Debating Decades: Cast your votes in our survey of the best Newbery (and non-Newbery) books of the 2010s
Our main focus on Heavy Medal is to look at the best books of the current year…but sometimes it’s fun to take a look backwards. So this fall we’re doing a set of polls for each of the past three decades. We’ll look at the 2010s, 2000s, and 1990s, and ask participants to weigh in on the best books of those decades. We start today with 2010 – 2019.
You’ll get three sets of books to vote on:
- The Newbery Medal book from each year
- A single Newbery Honor book from each year. Almost every year had more than one Honor book (1991 and 1999 were the exceptions). So Emily and I narrowed it down and picked one Honor for each year (neither of us picked the books from our Newbery years).
- One book from each year that was not a Medal or Honor book, but could have been. Again, Emily and I picked for the poll (again, not from our own years)
Vote for one from each category.
But wait…we made it even more complicated! Each list of ten books has three columns, so you can evaluate the books from three different points of view:
- Personal Favorite: This one should be easy. Just pick your personal favorite from each list.. Whether they’re your favorites now as an adult, or maybe were your favorites if you read them as a child. Whichever feels right. I think of this as wearing your “Reader’s Hat.”
- Children’s Favorite: Now think about which book is most popular with kids from each list. You can consider books you recommend to kids, books you see getting checked out most, or, if you don’t work with kids, books that you think children would respond to most avidly. This is the “Librarian/Teacher/Parent Hat.”
- Highest Quality: Here’s where you try to put aside your personal response and those of children and look strictly at literary quality. The “Critic’s Hat.”
Emily and I will demonstrate that three-hat thought process by looking at the past three years, (which won’t be part of our poll). We’ll look at the three Medal books and the 12 Honor books from 2021-2023. Emily, what would your Personal Favorite be from that range?
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EMILY
I’d say THE LAST CUENTISTA! I just think it did a great job of hitting all the criteria and it took some common themes in a totally new direction. And of course last year’s MAIZY CHEN’S LAST CHANCE… because I was so sad it didn’t make our Heavy Medal List and then it WON AN HONOR! WOOOO
STEVEN
If I had to pick one (and I do…that’s the whole point), I’d pick SCARY STORIES FOR YOUNG FOXES. I especially liked the way the different stories connected, and also: it really was scary. A close second is ALL THIRTEEN…I love that that Committee picked two Honor books by the same author: both so different, and both deserving.
So those are our favorites. Emily, what books do you think are most popular with young reader?
EMILY
Of course NEW KID, because it’s NEW KID. I’ve seen a lot of love from kids for TOO BRIGHT TO SEE. The combination of LGBTQ representation and spookiness seems to be a hit. Also THE LAST MAPMAKER is a big favorite of all my fantasy readers.
STEVEN
I’m not as in touch with what kids are reading nowadays, being an on-call librarian and all. So I just looked titles up to see what’s checked out today and sure enough, NEW KID is the leader, with over 60% of copies checked out. The next two are MAIZY CHEN’S LAST CHANCE and THE LAST MAPMAKER…not sure if that’s because they’re newer titles, or just that popular? Okay, this wasn’t the most scientific bit of research…
Newbery members pay attention to their own reaction as readers and, when they can, get feedback from child readers. But in the end, the Newbery Medal is “for literary quality.” Emily, can you pick one title from the past three years of Medal and Honor books that you’d rate first?
EMILY
This is fun, it’s like picking THE NEWBERY WINNER OF THE DECADE!! Umm I feel like I need to reread all these books now. I’m going to stick to THE LAST CUENTISTA for reasons listed above. And now I want to reread it.
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STEVEN
I feel like to do this question justice, we really should re-read all of the books. But since I don’t have time to do that, I’ll rely on memory, and I’m pretty sure I thought that FIGHTING WORDS was an especially strong book in Newbery terms.
And given the wishy-washiness of my answer, I should emphasize that an exercise like this is meant as a conversation-starter, a bit of nostalgia, and mostly for fun. We should all remember that the real Newbery Committees put way more time, thought, and effort into their very important decisions. So we’re not trying to second-guess…just have some fun with Newbery history.
EMILY
This was definitely harder than I thought it was going to be… and it was only the last three years…. This will be a trip through my childhood… (maybe I shouldn’t remind Steven that I was born in 1990… This was also weird revisiting my (and Steven’s) committee years. #Throwback to intense feelings about books! And of course trying to get Steven to give me the inside scoop (which he wouldn’t).
STEVEN
It really was challenging. It reminds you how each book on these lists is a unique creation, and it’s not easy task to compare and choose among them.
EMILY
We’re looking forward to learning how the polls fall out. We’ll start with the most recent: 2010 – 2019. We’ll give you a few weeks (until October 20) to answer the polls. Then post results next month, October 27.
Here’s the link to the poll, Happy voting!! As always, feel free to post questions, thoughts, and opinions in the comments below.
Filed under: Newbery History

About Steven Engelfried
Steven Engelfried retired from full-time library work a couple years ago and now works as a part-time Youth Librarian at the West Linn Public Library in Oregon. 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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Oh, boy! This is WONDERFUL . . . another opportunity to revisit the debate surrounding Laura Amy Schlitz’s THE HIRED GIRL published in 2015. Anyone not familiar with the amount and intensity of discussion this title brought might find the archive information an eye-opener. The BEST BOOK I have ever read in my 77.5 years of life . . . but not everyone agrees.
