Newbery Suggestions: A Tight Early Race
Heavy Medal readers have suggested 24 books as possible early contenders for the 2021 Newbery Medal. At this point last year there was a clear early leader, and that book (Jerry Craft’s NEW KID) went on to win the Newbery Medal as well as our ballot here on Heavy Medal. So far this year, though, the votes are pretty well spread out, with a couple of previous Newbery honorees, Linda Sue Park and Pam Muñoz Ryan, at the top. The tallied list so far this year is below. Keep reading, and we’ll open up another round of Suggestions on the first Monday of May.
| Title | Author | Total |
| Prairie Lotus | Park | 6 |
| Mañanaland | Ryan | 5 |
| King and the Dragonflies | Callender | 4 |
| List of Things That Will Not Change | Stead | 4 |
| Show Me a Sign | Lezotte | 4 |
| Black Brother Black Brother | Rhodes | 3 |
| From the Desk of Zoe Washington | Marks | 3 |
| When You Trap a Tiger | Keller | 3 |
| Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh | Fleming | 3 |
| Snapdragon | Leyh | 3 |
| Almost American Girl: A Memoir | Ha | 2 |
| Chirp | Messner | 2 |
| Here in the Real World | Pennypacker | 2 |
| When Stars are Scattered | Jamieson | 2 |
| Efrén Divided | Cisneros | 1 |
| Great Upending | Kephart | 1 |
| Home for Godesses and Dogs | Connor | 1 |
| Leaving Lymon | Cline-Ransome | 1 |
| Many Feathered Thing | Gerlits | 1 |
| Only Black Girls in Town | Colbert | 1 |
| Ordinary Day | Arnold | 1 |
| Thief Knot | Milford | 1 |
| Voice Named Aretha | Russell-Brown | 1 |
| Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom | Sachar | 1 |
Filed under: Book Discussion, Heavy Medal Mock, Process
About Steven Engelfried
Steven Engelfried was the Library Services Manager at the Wilsonville Public Library in Oregon until he retired in 2022 after 35 years as a full-time librarian. 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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I just wanted to let all of you know that I bought A VOICE NAMED ARETHA on Kindle for $2.10.I haven’t started reading it yet, but I thought that was a pretty good deal. With the libraries and the schools closed, it’s difficult to borrow these books. I’ve resorted to buying more of them than I normally would.
Just a quick heads up that the book is called WHEN YOU TRAP A TIGER, not How to Trap a Tiger.
Thanks for catching that error Dana. It’s now fixed on the list….
Another quick typo alert: Efrén Divided
Efrén is fixed now….Thanks!