FREEWATER wins the Newbery Medal, live reactions from Heavy Medal bloggers
The 2023 Youth Media Award announcements took place at 8 a.m. CST Monday morning in New Orleans during LibLearnX. Many Heavy Medal favorites were mentioned but as usual we missed a few. Emily and Steven watched the live webcast and live blogged their reactions, take a look here:
Emily: Good Morning Steven and everyone! I’m excited for the “academy awards of children’s literature” when we find out the winners of the Newbery Medal… and all those other awards too of course!
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Steven: I’m excited too, but also still kind of waking up. It’s not even 6 a.m. yet!
Emily: I am impressed you’re awake! I think my favorite award, other than Newbery, is the Printz. Is that a cop out? I’m hoping I MUST BETRAY YOU gets some love there this year, though it seems like ALL MY RAGE is the shoo-in….
Steven: I don’t know if there are any shoo-ins. Last year I thought STARFISH had a pretty good shot at Newbery…then it wound up winning the Printz, which I had never even considered it would be a contender for.
Emily: 497 people on the live webcast now and counting… surprisingly more than our heavy Medal webcast! LOL
Steven: We still had a few hundred, didn’t we? Since we had three different kinds of votes on Heavy Medal and three different winners, our chances of seeing one of those actually win might be a little higher than usual.
Emily: You’re right. The titles we discussed will see some form of love this year… hopefully!
Steven: Our three winners were AIN’T BURNED ALL THE BRIGHT, THE DOOR OF NO RETURN, and THE OGRESS AND THE ORPHANS. The first two could also be contenders for the Corettta Scott King and/or the Printz. And I even think AIN’T BURNED might wind up with some Caldecott love.
Emily: I say this every year but I always appreciate how titles can get love in some form of awards, because only one book can win the Newbery and it’s great to see these authors get recognition somewhere!
Steven: Agree for sure. A book like BLUE is so unique, but not one kids or adults will necessarily discover without some extra attention. Being named as a Sibert or Caldecott (or Newbery of course) would mean so much.
Emily: Umm Steven, we’ve been here for 10 minutes and you haven’t given a plug to BUZZKILL yet?
Steven: I guess I’m just assuming it will win the Sibert. But I’ve given up trying to convince myself that it will be on the Newbery list (mostly…I mean, it could happen, right?)
Emily: Two minutes left and 1.3 K people watching! In the olden days, the committee used to wake up very early and call the authors the morning of, but I think Zoom calls the weekend before are becoming the new rage…
Steven: I wonder how many people are there in the audience in New Orleans? It’s usually more than a thousand, right?
Emily: Something like that. And now the ALA president is on stage and we are ready to hear the announcements. She (Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada) is a former children’s and teen librarian too- represent!
Steven: Attendance is now up to 2.5 K! And rising, as we on the west coast stumble sleepily to our phones and computers…
Emily: Action time, starting with the APALA awards.
Steven: Maizy Chen’s Last Chance had strong support on Heavy Medal.
Emily: Strong support from me! (And actually that was the biggest write-in on our reader’s poll!
Steven: Or maybe NEW FROM HERE?
Emily: I forgot about TROUBLEMAKER, I did enjoy that. MAIZY FOR THE WIN!! Hooray!! The morning is starting strong!
Steven: Great! I haven’t read the two Young Adult books in this category. This is always a good morning for adding to your I-should-read-these-books list…
Emily: This is when I place a lot of holds for titles I may or may not read… Sidney Taylor time. We had a lot of strong Jewish titles this year..
Steven: Yes: AVIVA, BLACK BIRD, BLUE ROAD and ALIAS ANNA all seem like strong contenders. I’d be very happy with AVIVA and BLACK BIRD getting something today.
Emily: I have to say, I was really slacking on my picture book reading this year… Oh hey, I forgot about ELLEN OUTSIDE THE LINES!
Steven: Well, this is going so nicely. AVIVA got the Medal, BLACK BIRD is an Honor!
Emily: Clearly all these committee members are following the Heavy Medal blog.
Emily: So, would you call BLACK BIRD, BLUE ROAD a Schneider eligible?
Steven: I hadn’t thought of that. I’m afraid I missed reading any of the Schneider books this year. I always think I’m reading so much, but there’s a lot to miss.
Steven: DIFFERENT KINDS OF FRUIT might be a Stonewall contender. Oh yes: IN THE KEY OF US too, which just won an Honor! Very good book.
