November Nominations Results
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November nominations are complete. Over 30 Heavy Medal readers have weighed in with their top five Newbery contenders so far. Some quick notes about the latest results:
- No clear leaders: Five books have 10 or more nominations so far, and thirteen titles have received at least 4.
- New books keep coming: Of the 53 titles nominated so far, 18 are new titles for November; that’s about 33%. Those titles are in red below.
- Familiar authors: 14 of the books on the list are by authors who have previously won a Newbery Medal or Honor (26%)
- New authors: 13 of the nominated titles are by first-time authors (25%)
For another look at possible Newbery contenders, check out Elizabeth Bird’s Newbery/Caldecott 2022: Fall Prediction Edition on her Fuse #8 blog. Her list includes some titles you don’t see on our nomination list.
Emily and I will be looking closely at the nominations list to come with our “Early 6” titles for the Heavy Medal Book List which we’ll announce Friday. The final list of 12-15 titles will be announced in December, but we’ll select six titles that clearly need to be on that final list a bit early. If you’re thinking of volunteering for our Heavy Medal Award Committee, this lets you get a head start on your reading. More details about that process are on this post from a couple weeks ago. If you’d like to give a strong recommendation for any titles to appear on the Early 6 list, please do so in the comments below.
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We’ll call for two final nominations in early December. Here’s the complete list of nominations so far, with links to Heavy Medal posts for the books we’ve featured:
| TITLE | AUTHOR | NOMS |
| RED, WHITE, AND WHOLE | LaRoca | 16 |
| JUST LIKE THAT | Schmidt | 13 |
| AMBER AND CLAY | Schlitz | 12 |
| THE BEATRYCE PROPHECY | DiCamillo | 11 |
| STARFISH | Fipps | 10 |
| THE SHAPE OF THUNDER | Warga | 7 |
| TOO BRIGHT TO SEE | Lukoff | 7 |
| LION OF MARS | Holm | 6 |
| A PLACE TO HANG THE MOON | Albus | 5 |
| FALLOUT | Sheinkin | 5 |
| AMARI AND THE NIGHT BROTHERS | Alston | 4 |
| DA VINCI’S CAT | Murdock | 4 |
| THE GENIUS UNDER THE TABLE | Yelchin | 4 |
| HARRY VS. THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF SCHOOL | Jenkins | 4 |
| FINDING JUNIE KIM | Oh | 3 |
| MILO IMAGINES THE WORLD | de la Peña | 3 |
| ONE JAR OF MAGIC | Haydu | 3 |
| PITY PARTY | Lane | 3 |
| THE RACONTEUR’S COMMONPLACE BOOK | Milford | 3 |
| BEING CLEM | Cline-Ransom | 2 |
| BILLY MILLER MAKES A WISH | Henkes | 2 |
| FRANKIE AND BUG | Forman | 2 |
| GONE TO THE WOODS | Paulsen | 2 |
| GROUND ZERO | Gratz | 2 |
| THE LAST CUENTISTA | Higuera | 2 |
| THE LEGEND OF AUNTIE PO | Khor | 2 |
| THE LIST OF UNSPEAKABLE FEARS | Kramer | 2 |
| ROOT MAGIC | Royce | 2 |
| THE TROUBLED GIRLS OF DRAGOMIR ACADEMY | Ursu | 2 |
| UNSETTLED | Faruqi | 2 |
| UNSPEAKABLE | Weatherford | 2 |
| WHILE I WAS AWAY | Brown | 2 |
| 365 DAYS TO ALASKA | Carr | 1 |
| ALMOST THERE AND ALMOST NOT | Urban | 1 |
| ALONE | Freeman | 1 |
| BLOOD LIKE MAGIC | Sambury | 1 |
| CECE RIOS AND THE DESERT OF SOULS | Rivera | 1 |
| FLIGHT OF THE PUFFIN | Braden | 1 |
| HEALER OF THE WATER MONSTER | Young | 1 |
| KALEIDOSCOPE | Selznick | 1 |
| MANY POINTS OF ME | Gertler | 1 |
| MAYBE MAYBE MARISOL RAINEY | Kelly | 1 |
| OPHIE’S GHOSTS | Ireland | 1 |
| PONY | Palacio | 1 |
| RESCUE | Nielsen | 1 |
| RUNAWAY | Shepard | 1 |
| SISTERS OF THE NEVERSEA | Smith | 1 |
| STAMPED (FOR KIDS) | Reynolds | 1 |
| SURVIVOR TREE | Colleen | 1 |
| WATERCRESS | Wang | 1 |
| THE WOLF’S CURSE | Vitalis | 1 |
| WE ARE STILL HERE | Sorell | 1 |
| WILLODEEN | Applegate | 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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Thanks for the stats and breakup Steven. I don’t have TOO many new books to read!
The top six in nominations are all MG chapter books (surprise, surprise) which helps to read in advance because they’re long- but other ones that have a good amount of support and switch up the genres seem promising are Fallout and Harry vs. The First 100 Days of School and the Genius Under the Table. Oops did you say one song contender? #lol
I love seeing how books get ranked differently with each month of nominations. So glad that Just Like THat has risen more in the rankings. Excellent job in compiling the list, and I look forward to learning what the first six titles for the final list will be.
In trying to come up with the Early 6, one approach could be just number of nominations. That would put the top 5 books on the list pretty clearly. They all have 10+ nominations and no others have more than 7. But 3 of the top 5 are novels in verse. Is that a reason to take one out? Since the other 2 are a fantasy and a realistic historical fiction, maybe take out one novel in verse and replace with a contemporary fiction (like SHAPE OF THUNDER)? Consider adding a nonfiction like FALLOUT or GENIUS UNDER THE TABLE? Other thoughts…?
I haven’t exhaustively checked the new nominees, but I think at least two have, wait for it… ghosts.