Add to Our Mock Newbery List: August Suggestions are Now Open
We’re just about one month away from the official start of our Heavy Medal Mock Newbery season. We’ve been gathering suggestions of possible contenders since March, and will finally begin discussing some of them in depth in early September. Until then, we’ll continue to add to our list. Please help by submitting your own suggestions in the comments below.
Guidelines for suggestions can be found in this earlier post, but the basics are:
- You can suggest up to 5 titles per month.
- You can add a bit about what you liked if you want (but you don’t have to).
- It’s fine to suggest titles that are already on our list (which you can find here).
- Please don’t suggest titles that haven’t been published yet (we’ll get to them eventually).
We’re a little late getting this post out, so instead of our usual Saturday deadline, we will keep the suggestion period open through Sunday, August 6th.
Filed under: Suggestions
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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I’ll start us off with my five:
MY HEAD HAS A BELLYACHE by Chris Harris: A second collection of very funny poems by the author of I’M JUST NO GOOD AT RHYMING. Also funny: page numbers, index, glossary, dust jacket…
THE ONE AND ONLY RUBY by Katherine Applegate: Ivan’s elephant friend tells her own story.
THE PROBABILITY OF EVERYTHING by Sarah Everett: Several books from this year have unexpected plot twists…this might be the best. [Never mind: Rox Anne points out that Sara Everett is Canadian, so not eligible for Newbery]
THE SKULL by Jon Klassen: A retelling of a folktale that’s kind of funny, a little spooky, and very well told.
WHAT HAPPENED TO RACHEL RILEY? by Claire Swinarski: A school mystery cleverly told with emails, texts, blog entries.
Steven, I’m confused, I thought Sarah Everett lives in Alberta, Canada. Does her book qualify to win a Newbery?
Thanks for catching that, Rox Anne! I didn’t realize that she lives in Canada. Unless she also has US citizenship, her book won’t be Newbery eligible. So unless we learn otherwise, we’ll have to keep it off our list.
Dang, I was really looking forward to discussing that one…
Steven, I was so disappointed when I found out she lives in Canada. It was my favorite book so far this year, and I wanted to suggest it last month.
Since I had to drop THE PROBABILITY OF EVERYTHING, I’ll replace it to reach my 5 for the month:
THE ORDER OF THINGS by Kaija Langley: Novel in verse with an especially strong main character and realistic treatment of grief.
STATELESS by Elizabeth Wein – I think Wein’s books have become progressively more Newbery age-appropriate, and if Sheinkin’s Born to Fly was eligible, this certainly is — it’s basically a fictionalized version of the same concept. (The derby which is the subject of Sheinkin’s book is directly referenced). I thought technically and viscerally it was a great and suspenseful page-turner.
The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary Schmidt
A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat
The Carrefour Curse by Dianne K. Salerni
The Song of Us by Kate Fussner. A beautiful, middle-grade, novel-in-verse retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice.
THE SONG OF US by Kate Fussner
THE SONG OF US by Kate Fussner
THE GHOSTS OF RANCHO ESPANTO by Adrianna Cuevas
The Lion of Lark-Hayes Manor by Aubrey Hartman
The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary D. Schmidt
The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh
You Are Here: Connecting Flights edited by Ellen Oh
An American Story by Kwame Alexander
THE LABORS OF HERCULES BEAL by Gary D. Schmidt
When Clouds Touch Us by Thanhha Lai
Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary Schmidt
Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow
Bit of Earth by Karuna Riazi
One and Only Ruby by Katherine Applegate
gonna join the enormous crowd on
SIMON SORT OF SAYS, Erin Bow
usually a book with this much hype doesn’t impress me but this one did.
also:
THE SKULL: A TYROLEAN FOLKTALE, Jon Klassen
THE LABORS OF HERCULES BEAL by Gary D.Schmidt
A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING by Dan Santat
THE FIRE, THE WATER, AND MAUDIE MCGEE by Sally J. Pla
YOU ARE HERE: CONNECTING FLIGHTS edited by Ellen Oh (do anthologies qualify?)
THE LOST YEAR by Katherine Marsh
(I would have listed The Probability of Everything, but it’s not eligible)
Adding my vote for THE LABORS OF HERCULES BEAL by Gary D. Schmidt
The Labors of Hercules Beal is way up there as one of my favorites of the year!
Also:
Simon Sort of Says
The Fire the Water and Maudie McGee
Mexikid
Jumping on the bandwagon with Simon Sort of Says. I was surprised by how much I loved it!
A Work in Progress by Jarrett Lerner
Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith
Good Different by Meg Eden Kuyatt
our youth participant Quade’s votes from last month that didn’t get added in time
“My Youth Reviewer Votes for early 2023 consideration
+ A First Time For Everything by Dan Santat
+ The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh
+ Big Tree by Brian Selznick
+ Doomed: Sacco, Vanzetti & the End of the American Dream by John Florio & Ouisie Shapiro
+ Family Style by Thien Pham”
*The Labors of Hercules Beal / Gary Schmidt
*The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams / Daniel Nayeri
*How to Write a Poem / Kwame Alexander
*The Eyes & the Impossible / Dave Eggers
*You Are Here: Connecting Flights / Ellen Oh, editor (all contributors live in the US and are eligible!)
THE SONG OF US by Kate Fussner!!
It’s absolutely gorgeous prose and the story is so moving.
The One and Only Ruby (Katherine Applegate)
You Are Here Connecting Flights (Edited by Ellen Oh)
First Time for Everything (Dan Santat)
An American Story (Kwame Alexander)
And Anina Del Mar Jumps In
Not the best reading month for me… Labors of Hercules Beal, My Head has a Bellyache, Superteacher Project, the skull- klassen, rock Rosetta rock roll Rosetta roll
SUNSHINE by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
EB & FLOW by Kelly J. Baptist
THE STORYTELLER by Brandon Hobson
THE LOST YEAR by Katherine Marsh
I am behind on my reading but I found these four all Newbery worthy so far.
Thanks to all for the excellent Mock Newbery possibilities. August suggestions are now closed. Totals will be posted later today. We’ll open up September suggestions on August 28th.