What is the Berkeley Book Club?

Every year,  students across Berkeley Unified gather in their school library to discuss and read a list of recently published books curated by our library team. After several months of reading and discussion, students have the opportunity to vote in several different categories, selecting their favorite books from each category, and selecting the winners in February. 

All of the books featured in the Berkeley Book Club were selected by your very own BUSD librarians, and were specifically chosen to reflect the diversity of our community, and to spark joy and a love of reading. 

Stay tuned for more information about author visits... Questions in the meantime? Ask your school librarian!

What happened to the Mock Newbery Club?

The Berkeley Book Club is similar to Berkeley's Mock Newbery Club of previous years; students still have access to the same exciting club activities, books, and author visits. The main difference between the Berkeley Book Club and the Mock Newbery Club is that we are no longer tied to the Mock Newbery timeline for book selection and voting - this allows us to consider a greater variety of books for our students and lets us run the clubs until February, instead of January. Nor does the author of the book have to be American.

Unlike a "Mock Newbery" club, which is devoted to identifying a singular "distinguished" book, we also acknowledge and uplift the idea that students carry with them a variety of reading preferences and backgrounds. The goal of the Berkeley Book Club is, instead, to identify which elements students connect with across a variety of books, rather than focusing solely on one winning book.