How are we doing? Heavy Medal 2024 By the Numbers
t’s time for my favorite yearly post, when I make charts and graphs (only charts this year) breaking down categories of our suggested books. Steven did most of the leg work this year breaking everything into categories, so if you have any issues take it up with him. (Just kidding, just let us know your thoughts in the comments– everything is subjective. Realistic fiction is really taking over this year! Not my favorite genre, but a lot of Newbery contenders here! With nine nonfiction titles suggested, three were history, three were science and three were biography. Where are my animal books? Probably not Newbery- worthy! Titles and breakdown are at the bottom of this post!
- These labels will guide our scheduled Wednesday posts which focus on different topics and can help prioritize your reading. I’ll try to post a separate schedule/ title breakdown later this week.
- September 20- Nonfiction
- September 27- Graphic Novels
- October 4- Poetry
- October 11- Easy Reader/ Short Chapter Books
- October 18- Picture Books
- November 1- Almost YA (ages 13-14)
Categories
- There are three illustrated books and two readers.
- Easy reader and early chapter books is one of our discussion categories, but always a tough category to find Newbery eligible titles in. I think Steven is vying for a winner in. this category one day (but I might be making this up).
Fiction Genres
- Realistic Fiction has the most titles by far, which isn’t a surprise, but typically we see more fantasy and historical fiction. We even usually see more animal fiction!
- Magical realism, humor, and adventure had one title each.
Age Groupings/ Categories
- These age groupings are very general, but give us an idea. The Newbery covers titles reaching kids birth-14, but the majority of winners tend to appeal to the “middle/ elementary crowd” ages 7-11 ish.
- I’d say our labels aren’t perfect but younger skews more Pre-K, middle is the elementary crowd and older would be more junior high age.
Title Breakdown
| SIMON SORT OF SAYS | Bow | realistic | fiction | middle |
| THE LABORS OF HERCULES BEAL | Schmidt | realistic | fiction | middle |
| THE LOST YEAR | Marsh | historical | fiction | middle |
| THE MANY ASSASSINATIONS OF SAMIR, THE SELLER OF DREAMS | Nayeri | historical | fiction | middle |
| THE SONG OF US | Fussner | realistic | verse novel | middle |
| A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING | Santat | memoir | graphic novel | middle |
| YOU ARE HERE: CONNECTING FLIGHTS | Oh | realistic | fiction | middle |
| THE ONE AND ONLY RUBY | Applegate | animal | fiction | middle |
| AN AMERICAN STORY | Alexander | picture book | younger | |
| THE EYES AND THE IMPOSSIBLE | Eggers | animal | fiction | middle |
| NEARER MY FREEDOM | Edinger & Younge | biography | verse | older |
| ANIANA DEL MAR JUMPS IN | Mendez | realistic | verse novel | middle |
| SUNSHINE | Krosoczka | realistic | graphic novel | older |
| A WORK IN PROGRESS | Lerner | realistic | illustrated | middle |
| MY HEAD HAS A BELLYACHE | Harris | poetry | middle | |
| BIG TREE | Selznick | fantasy? | illustrated | middle |
| A BIT OF EARTH | Riazi | realistic | fiction | middle |
| EBB AND FLOW | Baptist | realistic | verse novel | middle |
| THE LAST PLASTIC STRAW | Romito | nonfiction | picture book | younger |
| THE SKULL | Klassen | fantasy | picture book? | younger |
| WHAT HAPPENED TO RACHEL RILEY | Swinarski | realistic | fiction | middle |
| WHEN CLOUDS TOUCH US | Lai | historical | verse novel | middle |
| WHEN SEA BECOMES SKY | McDunn | realistic | fiction | middle |
| GOOD DIFFEERENT | Kuyatt | realistic | novel in verse | middle |
| IT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY | Dunlap | realistic | fiction | older |
| ALL THE BEATING HEARTS | Fogliano | picture book | younger | |
| BEAKY BARNES: EGG ON THE LOOSE | Stein | humor | graphic novel | younger |
| BUFFALO FLATS | Leavitt | historical | fiction | older |
| THE FIRE, THE WATER, AND MAUDIE MCGINN | Pla | realistic | fiction | middle |
| FOR LAMB | Kline-Ransome | historical | fiction | older |
| THE GHOSTS OF RANCHO ESPANTO | Cuevas | mystery | fiction | middle |
| HENRY LIKE ALWAYS | Bailey | realistic | reader | younger |
| *IMPOSSIBLE ESCAPE: A TRUE STORY…* | Sheinkin | historical | nonfiction | older |
| LEEVA AT LAST | Pennypacker | realistic | fiction | middle |
| LOVE IS LOUD | Wallace | biography | picture book | younger |
| MY RED, WHITE, AND, BLUE | Tyson | picture book | younger | |
