March Forward: Heavy Medal 2024 Mock Newbery Suggestions
Happy March everyone. Along with the winds and rapid March weather comes our off-season Mock Newbery suggestion call-out. Just like the actual Newbery committee, we take a call for monthly suggestions of Newbery contenders. We’ll do this on the first Monday of each month through August, then jump into book discussions in September.
The real Newbery Committee also uses monthly suggestions to help the group identify titles to seek out and read. Members aren’t discussing books yet, just sharing titles. We’ll follow that practice here. Here are the guidelines we use every year for the Heavy Medal monthly suggestions:
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- Suggestions are books that might have a chance to contend for the Newbery. They don’t have to be perfect, best-book-of-year type titles, but can include books that could possibly be in that discussion.
- Suggestions must be eligible books. Eligibility is addressed in the Newbery Terms and Criteria. If you’re not sure if a book is eligible, go ahead and include it. We’ll make our best guess at eligibility later.
- For Suggestions, just include title and author. We save descriptions and critical analysis until September.
- You can suggest up to 5 titles per month. Less is fine. The real Committee typically doesn’t have a Suggestions limit, but we’ll use one to make sure our list doesn’t get too long.
- Suggest only books that you’ve read or listened to. Sometimes you hear that a book is great or you know from the author that it’s something we should all read…but you still can’t suggest it until you’ve read it yourself.
- Suggestions should be books that are already published. If you read an advance copy, please hold off on suggesting until it’s actual release date. That keeps us roughly on the same time line.
- If a book you’ve read is already on the list, go ahead and include it. We’ll post an update every month listing titles and numbers of Suggestions. Early favorites tend to lead the suggestions, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll win it all.
- If you missed a suggestion deadline, it’s ok. Just go ahead and post next month!
If you have any questions about our suggestion process, just ask below. If you’re ready with suggestions, just post them below (title and author only). We’ll accept suggestions through the end of the day on Saturday, March 11th, then post the results on the following Monday.
Filed under: Suggestions
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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I promised to consider more picture books this year so here we are:
Once Upon a Book by Grace Lin and Kate Messner
Love is Loud- Sandra Neil Wallace
An American Story- Kwame Alexander
This is Not my Home- Eugenia Yoh and Vivienne Chang
A Crown for Corina- Laekan Zea Kemp
In Emily’s spirit of picture book consideration I suggest:
My Red, White, and Blue by Alana Tyson
That Flag by Tameka Fryer Brown
It’s been a slow start on fictional chapter books that have caught my attention. But these 2 stood out for me so far:
The Windeby Puzzle by Lois Lowry – the stories are fabulous, but after reading the book I felt like I watched her process for writing. It was a look behind the “how to write a great book” curtain.
Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow – do you ever read a book and feel like you have to immediately re-read it? This book did that to me. What?! When you start, try and remember what you think the book is going to be about. And when you finish, recall that thought and tell me how you feel and what you think.
I can’t wait to hear other suggestions! I love this time of year when all books are possible!
ALL THE BEATING HEARTS by Julie Fogliano
AN AMERICAN STORY by Kwame Alexander
SIMON SORT OF SAYS by Erin Bow: I second Lynne’s appreciation for this one, by an author I’d never read before…
THE WINDEBY PUZZLE by Lois Lowry
I promised to read more YA books this year….oops. The year is still young. The only ya title I’ve read so far is UNRAVELLER by Frances Hardinge, which would definitely make my list, if only the author would move to the US and get Newbery-qualified.
For another fun early look at this year’s titles, check out SLJ’s “101 Scope Notes,” where Travis Jonker has posted his always fascinating annual list: 2023 Books from Newbery Winners (including cover images for most). Lots of books to look forward to!
FOR LAMB by Lesa Cline-Ransome: this is definitely YA but if we considered I MUST BETRAY YOU last year, then I think this has to be in the running this year. It’ reminded me of STELLA BY STARLIGHT (it’s set just about a decade later), and packs a serious punch.
And I agree with Lynne about THE WINDEBY PUZZLE pulling back the curtain on the author’s process; it reminded me a bit of how Kate Atkinson plays with the nature of fiction.
It Happened on Saturday by Sydney Dunlap
You Are Here: Connecting Flights by Ellen Oh (editor)