The Stakes Have Risen: It’s Nomination Season

In the spirit of attempting to follow the procedures of the real Newbery Committee when we can, Heavy Medal uses the “nomination” process. On the real Committee, each of the 15 members will nominate 7 titles over the next few months: three in October, two in November, and two more in December. Members include “written justifications” with each nominated title, and this is typically the first chance they have to share their thoughts with the rest of the Committee, beyond a “practice discussion” that takes place in the summer. The nominated titles are the ones that will be on the table when the Committee meets at LibLearnX in January.

The Newbery Manual notes that the nominations “ serve as a focus for all suggestions made during the year” “make each committee member aware of which books require their closest scrutiny and which they need to re-read.” and “The written justifications serve as preparation for oral discussion at Midwinter and provide practice in stating clearly and succinctly your ideas about books that seem distinguished.”

Here’s how nominations work on Heavy Medal:

Nominate three titles in the comments below. Like the real Committee, we’ll require three exactly. Your grand total is seven, so choose wisely.

All we need is the three titles and authors, but if you would like to share a bit about why any of them made your list, or any strategic rationale, that would be great!

The first nomination period runs through the end of Saturday, October 8th. We’ll post the totals on the 10th.The nominations list helps Steven and I decide which books to feature in future posts. It also helpus us create the Heavy Medal Book List, which we announce in early December.

Add your titles to the list below. If you have any questions about our nomination process or about how it works on the real Committee feel free to ask those in the comments.

Filed under: Nominations