March Suggestions

Now that 2019 is two months old, we’re ready to start compiling “Suggestions” from readers for the 2020 Mock-Newbery that we’ll hold here on Heavy Medal. Actual discussion of possible Newbery books will start here on this blog in September, but between now and then, there’s a lot of reading to be done. We’ll follow a process similar to the real Newbery Committee.  We’ll put out a call for Suggestions on this blog around the first of each month, from March through August. This will give us a steadily growing list of books, all recommended by other readers. Here’s how it works:

– Suggest books that might have a chance to contend for the Newbery.  A Suggestion means: “this could be a contender, maybe…”, but doesn’t have to mean: “This is definitely a top Newbery possibility.”

– Please only suggest eligible books. The Newbery Terms and Criteria cover this. If you’re not sure if a title’s eligible, suggest it anyway and we can confirm or deny later.

– We just need title and author for Suggestions. No descriptions or justifications….that’s what will start up in September.

– Suggest up to 5 titles per month.  Less than 5 is fine. The real Committee typically does not limit Suggestions, but there’s only 15 members. We’ll limit so that our list doesn’t get too long.

– Suggest only books that you’ve read.  Or listened to…audiobooks are okay for Suggestions.

– Suggest books that have been officially published. If you read a pre-publication copy, you’ll need to wait until its publication date before putting it forward as a Suggestion.

– If someone’s already suggested a book that you think is worthy, go ahead and include it. We’ll post an update every month listing titles and numbers of Suggestions.  Those rankings aren’t necessarily that meaningful…they definitely favor early-year publications, for one thing. But it can be helpful to see what’s on the radar of multiple readers.

– You’ll have several days to submit Suggestions…we’ll give a deadline each month.

If you have questions about the process, just ask below.  And if you have any Suggestions to start us off, post below (title and author only, remember). We’ll take suggestions through the end of the day on Friday, March 8th.  

Filed under: Process