Heavy Medal Readers’ Poll Winner: “Lalani of the Distant Sea”
125 Heavy Medal readers cast one vote each in our Readers’ Poll, and the winner is: Lalani of the Distant Sea by Erin Entrada Kelly. The book won by just a single vote over Jerry Craft’s The New Kid, which was the Heavy Medal Committee’s winner, announced yesterday.
The real winner of the Newbery is announced Monday morning. Follow the announcements of all of ALA’s Youth Media Awards live starting at 8:00 am EST. And check this blog too, as Heavy Medal bloggers Roxanne and Annisha will report live from Philadelphia here on Heavy Medal.
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Here are the full results of the Heavy Medal Readers’ poll:
| Title | Votes | % |
| Lalani of the Distant Sea | 21 | 19.4% |
| New Kid | 20 | 18.5% |
| Other Words for Home | 12 | 11.1% |
| The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise | 12 | 11.1% |
| Pay Attention Carter Jones | 11 | 10.2% |
| Torpedoed | 7 | 6.5% |
| Queen of the Sea | 5 | 4.6% |
| Genesis Begins Again | 4 | 3.7% |
| The Line Tender | 4 | 3.7% |
| Scary Stories for Young Foxes | 3 | 2.8% |
| This Promise of Change | 3 | 2.8% |
| Beverly Right Here | 3 | 2.8% |
| To Night Owl from Dogfish | 2 | 1.9% |
| The Important Thing About MW Brown | 1 | 0.9% |
| The Toll | 0 | 0.0% |
Thirteen books also received write-in votes on the Readers’ Poll. Three of these received two votes each: A Place to Belong by Cynthia Kadohata, Free Lunch by Rex Ogle, and The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman.
Filed under: Book Discussion, Heavy Medal Mock
About Steven Engelfried
Steven Engelfried retired from full-time library work a couple years ago and now works as a part-time Youth Librarian at the West Linn Public Library in Oregon. He served on the 2010 Newbery committee, chaired the 2013 Newbery Committee, and also served on the 2002 Caldecott committee. You can reach him at sengelfried@yahoo.com.
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