| NO MATTER THE DISTANCE | Baldwin | realistic | novel in verse | middle |
| NOT AN EASY WIN | Giles | realistic | fiction | middle |
| SUPERTEACHER PROJECT | Korman | realistic / fantasy | fiction | middle |
| THAT FLAG | Brown | realistic | picture book | younger |
| THE WINDEBY PUZZLE | Lowry | historical | fiction | middle |
| THE CARREFOUR CURSE | Salerni | fantasy/ MYSTERY | fiction | middle |
| *DUST | Bowling | magical realism? | fiction | middle |
| MEXIKID | Martin | realistic | graphic novel | middle |
| STATELESS | Wein | historical | fiction | older |
| SUPERPOD | Nickum | science | nonfiction | middle |
| * NO PLACE LIKE HOME | Bird | realistic | fiction | middle |
| BEA WOLF | Weinersmith | fantasy | graphic novel | middle |
| A CROWN FOR CORINA | Kemp | picture book | younger | |
| CROWNED | Bethencourt | folklore | older | |
| DOOMED… | Florio & Shapiro | history | nonfiction | older |
| EVERGREEN | Cordell | animals | picture book | younger |
| FAMILY STYLE | Pham | memoir | graphic novel | older |
| FINALLY SEEN | Yang | realistic | fiction | middle |
| *THE FIRE OF STARS | Larson | biography | picture book | middle book |
| THE FIRST MAGNIFICENT SUMMER | Toalson | realistic | ficdtion | middle |
| GROUNDED | Saeed, et al | realistic | fiction | middle |
| *HALF MOON SUMMER | Vickers | realistic | fiction | older |
| HANDS | Maldonado | realistic | fiction | middle |
| HOPE IN THE VALLEY | Perkins | realistic | fiction | middle |
| HOW TO WRITE A POEM | Alexander | picture book | younger | |
| THE HUMAN KABOOM | Rubin | short stories | fiction | middle |
| JOVITA WORE PANTS | Salazar | biography | picture book | younger |
| JUST JERRY | Pinkney | biography | nonfiction | middle |
| LASAGNA MEANS I LOVE YOU | O’Shaughnessy | realistic | fiction | middle |
| THE LION OF LARK-HAYES MANOR | Hartman | fantasy | fiction | middle |
| MIRROR TO MIRROR | LaRocca | realistic | novel in verse | middle |
| *MY SELMA: TRUE STORIES… | Brown | memoir | autobio | middle |
| NELL PLANTS A TREE | Wynter | picture book | younger | |
| ONCE UPON A BOOK | Lin & Messner | picture book | younger | |
| ONCE IN A BLUE MOON | Flake | realistic// historical? | fiction | middle |
| *OPINIONS AND OPPOSUMS | Braden | realistic | fiction | middle |
| THE ORDER OF THINGS | Langley | realistic | novel in verse | middle |
| OUR ROOF IS BLUE | Echenique | picture book | younger | |
| PARACHUTE KIDS | Tang | realistic | graphic novel | middle |
| PUSH PULL MORNING | Peters | poetry | younger | |
| RACE AGAINST DEATH | Hopkinson | history | nonfiction | older |
| *THE RED EAR BLOWS ITS NOSE | Schechter | poetry | middle | |
| ROCK ROSETTA ROCK… | Bolden | biography | picture book | younger |
| SCHOOL TRIP | Craft | realistic | graphic novel | middle |
| SCIENCE EXPLORERS: SEARCH FOR A GIANT SQUID | Forrester and Musser | science | nonfiction | middle |
| SQUISHED | Lloyd | realistic | graphic novel | middle |
| THE STORYTELLER | Hobson | fantasy | fiction | middle |
| THIS IS NOT MY HOME | Yoh and Chang | picture book | younger | |
| WE GO WAY BACK | Bunting and Ben-Barak | science | nonfiction | younger |
| *WELCOME TO THE WONDERHOUSE | Dotlich and Heard | poetry | ||
| *WILD BIRD | Zahler | adventure | fiction | middle |
Filed under: Book Discussion
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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Former library volunteer, I enjoy these lists every year and would like to nominate a book a co-worker was sent and gave me to read. It’s called The Dreamatics by Michelle Cuevas. Very touching and very well written, in my opinion. Thank you.
Thanks for the breakdown, Emily! It’s always interesting to speculate how much our lists, generated by readers of Heavy Medal, represents the world of children’s books in 2023, or the personal tastes and reading habits of our blog community. If I was a real Committee member, I would probably make an extra effort to read more in the under-represented categories like humor and fantasy. But also, every year is different, and sometimes you just find more outstanding books in certain categories.
Thank you for including my book, The Red Ear Blows Its Nose: Poems for Children and Others (Word Galaxy 2023).
I’m commenting now to fill in a couple of the blanks in the grid. The author should be “Schechter” and the age group is “middle,” though there are many poems that would also appeal to younger or older readers. You can read the entire book on Edelweiss or ISSU.
Thanks for catching those blanks! Now corrected.