Mock Newbery Update – Our List of First Half Suggestions
Here’s our newly updated list of suggestions. These are the children’s books that Heavy Medal readers have put forward as potential contenders for the 2023 Newbery Medal. Since we only include books that have been officially published, there’s still six months worth of forthcoming titles that we haven’t seen, but the list already looks very strong.
- There are 55 titles on the list.
- 14 of those (more than 25%) appear for the first time.
- 6 titles already have more than 8 suggestions.
- 25 books (nearly half of the list) have been suggested by at least two people.
Lots of great choices for summer reading. The next call for suggestions will come out in this first week of July. Here’s the full list, with first-time titles noted with an asterisk:
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
| Title | Author | Total |
| THE OGRESS AND THE ORPHANS | Barnhill | 11 |
| AIN’T BURNED ALL THE BRIGHT | Reynolds | 10 |
| I MUST BETRAY YOU | Sepetys | 10 |
| THOSE KIDS FROM FAWN CREEK | Kelly | 9 |
| NEW FROM HERE | Yang | 8 |
| THE LAST MAPMAKER | Soontornvat | 8 |
| ANYBODY HERE SEEN FRENCHIE | Connor | 6 |
| JENNIFER CHAN IS NOT ALONE | Keller | 6 |
| LOVE IN THE LIBRARY | Tokuda-Hall | 6 |
| ALIAS ANNA: A TRUE STORY ABOUT OUTWITTING THE NAZIS | Hood | 4 |
| DREAM ANNIE DREAM | Brown | 4 |
| LOUISA JUNE AND THE NAZIS IN THE WAVE | Elliott | 4 |
| NORTHWIND | Paulsen | 4 |
| COMB OF WISHES | Stringfellow | 3 |
| MAIZY CHEN’S LAST CHANCE | Yee | 3 |
| OMAR RISING | Saeed | 3 |
| A DUET FOR HOME | Van Glaser | 2 |
| CRESS, WATERCRESS | Maguire | 2 |
| FALLING SHORT * | Cisneros | 2 |
| FREEWATER | Luqman-Dawson | 2 |
| HOW TO BUILD A HUMAN * | Turner | 2 |
| LITTLE MONARCHS | Case | 2 |
| MY OWN LIGHTNING | Wolk | 2 |
| SOLIMAR | Ryan | 2 |
| WISHING UPON THE SAME STARS | Feldman | 2 |
| A SONG CALLED HOME * | Zarr | 1 |
| AFRICAN TOWN | Latham and Water | 1 |
| AIR | Roe | 1 |
| ALL MY RAGE | Tahir | 1 |
| AND WE RISE * | Martin | 1 |
| AT THE END OF EVERYTHING | Nijkamp | 1 |
| AVIVA VS. THE DYBBUK | Lowe | 1 |
| AWAY WITH WORDS * | Hoberman | 1 |
| BARE TREE AND LITTLE WIND | Perkins | 1 |
| BIG AND SMALL AND IN-BETWEEN * | Higgins | 1 |
| DIFFERENT KINDS OF FRUIT * | Lukoff | 1 |
| DREW LECLAIR GETS A CLUE * | Bury | 1 |
| EACH OF US A UNIVERSE | Ferruolo | 1 |
| GIBBERISH | Vo | 1 |
| IN THE KEY OF US * | Lockington | 1 |
| LAWLESS SPACES | Haydu | 1 |
| LOYALTY | Avi | 1 |
| MARSHMALLOW CLOUDS | Kooser and Wanek | 1 |
| MOONWALKING * | Elliot | 1 |
| OUT OF RANGE * | Lang | 1 |
| STAR CHILD * | Zoboi | 1 |
| THE LEGEND OF GRAVITY * | Palmer | 1 |
| THE LUCKY ONES | Jackson | 1 |
| THE PATRON THIEF OF BREAD | Eager | 1 |
| THE RED PALACE | Hur | 1 |
| THE UNFORGETTABLE LOGAN FOSTER | Peters | 1 |
| TINY DINO * | Freedman | 1 |
| TO THE FRONT | Friddell | 1 |
| VINYL MOON | Browne | 1 |
| WAYWARD CREATURES | Lorentz | 1 |
Filed under: Uncategorized
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.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
SLJ Blog Network
Notes on November 2023
31 Days, 31 Lists: 2023 Great Board Books
Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust | Review
November 2023 Election Hot Take: It was a good night for libraries, a bad night for censorship
Peachtree and Peachtree Teen Showcase: New titles from September 2023 through April 2024
ADVERTISEMENT
Thank you for my summer reading list!
So glad to see “My Own Lightning” on this list. Wolk’s writing is just lovely. It’s one of my favorites so far this year!
I’m catching up on all these books and have so many thoughts! At least this gives me plenty of blog post ideas when we jump into action!