Emily: I keep getting weird flashbacks to books I read earlier this year “ oh yeah… that was a good one!” but LOVE VIOLET I did not even hear of. Oh a picture book, that’s why!
Steven: There are so many more books these days that could be considered for Stonewall, especially in YA. . A very positive trend.
Emily: I just saw the Stonewall committee had a Zoom photo of them all posing with the books. That’s so cute!
Steven; Time for Coretta Scott King. And we get a lifetime achievement award this year (it’s every other year). Along with DOOR and AIN’T, I’d love to see SWIM TEAM here. I don’t know if we’ve had a graphic novel win any CSK awards before? Also a couple of really strong verse novels: AND WE RISE (well, more a verse history) and AFRICA TOWN.
Steven: Both SWIM TEAM and VICTORY STAND (also a gn) just won illustrator Honors! Both could be author contenders too I think. (VICTORY just got the author Honor!)
Emily: VICTORY STAND! Another great title, I forgot about. Ooo three honor books and STAR CHILD received a decent amount of love on HM. You know, I’m impressed with all the picture books getting love this year.
Steven: FREEWATER had some support on HM too. It was excellent.
Emily: No love for AFRICAN TOWN, or AIN’T BURNED ALL THE BRIGHT.. interesting.
Steven: Seems like younger titles did better (excluding VICTORY STAND)
Steven: Time for YALSA’s award…I’m afraid I slack off on YA reading with Heavy Medal’s focus (Even though, of course, 0-14 is the age range for Newbery)
Emily: I love seeing the committee’s names and cheering for anyone I know. It looks like Aryssa was on the Alex Award committee! And the HMAC!
Emily: Is it bad that I assumed Jason Reynolds already won the Edwards Award? Hooray for Jason!
Steven: I was the opposite: I thought: wait, he’s too new! But no, he has already made a huge impact on YA lit. Great news!
Emily: I didn’t even realize STUNTBOY had an audio book. Putting that on my holds list!
Steven: I love getting the audio samples from the Odyssey winners!
Emily: In the middle of the webcast we are at 4.7 K viewers. Now that’s impressive!
Steven: BUZZKILL didn’t make the finalist list for the YA Excellence in Nonfiction award. But VICTORY, STAND did, and I have high hopes…
Emily: Was Leonard the one getting us excited about VICTORY, STAND? Good work Leonard!
Emily: OK Printz time. I’m very excited to hear these! Well, never heard of ICEBREAKER, or WHEN ANGELS LEFT THE OLD COUNTRY. But QUEER DUCKS that got some Heavy Medal suggestions! And I told you ALL MY RAGE was a shoo-in!
Steven: You called it. I’ll never doubt you again. Love the QUEER DUCKS pick! We don’t usually get nonfiction on the Printz list
Emily: I’m screen shooting that statement.
Steven: I’m hoping to see FALLING SHORT on the Belpre author list. The just announced winner: FRIZZY, is a graphic novel!
Emily: The webcast has passed the Five thousand mark. OK, what we’ve been waiting for, the ALSC awards!
Emily: I want to go to this Rita Williams-Garcia lecture. I did an interview with her over e-mail and she was absolutely delightful! Batchelder is a committee I want to be on today. It could also be called the (Newbery Ineligible committee).
Steven: Time for Sibert. I’m sitting here quietly chanting: Buzzkill, Buzzkill, Buzzkill…
Steven: Love the SEED GROWS choice. Picture book nonfiction is great to have.
Emily: Sorry about BUZZKILL Steven. Dry those tears. SEEN AND UNSEEN was fabulous though.
Steven: Agree: SEEN AND UNSEEN is an amazing book. Also disappointed, though, to not see HOW TO BUILD A HUMAN on the Sibert list.
Emily: A beginning comic for Sibert. How exciting and well deserved!
Steven: Nice to see graphic novels popping up in several award lists
Steven: Oops. We just saw a slide we weren’t supposed to see.
Emily: Oh no, I didn’t see the spoiler!
Steven: I AIN”T gonna tell you what it was. Nice calm response by our speaker, though.
Emily: I saw what you did there. AIN’T BURNED ALL THE BRIGHT with an honor. AND HEY BERRY SONG!! This got very little love from our final list, but here we are! My four-year-old had so much fun with KNIGHT OWL! But no love for BLUE. I’m not crying, I’m just sobbing.
Steven: Newbery time. I should not be this nervous, but I am…
Emily: I’m 0 for 1 right now with IVELIZ….
Steven: I totally missed that one too.
Steven: Honors for MAIZY and MAPMAKER!
