Suggestions Updated: 74 Possible Mock Newbery Titles to Consider
Our list of suggested titles for the Heavy Medal Mock Newbery has jumped to 74 books! This includes 14 titles appearing for the first time (those are marked below with an asterisk). While SIMON SORT OF SAYS still sits on top of the list with 16 suggestions, it’s getting tighter, thanks to a surge of support for THE LABORS OF HERCULES BEAL. Those totals can be misleading, of course, because books published earlier in the year have an advantage, and of course there are still a bunch of 2023 books that haven’t even been published yet. But it’s always interesting to see what people are reading and liking.
We’ll have one more suggestion period at the end of this month, then jump into actual book discussion in early September. Here’s our full list of titles to date:
| Title | Author | Total |
| SIMON SORT OF SAYS | Bow | 16 |
| THE LABORS OF HERCULES BEAL | Schmidt | 14 |
| A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING | Santat | 8 |
| YOU ARE HERE: CONNECTING FLIGHTS | Oh | 8 |
| THE LOST YEAR | Marsh | 7 |
| THE ONE AND ONLY RUBY | Applegate | 7 |
| AN AMERICAN STORY | Alexander | 6 |
| THE MANY ASSASSINATIONS OF SAMIR, THE SELLER OF DREAMS | Nayeri | 5 |
| ANIANA DEL MAR JUMPS IN | Mendez | 4 |
| THE EYES AND THE IMPOSSIBLE | Eggers | 4 |
| NEARER MY FREEDOM | Edinger & Younge | 4 |
| * THE SONG OF US | Fussner | 4 |
| SUNSHINE | Krosoczka | 4 |
| A WORK IN PROGRESS | Lerner | 4 |
| BIG TREE | Selznick | 3 |
| A BIT OF EARTH | Riazi | 3 |
| EBB AND FLOW | Baptist | 3 |
| THE LAST PLASTIC STRAW | Romito | 3 |
| MY HEAD HAS A BELLYACHE | Harris | 3 |
| * THE SKULL | Klassen | 3 |
| WHAT HAPPENED TO RACHEL RILEY | Swinarski | 3 |
| WHEN CLOUDS TOUCH US | Lai | 3 |
| WHEN SEA BECOMES SKY | McDunn | 3 |
| ALL THE BEATING HEARTS | Fogliano | 2 |
| BEAKY BARNES: EGG ON THE LOOSE | Stein | 2 |
| BUFFALO FLATS | Leavitt | 2 |
| * THE FIRE, THE WATER, AND MAUDIE MCGEE | Pla | 2 |
| FOR LAMB | Kline-Ransome | 2 |
| THE GHOSTS OF RANCHO ESPANTO | Cuevas | 2 |
| GOOD DIFFEERENT | Kuyatt | 2 |
| HENRY LIKE ALWAYS | Bailey | 2 |
| IT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY | Dunlap | 2 |
| LEEVA AT LAST | Pennypacker | 2 |
| LOVE IS LOUD | Wallace | 2 |
| MY RED, WHITE, AND, BLUE | Tyson | 2 |
| NO MATTER THE DISTANCE | Baldwin | 2 |
| NOT AN EASY WIN | Giles | 2 |
| SUPERTEACHER PROJECT | Korman | 2 |
| THAT FLAG | Brown | 2 |
| THE WINDEBY PUZZLE | Lowry | 2 |
| * BEA WOLF | Weinersmith | 1 |
| * THE CARREFOUR CURSE | Salerni | 1 |
| A CROWN FOR CORINA | Kemp | 1 |
| CROWNED | Bethencourt | 1 |
| * DOOMED… | Florio & Shapiro | 1 |
| EVERGREEN | Cordell | 1 |
| * FAMILY STYLE | Pham | 1 |
| THE FIRST MAGNIFICENT SUMMER | Toalson | 1 |
| GROUNDED | Saeed, et al | 1 |
| HANDS | Maldonado | 1 |
| * HOW TO WRITE A POEM | Alexander | 1 |
| THE HUMAN KABOOM | Rubin | 1 |
| JOVITA WORE PANTS | Salazar | 1 |
| JUST JERRY | Pinkney | 1 |
| LASAGNA MEANS I LOVE YOU | O’Shaughnessy | 1 |
| * THE LION OF LARK-HAYES MANOR | Hartman | 1 |
| * MEXIKID | Martin | 1 |
| MIRROR TO MIRROR | LaRocca | 1 |
| NELL PLANTS A TREE | Wynter | 1 |
| ONCE UPON A BOOK | Lin & Messner | 1 |
| * THE ORDER OF THINGS | Langley | 1 |
| OUR ROOF IS BLUE | Echenique | 1 |
| PARACHUTE KIDS | Tang | 1 |
| PUSH PULL MORNING | Peters | 1 |
| RACE AGAINST DEATH | Hopkinson | 1 |
| * ROCK ROSETTA ROCK… | Bolden | 1 |
| SCHOOL TRIP | Craft | 1 |
| SCIENCE EXPLORERS: SEARCH FOR A GIANT SQUID | Forrester and Musser | 1 |
| SQUISHED | Lloyd | 1 |
| * STATELESS | Wein | 1 |
| * THE STORYTELLER | Hobson | 1 |
| SUPERPOD | Nickum | 1 |
| THIS IS NOT MY HOME | Yoh and Chang | 1 |
| WE GO WAY BACK | Bunting and Ben-Barak | 1 |
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 echo the support for The Labors of Hercules Beal – I just read it and was wowed by it.
The title for Aniana Del Mar Jumps In by Jasminne Mendez has a typo. 🙂
Thanks for catching that, Heather. Just corrected it so Aniana’s name is spelled correctly.
How can I suggest a title? The above list is filled with wonderful books, but I would love to add Mitali Perkins’s “Hope in the Valley,” which I think is extraordinary! Thank you!
We’ll open up suggestions again next Monday, on August 28th. They’ll be open for about 6 days. And in September we’ll begin actually discussing some of these great books on the blog!
Wonderful, Steven! Thank you very much!
Adding my vote for Gary Schmidt’s “The Labors of Hercules Beal”. Hope this is his year for the gold medal.