We had 76 voters which is about 5 times the size of the real committee. Our results are followed by some analysis.
THE THING ABOUT LUCK . . . 16 (1st) + 6 (2nd) + 3 (3rd) = 88 points
FAR FAR AWAY . . . 9 (1st) + 8 (2nd) + 8 (3rd) = 76 points
THE TRUE BLUE SCOUTS OF SUGAR MAN SWAMP . . . 9 (1st) + 5 (2nd) + 8 (3rd) =67 points
DOLL BONES . . . 7 (1st) + 6 (2nd) + 7 (3rd) = 57 points
THE YEAR OF BILLY MILLER . . . 4 91st) + 10 (2nd) + 4 (3rd) = 54 points
FLORA & ULYSSES . . . 6 (1st) + 4 (2nd) + 7 (14) = 40 points
COUNTING BY 7s . . . 2 (1st) + 5 (2nd) + 7 (3rd) = 37 points
WHAT THE HEART KNOWS . . . 1 (1st) + 10 (2nd) + 1 (3rd) = 36 points
P.S. BE ELEVEN . . . 5 (1st) + 2 (2nd) + 4 (3rd) = 34
THE CENTER OF EVERYTHING . . . 3 (1st) + 5 (2nd) + 1 (3rd) = 29 points
THE REAL BOY . . . 4 (1st) + 3 (2nd) + 3 (3rd) = 25 points
BETTER NATE THAN EVER . . . 1 (1st) + 3 (2nd) + 6 (3rd) = 21 points
CLEMENTINE AND THE SPRING TRIP . . . 3 (1st) + 3 (3rd) = 18 points
IF YOU WANT TO SEE WHALE . . . . 2 (1st) + 2 (and) + 2 (3rd) = 18 points
NAVIGATING EARLY . . . 2 (1st) + 2 (2nd) + 1 (3rd) = 16 points
ZEBRA FOREST . . . 2 (2nd) + 4 (3rd) = 14 points
HOKEY POKEY . . . 2 (1st) + 1 (2nd) = 11 points
A TANGLE OF KNOTS . . . 1 (1st) + 1 (2nd) = 7 points
ONE CAME HOME . . . 3 (3rd) = 6 points
ERUPTION! . . . 1 (2nd) + 1 (3rd) = 5 points
THE ANIMAL BOOK . . . 1 (1st) = 4 points
PENNY AND HER MARBLE . . . 2 (3rd) = 4 points
JINX . . . 1 (3rd) = 2 points
FROM NORVELT TO NOWHERE . . . 1 (3rd) = 2 points
THE CANARY IN THE COAL MINE . . . 1 (3rd) = 2 points
AFRICA IS MY HOME . . . 1 (3rd) = 2 points
COURAGE HAS NO COLOR . . . 1 (3rd) = 2 points
THE THING ABOUT LUCK is our winner with FAR FAR AWAY, THE TRUE BLUE SCOUTS OF SUGAR MAN SWAMP, DOLL BONES, and THE YEAR OF BILLY MILLER as honor books. At times, FAR FAR AWAY looked like it might pull away and allow us to have a discussion about having a single honor book, and we could also be grinchy and declare only FAR FAR AWAY and TRUE BLUE SCOUTS as the only honor books.
You’ll also notice that there are another cluster of four books–FLORA & ULYSSES, COUNTING BY 7s, WHAT THE HEART KNOWS, and P.S. BE ELEVEN–that I think many would be happy to see as honor books. That would mean eight honor books. Would you do it? Most of us can probably see a couple of poison pills in that list of eight books, but if you think back to Nina’s concept of ambassadors–well, just about every reader could find a book for them on that list. The reason why we don’t see this scenario play out more often on the real committee is that you may only have nine books on your winning ballot, and I think it would take a very harmonious committee to essentially honor all or most of the books on the winning ballot.