Emily: SEE! I told you MAIZY needed to be a practice title. OMG FREEWATER for the win! Did not see that coming!
Steven: Me neither. I read and liked it, but hadn’t put it high enough on my list. At my library, there are 10 copies of FREEWATER in the system and 9 are on the shelf. That won’t be true for long…
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Emily: Yep, just put mine on hold to reread. I’m definitely surprised but as a wise former Newbery chair (not Steven) told me. You need to reread the book, keep the criteria in mind, and trust the committee!
Emily: So, I’m happy with the representation (and surprises) this year, sad a few of my favs didn’t get any love, and hoping to read more picture books in 2023. What about you, Steven?
Steven: Lots of surprises (as always), but also great to see some HM favorites to well. When you think about how much positive evaluation some books received on HM, (OGRESS, DOOR OF NO RETURN, etc), then realize that the Committee also looked at these books, but still found more distinguished titles, it’s a reminder of how much great youth literature there is out there. For me, I’d like to get back to reading more YA books …I’ve sort of fallen off except for my regular favorite authors.
Emily: Sounds like a plan, you focus on YA, I focus on picture books- our readers can focus on middle grade and we’re good to go.
Emily: Well, it’s always a pleasure to do this live reaction with you. I need to sit a little more and am sure I’m gonna have more thoughts on these Newbery results and of course we want to hear everyone else’s thoughts in the comments! (Full results can be found here).
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About Emily Mroczek-Bayci
Emily Mroczek (Bayci) is a freelance children’s librarian in the Chicago suburbs. She served on the 2019 Newbery committee. You can reach her at emilyrmroczek@gmail.com.
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FREEWATER was my Newbery Medal pick! So exciting! But disappointed for FARMHOUSE. It should have won something!
I had no idea about Freewater! Like Steven said, all of the copies in my library system are on the shelf….won’t be for long!
I called Hot Dog…kind of…but glad Ain’t Burned and Berry Song got love. But no Farmhouse!
Also no I Must Betray You?!?! Bummer. All my Rage got moved to the top of my list.
So so so glad Maizy got an honor. Kind of wish it had made our top 16!!
And Artsaa, how you did Alex Award Committee and Heavy Medal…mad props!!!
Bring on next year!
With FREEWATER’s win, this is the 9th year in a row where the Newbery Medalist is an author who’s never won a Medal or Honor in the past. I was thinking this also might be her first book, but she did write a nonfiction book (AFRICAN AMERICANS OF PETERSBURG). I can’t tell yet if that was a book for adults or kids. If it’s adult, that would make her just the third author of this century to win a Medal for her first book for children, joining Jerry Craft (NEW KID, 2020) and Clare Vanderpool (MOON OVER MANIFEST, 2011).
Emily: Was Leonard the one getting us excited about VICTORY, STAND?
Nope that was all Steven!
Thanks Leonard. VICTORY, STAND?, and a Caldecott Honor for AIN’T BURNED ALL THE BRIGHT. That’s about it for my successful predictions….
I loved Freewater when I read it early in 2022, but it must have gotten lost in the crush of other titles. I am looking forward to reading it again.
I’m so happy that MAPMAKER got an honor! I hope Soontornvat gets a medal someday because I want to hear her acceptance speech.
I am super disappointed that BLUE: A HISTORY OF THE COLOR didn’t win anything, but that’s how it goes sometimes. It’s my BUZZKILL. I admit I also feel mild disappointment that all the books recognized by the Newbery committee were middle grade novels.
FREEWATER was on my library’s best books of 2022 list, so it’s already all checked out with a long holds list. Did anyone else read the 2016 novel in verse UNBOUND? It’s also about the Great Dismal Swamp. If you want to do some background reading before picking up our Newbery winner, this is a great article from Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/deep-swamps-archaeologists-fugitive-slaves-kept-freedom-180960122
The Honor Award for THE LAST MAPMAKER gives Christina Soontornvat three Honors in three years! (She had two in 2021). That’s only been done a few times before. Eleanor Estes won Honors three years in a row (1943, 1944, 1945) So did Laura Ingalls Wilder (1940, 1941, 1942…she also had Honor books in 1938 and 1944). And Isaac Bashevis Singer (1967, 1968, 1969). Jaqueline Woodson almost did it, with three over a four year span (2006, 2008, 2009…plus another in 2015). Of all of those authors, only Estes eventually won the Newbery Medal. But it could certainly still happen for Soontornvat (and Woodson!).
