNEY TAYLOR MOCK BOOK AWARD SUGGESTED TITLES

Sydney Taylor Mock Book Award programs may use any books of Jewish content that fit the award criteria, but these titles below are our suggestions for your consideration this year. Note that the award recognizes books published the prior year (i.e. the 2025 award goes to books published in 2024). We've provided six recommendations per age category, along with links to background information about each book.



PICTURE BOOKS

published 5/7/24
ISBN 979-8765607749
 
published 5/7/24
ISBN 978-1646143702
Interviews: The Book of Life | Keshet

published 2/13/24
ISBN 978-1635925319
Interview: Jewish Book Council 
 
published 5/14/24
ISBN 978-1536225495
 
published 5/7/24
ISBN 978-1681156316

published 9/17/24
ISBN 978-0823455560
 


 MIDDLE GRADE

published 2/6/24
ISBN 978-0593323403
 
published 7/2/24
ISBN 978-1774880524
 
published 5/14/24
ISBN 978-0063248243

published 2/27/24
ISBN 978-0593112083
 
published 8/27/24
ISBN 978-1665943277
 
published 3/26/24
ISBN 978-1419767296
Interview: Fuse #8  
 



YOUNG ADULT

published 10/1/24
ISBN 978-1646144563
Interview: BookPage interview 
 
published 10/15/24
ISBN 978-0593525852

published 9/17/24
ISBN 978-0063327306
Interview: Instagram Live  

published 6/4/24
ISBN 978-1665901956
 
published 5/21/24
ISBN 978-0593617328
Interview: YA Books Central

published 4/2/24
ISBN 978-1338853827

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