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December 4, 2020 by Steven Engelfried

Final Nominations: 52 titles to consider for the 2021 Newbery Medal

December 4, 2020 by Steven Engelfried   8 comments

Our final round of nominations is closed! Heavy Medal readers nominated up to seven titles each over the past few months, resulting in a list full of excellent children’s books published in 2020. The chart below shows the titles and the number of votes each received. Titles in red were nominated for the first time during this December round.

This list will help to determine our Heavy Medal Book List (HMBL) This is the list of 12-15 titles that our Heavy Medal Award Committee (HMAC) will discuss and vote upon, eventually selecting our Mock Newbery winner. Books with a asterisk are the ones that have already been placed on that HMBL.

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Details about the HMAC are coming next week. We’ll also finalize the HMBL. And we should have more details about the live Zoom discussion that will be a part of this year’s Mock Newbery process.

14 books received 5 or more nominations and those (plus one with 3 that’s already on the list) would make a fine discussion list. It’s not the most diverse in terms of format, though. It lacks a few types of book that I’d like to see included, including:

  • at least one picture book
  • at least one nonfiction book (we do have two memoirs and one mostly-true memoir)
  • a fictional graphic novel

I’m curious about what others think. Should we include those to balance the list? Or go more by the votes? I’m leaning towards adding the most obvious choices to get to 10 or 11, and then doing a poll of HMAC members for the final additions once that committee is formed, but haven’t decided for sure. Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below…

TitleAuthorTotal
Echo Mountain *Wolk15
Fighting Words *Bradley11
When You Trap a TigerKeller11
The List of Things That Will Not Change *Stead9
When Stars are Scattered *Jamieson9
Show Me a Sign *Lezotte8
We Dream of SpaceKelly7
Blackbird GirlsBlankman6
Game of Fox and SquirrelsReese6
Prairie LotusPark6
ChanceShulevitz5
King and the DragonfliesCallender5
Skunk and BadgerTimberlake5
A Wish in the DarkSoontornvat5
Becoming Muhammed AliAlexander4
Leaving LymonCline-Ransome4
MañanalandRyan4
Everything Sad is Untrue *Nayeri3
From the Desk of Zoe WashingtonMarks3
The Summer We Found the BabyHest3
Before the Ever AfterWoodson2
A Ceiling Made of EggshellsLevine2
Kent StateWiles2
A Many Feathered ThingGerlits2
Overground RailroadCline-Ransome2
The Rise and Fall of Charles LindberghFleming2
SnapdragonLeyh2
StampedReynolds2
Ways to Make SunshineWatson2
Who Gives a PoopMontgomery2
All ThirteenSoontornvat1
An Almost American Girl: A MemoirHa1
Black Brother, Black BrotherRhodes1
ChirpMessner1
Clap When You LandAcevedo1
Class ActCraft1
Clean GetawayStone1
Dancing at the Pity PartyFeder1
Dragon HoopsYang1
Efrén DividedCisneros1
Here in the Real WorldPennypacker1
I Am Every Good ThingBarnes1
Land of the CranesSalazar1
On the HorizonLowry1
A Place at the TableFaruqi1
Princess in Black and the Giant ProblemHale1
Return of the ThiefTurner1
StrongmanDavis1
Three KeysYang1
TwinsJohnson1
Village of ScoundrelsPreus1
The Way BackSavit1

Filed under: Book Discussion, Heavy Medal Mock, Nominations, Process

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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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Comments

  1. Mr. Mike says

    December 4, 2020 at 12:58 pm

    I support leaning towards adding the most obvious choices to get to ten or eleven and then doing a poll. It makes the most sense.
    Steven, thanks for doing all this work!

  2. Leonard Kim says

    December 4, 2020 at 1:14 pm

    In theory, I support it too, but unfortunately the actual list doesn’t give a clean dividing line — the difference between 6 and 5 feels a bit artificial, especially given the early vs late book bias. CHANCE and SKUNK AND BADGER climbed fast this month, but are at 5.

    Maybe get to 10 or 11 with the non-obvious choices? Add WHEN YOU TRAP A TIGER definitely, but maybe the 3 other books should be Steven’s picks for a picture book/non-fiction/graphic novel to get to 10? And let the committee select the reminder from the 3-7 vote-getters.

  3. Aud Hogan says

    December 4, 2020 at 1:41 pm

    I agree with what’s already been said, with the most obvious 10 or 11, adding a few others for format diversity (still pulling hard for SNAPDRAGON! But we all know that. I also particularly like the idea of adding some nonfiction, because you never know), and doing a poll for the others as necessary.

  4. Courtney Hague says

    December 4, 2020 at 2:23 pm

    I agree with everybody here. I think it makes sense to get us to 10 or 11 titles and then have the committee vote on the last few titles. I think Leonard is on the right track though, I think maybe it needs to be a list with some of the less obvious choices rather than making it a strict cut off at 6 votes.

    I would really like to see us include at least one of each of the categories you listed, Steven. Though I will say that the one I feel most strongly about is including a fictional graphic novel. I don’t have a picture book or nonfiction book in mind that I think NEEDS to be on the list and there are so many excellent chapter books this year plus we do have at least one memoir which is technically nonfiction.

  5. Meredith says

    December 4, 2020 at 3:21 pm

    I love seeing how the nominations have changed throughout the year. Thank you so much for your hard work.

    I agree with everyone else. Choose the first ten or eleven and then have the committee vote on the final books to be chosen. I do think all formats deserve to be recognized. So, a picture book, nonfiction title, early reader and fiction graphic novel deserve to be considered. Keep up the excellent work.

  6. Adrian says

    December 5, 2020 at 5:49 pm

    I disagree. With many recent honors going to graphic novels and “picture books” I feel its a disservice to say those arena are not “obvious choices”. Over the past few mocks there is a plethora of love for past winners (Wolk, Bradley, etc.) which don’t pan out in the actual awards.
    I would love to see more diversity and inclusion of other formats in the Mock and love for books like Snapdragon, Stamped, King and the Dragonflies, and Dragon Hoops.

    • Leonard Kim says

      December 5, 2020 at 8:02 pm

      Adrian – I am not sure where the disagreement is. I interpreted Steven’s phrase “obvious choices” as meaning the top vote getters, which in this case would mean all MG novels: WHEN YOU TRAP A TIGER, BLACKBIRD GIRLS, GOFAS, and PRAIRIE LOTUS, leaving the committee to address the lack of representation in other genres.

      My suggestion was that perhaps Steven could instead fill the initial list with top vote getting non-MG novels (though I think WYTAT has enough votes that it has to be included) – so perhaps WHEN YOU TRAP A TIGER, CHANCE, SKUNK AND BADGER, and BECOMING MUHAMMAD ALI. The latter three, while not exactly hitting the genres Steven mentions, do bring variety to the list: all have illustrations, one includes verse, they are arguably aimed at younger readers, and all have at least 4 votes. Then the committee can wrangle over which of the many remaining MG novels with similar vote totals they want to add to the discussion list.

      (Of course, if Steven felt strongly enough about particular genres, he could make other selections by going down to the 2 vote pool for OVERGROUND RAILROAD, SNAPDRAGON, LINDBERGH, WHO GIVES A POOP etc. I would suggest though, based on outcry in past years, not selecting something if something in the exact same genre has more votes.)

  7. Leonard Kim says

    December 11, 2020 at 1:45 pm

    Alas I just finished THE ENIGMA GAME and would have nominated it. (Steven has mentioned it a couple times as well as a candidate for nomination.)

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