As Usual there were some choices that were expected and others I had no idea would win. I am most familiar with the Newbery and Caldecott but I was actually most pleased with the Sydney Taylor award I loved both Aviva vs the Dybbuk and Black Bird Blue Road. As for the Caldecott it was very disappointing to not see Farmhouse with at least an honer. It is one of the best picture books I’ve ever read. The ones they did pick though do seem like good choices excited to read Hot Dog and Knight Owl and the others I’ve already read and enjoyed. For Newbery I had read Last Mapmaker and thoroughly enjoyed it. I got that one the day it came out as I had enjoyed her other two Newbery honor books. I had never heard of Iveliz Explains It All That one was new to me hope it’s good. I had heard of Maizy Chen’s Last Chance but just never got around to reading it. As For the big winner Freewater I actually started reading it months ago but abandoned it because I wasn’t engaging with it and there were other books I wanted to read at the time. I had read 25% of Freewater or up through chapter 21. The premise really intrigued me but it didn’t hook me as much as I thought it would. I did recheck out the e-book again today and will give it a second chance as I have read all the previous Newbery books and will not give up on reading the whole list completely.
I had an experience similar to Ellen’s with FREEWATER. Started the book early in the year, and liked it well enough, but didn’t finish it. Later it got nominated on Heavy Medal and I finished. I think it took a little while to get engaged with the different narratives at first, which is pretty typical for me at least with stories with multiple points of view. But my second time all the way through, I got to know the characters more. Sanzi and Ferdinand, for example, seemed pretty single-minded at first, but as we learn more about them (and they learn about each other), they really come alive.
And it all sets up the last 100 pages (“The Return”) just perfectly. By then, we know all these kids and that daring return to the plantation is filled with tension and excitement. And triumph. I especially liked the interaction between Homer and Two Shoes, and appreciated Anna’s determination to go north on her own (I sure hope she made it…I’ve decided to believe that she did).
This was so exciting. The same thing has happened the last couple years where I start the new year off in kind of a book slump, and then the YMAs happen and I get so excited to read the ones that I missed. I have had Freewater on my TBR list for a while but never got to it! I’m also excited to start When the Angels Left the Old Country.
I was glad to see that THE LAST MAPMAKER and MAIZY CHEN’S LAST CHANCE won Newbery Honors.
I had just started reading FREEWATER this weekend and was on page 112 when the announcement came, so far it is good. IVELIZ EXPLAINS IT ALL was not on my radar.
Glad to see BERRY SONG and AIN’T BURNED ALL THE BRIGHT win Caldecott Honors, both are outstanding books. I was disappointed FARMHOUSE and BLUE didn’t win any awards. And I was disappointed that I MUST BETRAY YOU, AFRICAN TOWN, and HOW TO BUILD A HUMAN didn’t win any awards. But overall there are so many great books out there, I’ll have to do catch up reading on those I missed.
Thank you Emily, Steven and the HMAC for all your hard work. It is so much fun to dialogue with you about books.
Three weeks post-announcement, I have been able to read all the Newbery winners/honors for this year, along with almost all of the top 16 from Heavy Medal.
A fun tidbit, back in April 2022, when our library first had Freewater on the shelves, I read the summary flap and thought, well that’s probably going to be a Newbery book. I didn’t read it at the time because I was reading other things, and then I forgot about it. After reading all these books the last month and a half, I have no problem with Freewater winning the Newbery, I thought it was very good.
I don’t love the choice of Maizy, I felt like it was Merci Suarez 2.0.
Iveliz was an interesting book, my 4 years of high school Spanish were put to the test tho! I don’t read tons of middle grade, but I thought it was a compelling topic that I hadn’t encountered before.
I really like Soontornvat, but to me nothing about Mapmaker was good enough to set it apart from the many other seafaring adventures that exist.
Overall, I thought there were some other books that were more distinct that I would have liked to see win an award but oh well.
I have enjoyed this past almost two months reading all of these Newbery possibilities and I appreciate reading everyone’s thoughts thru the year.
I’m in the middle of reading Freewater now and have a question for those who have. When the Mistress of the house writes out a travel pass for the Slave to go into town and sell his whistles and carvings, she dates it and includes a return before time of 3:00 pm. This jumped out at me because exactitude with time in this period tended not to get that specific until the rise of the train schedule. And to require this of a slave, who most likely couldn’t read a clock or have access to timepieces seems very strange. I could understand if the time limitation would have been “before sunset” or something similar, but I’m wondering if slave travel passes really usually included this type of specification. It may end up being a plot point, I haven’t read on yet, but it seems historically inaccurate to me.