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This is an honor. I just got word that Blood Mountain was featured on the “Tome It List” for the 2020-21 school year. They only pick ten books for middle school, so that’s awfully lucky.
Here’s the list, and below that, some impressive information about the fast-growing “Tome” organization.
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Junior Tome It List 2020-2021 (Middle School)
- Blood Mountain, James Preller
- Each Tiny Spark, Pablo Cartaya
- Fire & Heist, Sarah Beth Durst
- Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster, Jonathan Auxier
- The Door to the Lost, Jaleigh Johnson
- The Memory Keeper, Jennifer Camiccia
- The Revenge of Magic, James Riley
- The Season of Styx Malone, Kekla Magoon
- The Storm Runner, JC Cervantes
- Words on Fire, Jennifer Nielsen
THE TOME STORY
Tome Student Literacy Society is a grassroots student club envisioned in 2012 by two sisters — Jennifer Parker and Rebecca Hamby — both Media Specialists in Georgia, at the time. As sponsors of their school book clubs they saw a need for an active student community promoting literacy that went beyond informal book discussions. Thus, on a trip to an educational technology conference in 2012 the idea for Tome was born. Very soon after Tome’s birth, Shelby Day, another Georgia Media Specialist and Ashley Walden, a classroom teacher, joined the founding leadership team and the four have worked diligently to make Tome an excellent resource for students and teachers across the state.
In April of 2014 Tome hosted its 1st Annual Conference with approximately 90 students and advisers present. It was a very successful capstone on Tome’s first year of operation. Tome held its 2nd Conference in May 2015 and almost doubled the attendance from the first year.
In 2016, the official Tome Society annual conference was re-born under the moniker, TomeCon. TomeCon 2016 was held on the Gainesville campus of The University of North Georgia and had over 400 people in attendance. Author Jaleigh Johnson was the keynote speaker. TomeCon 2017 hosted over 750 people, and guest authors Dianne Salerni and Jackson Pearce provided Keynote Addresses. 2018 was a year of explosive growth for Tome Society and over 1,400 people attended TomeCon 2018 with over 60 authors and speakers from across the country leading teacher sessions throughout the day. The conference grew again in 2019, with over 2,200 students, teachers, and parents attending TomeCon 2019.
Tome Society currently has over 200 registered chapters across the state of Georgia and is growing exponentially each year. These chapters include public, private, and home schools, as well as public libraries. We are excited to see the number of Tome chapters and people attending TomeCon growing exponentially each year!
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