Mock-Newbery Nominations List: 43 titles to consider (so far…)
Our November Nomination period is closed, and the results are listed below: 43 books that Heavy Medal readers have identified as the strongest Newbery Medal contenders so far this year.
The tallies divide up fairly neatly. We’ve got eight titles with six or more nominations. After that, there are sixteen more with two, three, or four nominations. And another nineteen with just one. Seven of the top nine, including the four with the most nominations, are from authors who have won a Newbery Medal or Honor previously.
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This nomination list, which will be finalized in early December, will help us develop the Heavy Medal Book List; this consists of 10-15 titles to be thoroughly discussed and voted upon until we emerge with our Heavy Medal Mock Newbery Winner.
We’ll be opening up “December” nominations in late November. That earlier date allows us to create our final Book List in a timely manner, with input from readers. So keep reading! The current nomination list below is a great titles source, but we also have some interesting new releases that aren’t on our list yet. Will THE ENIGMA GAME or RETURN OF THE THIEF make a late appearance? Is there a sleeper out there that we haven’t yet discovered? Stay tuned…
| Title | Author | Total |
| Echo Mountain | Wolk | 14 |
| Fighting Words | Bradley | 10 |
| List of Things That Will Not Change | Stead | 9 |
| When Stars are Scattered | Jamieson | 9 |
| Show Me a Sign | Lezotte | 8 |
| When You Trap a Tiger | Keller | 8 |
| Prairie Lotus | Park | 6 |
| We Dream of Space | Kelly | 6 |
| Becoming Muhammed Ali | Alexander | 4 |
| King and the Dragonflies | Callender | 4 |
| Leaving Lymon | Cline-Ransome | 4 |
| Wish in the Dark | Soontornvat | 4 |
| Blackbird Girls | Blankman | 3 |
| Everything Sad is Untrue | Nayeri | 3 |
| Game of Fox and Squirrels | Reese | 3 |
| Before the Ever After | Woodson | 2 |
| Ceiling Made of Eggshells | Levine | 2 |
| From the Desk of Zoe Washington | Marks | 2 |
| Kent State | Wiles | 2 |
| Mañanaland | Ryan | 2 |
| Many Feathered Thing | Gerlits | 2 |
| Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh | Fleming | 2 |
| Snapdragon | Leyh | 2 |
| Summer We Found the Baby | Hest | 2 |
| All Thirteen | Soontornvat | 1 |
| Almost American Girl: A Memoir | Ha | 1 |
| Black Brother, Black Brother | Rhodes | 1 |
| Chance | Shulevitz | 1 |
| Chirp | Messner | 1 |
| Clap When You Land | Acevedo | 1 |
| Class Act | Craft | 1 |
| Dragon Hoops | Yang | 1 |
| Here in the Real World | Pennypacker | 1 |
| On the Horizon | Lowry | 1 |
| Place at the Table | Faruqi | 1 |
| Princess in Black and the Giant Problem | Hale | 1 |
| Skunk and Badger | Timberlake | 1 |
| Stamped | Reynolds | 1 |
| Strongman | Davis | 1 |
| Three Keys | Yang | 1 |
| Village of Scoundrels | Preus | 1 |
| Way Back | Savit | 1 |
| Who Gives a Poop | Montgomery | 1 |
Filed under: Heavy Medal Mock, Nominations
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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This is such a wonderful list! I read Everything Sad is Untrue last week, and it was incredible! So many other excellent titles, too. Keep up the outstanding work.