A Bit Different This Year

It's January and you might have noticed we haven't posted anything about a Mock Geisel. In fact, you might have noticed we haven't posted nearly as much this entire mock season. This has been a challenging year and as we four co-hosts struggled to maintain personal and professional balance we determined that the best thing we could do was and is to give ourselves some grace. We love running this blog, but it takes a lot of work to coordinate, communicate, write, and edit, in addition to our full-time jobs and lives. Additionally, much of our content is usually created by guest bloggers. We felt that it was important to do what we could to give time and space to our colleagues who might be dealing with their own personal and professional challenges. So we decided not to reach out to our usual roster of guest bloggers this year. 

So what can you expect from Guessing Geisel as we count down to the Youth Media Awards (YMAs) announcement on January, 25h at 8 a.m. CT? We'll post a bit more about contenders and Geisel-related topic, however we won't post a shortlist or host a mock via an online survey. We know this is disappointing, so we want to share some other opportunities to participate in mocks and celebrate the YMAs. 

Participate in a mock held by one of our sibling mock blogs across the interwebs. 

• Calling Caldecott
• Ears on Odyssey
• Heavy Medal (Newbery)
• Pondering Printz
• Sydney Taylor Shmooze 

Get excited about mocks by listening to this episode from The Book of Life podcast featuring the hosts of the Sydney Taylor Schmooze, our newest mock blog sibling, and mock blog hosts Steven Engelfried from Heavy Medal, Julie Danielson from Calling Caldecott, and me, Amy Seto Forrester, from Guessing Geisel. There's also a bonus episode with even more mock blog content. 

View the results of other mocks on the ALSC (Association for Library Services to Children) Blog's 2021 Mock Election Results page. We encourage you to submit the results of any mocks you host as well. 

Share you predictions with us in the comments below. Even though we aren't holding a mock, that doesn't mean we aren't interested in what will win or be honored! 

Livestream the YMAs. We know 8 a.m. CT is early in some time zones, but the thrill is worth early morning bleary eyes (IMHO). 

What will this coming mock season look like for Guessing Geisel? Our current plan is to return to more robust content this summer/fall and to host a mock in January, 2022. We hope that you'll be there with us when we do!