Best Books Through July: Mock Newbery Suggestions Now Open

We just passed the midway point of 2021, and the excellent children’s books just keep on coming. We’ll continue to build our Heavy Medal Mock Newbery list with July suggestions, which are now open.
To add to the list of possible Newbery-worthy books, share your top titles and authors in the comments section below. Books must be eligible for the 2022 Newbery Award (see Terms and Criteria here), and for the purposes of our Heavy Medal list, we limit suggestions to books that are already published in final print form and ask for no more than five titles per month.
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Please add your suggestions by July 11th. We’ll post the updated list on July 12th. And keep reading…our in-depth discussion of the strongest Newbery contenders starts in September.
Filed under: Suggestions

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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1. Too Bright to See, by Kyle LuKoff.
2. Hollow Chest, by Brita Sandstrom.
The Elephant in the Room by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Starfish, by Lisa Fipps; A Place to Hang the Moon, by Kate Albus
WE ARE ALL UNDER ONE WIDE SKY by Deborah Wiles
Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Varga and Da Vinci’s Cat by Catherine Gilbert Murdock.
Ophie’s Ghosts by Justina Ireland
RED WHITE AND WHOLE
STARFISH
PITY PARTY
THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF AIDAN S.
THE LION OF MARS
SHAPE OF THUNDER by Jasmine Warga
We’ve still got a couple days left for July suggestions….Deadline is Sunday, July 11th. I’ve got three of my own to add:
CHANCE TO FLY by Stroker & Davidowitz
MAYBE MARISOL RAINEY by Kelly
SHAPE OF THUNDER by Warga
One more I forgot:
DA VINCI’S CAT by Murdock
Also Betsy Bird released her always intriguing Summer Newbery and Caldecott Predictions on “A Fuse #8 Production” a couple weeks ago.
Thanks for posting—I’ll add The Year I Flew Away by Marie Arnold.
*Starfish
*Red, White, and Whole
*Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey
*Lion of Mars
*Alone by Megan E. Freeman
Josephine Against the Sea by Shakira Bourne
My Two Border Towns by David Bowles
THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF AIDAN S. by David Leviathan.
Aww, I listed the Bowles book too early. I’ll bring it back when it’s available to all.