I’m so excited to follow the poll results.
That was quite a debate about THE HIRED GIRL, back when Nina Lindsay and Jonathan Hunt were running Heavy Medal. You can find those posts, with nearly 200 comments combined, here and here.
Thanks, Steven, for giving readers actual links to a fascinating look at Heavy Medal history. Over time I have come to view the objections to this book as perhaps the first revelation of our current book banning culture. IMO so much outrage over so little.
Ms. Weymouth, I put THE HIRED GIRL on hold at the library because of this post. Thanks.
I’m delighted my remarks piqued your curiosity. Your interest is especially rewarding because now is the time of the year most of us are concentrating on reading the contenders for this year’s awards.
Narrowing down the 2016 honor books to just one seems like a crime. All three honor books are consistently in my top circulated books (the winner not so much) above pretty much every other honor book from the decade, apart from *maybe* CROWN and EL DEAFO. Teachers are keeping WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON in that conversation, but otherwise it’s 2016 all the way.
As for the current decade, every Christina Soontornvat honor book is battling it out for my favorite, along with MAIZY CHEN. And CUENTISTA is far and away my favorite of the three medal winners.
I think you are right about 2016. THE WAR THAT SAVED MY LIFE is one of my little sister’s favorites of all time. ECHO by Pam Munoz Ryan was one of the best audio books I have heard, with the connected stories and the harmonica music are amazing. And ROLLER GIRL? It took me months to read that because the library waitlist is longer than the book.
Soontornvat’s ALL THIRTEEN was great non-fiction. THE LAST MAPMAKER was on my top 10 for 2022.
Lots of “shoulda” books on my list from over the years, and you hit many of them. But I was hoping to see Wonder among the choices. Over a decade after publication it’s still only available in hardcover…simply because it sells that well.
Even though I frequently prefer books that I read in pursuit of the Newbery than ones that end up winning, I don’t hold a lot of grudges because it’s all so subjective. But I do remember really liking SWEEP by Auxier and BEYOND THE BRIGHT SEA by Wolk in 2018 (2019 awards). I /loved/ THE ASSASSINATION OF BRANGWAIN SPURGE but completely get why that would have been a hard or impossible Newbery criteria sell.
But that is the first year I seriously followed any buzz/speculation about the modern Newbery awards and that could be why those are the ones I remember.
*edit: I also realized after making all of these comments that the 2018 books would’ve been Emily’s year and possibly the reason I was salty (in addition to just reading a lot that year, I think) was I really disliked THE BOOK OF BOY (sorry).
I’d forgotten how stacked 2017 was–THE GIRL WHO DRANK THE MOON and THE INQUISITOR’S TALE are both 5 star reads for me.
That said, I haven’t read all of the newbery awards/honors for this period, but of what I have read INQUISITOR’S TALE wins over everything, and it’s hard to imagine that changing even once I /have/ fully caught up. Also a huge fan of BOMB.
When I first filled out the poll, I selected Girl Who Drank the Moon as both my favorite and most literary Medalist and selected Okay for Now as my clear non-Newbery in those same two categories. I didn’t give much thought to what wasn’t in the poll. But now that you mention it, even though 2017 was perhaps the last year I’ve “agreed” with most of the selections, now I remember that was also the year I was crushed that When Green Becomes Tomatoes wasn’t recognized.
This was the decade as well of Deborah Wiles’ 60s trilogy, which I continue to maintain, for all its flaws, is a towering achievement in children’s literature. Lesa Cline Ransome’s more recent historical trilogy are the only books I’ve read that compare, but for the purposes of this discussion are of a different decade.
I’ve really enjoyed some of Fogliano’s other work–I’ll check out When Green Becomes Tomatoes!
It was hardest to pick a personal favorite of the Newbery Honors! One Crazy Summer, Doll Bones, The Inquistor’s Tale, and Long Way Down are some of my favorites just in general!
I always think the ones that don’t get a Newbery nod are so fascinating. Books like SWEEP or WHEN GREEN BECOMES TOMATOES would have benefited so much from a silver seal. Great books either way, but would likely have a wider readership and a longer shelf life had they won. Others, like WONDER, do fine without that. Then there are the quieter Honor books that might have sort of faded from our awareness if they hadn’t won…excellent books like ONE CAME HOME or BREAKING STALIN’S NOSE. Just another reminder how very important the Committees’ decisions are, and why they need to put in all that time and hard work to get there.
I think it is interesting that I preferred most of the Honorees over the Medal winners. I don’t know why this occurs.
These are some of my all time favorites:
*BOMB by Steve Sheinkin
One of the greatest historical non-fiction MG books I have read to date. I read it with Fallout for the 2020-21 Academic Pentathlon.
* THE INQUISITOR’S TALE by Adam Gidwitz
This was a re-aloud that I did with my mom in the 4th grade. It was so good that I re-read it many times. The story was creative and original. I still remember this story now.
*LONG WAY DOWN by Jason Reynolds
Incredibly powerful book. The language and free verse poetry was completely new to me. It helped me to think of decisions in a new way. This is a book I still recommend to many people.
WHEN YOU REACH ME by Rebecca Stead
I read this in 4th grade. I thought it was confusing at the time. Now looking back, and pairing it with a WRINKLE IN TIME (L’Engle,) I think its pretty epic and deserves the highest literary awards. In fact, it’s going back onto my re-read this list. After I work through the massive stack on my desk.
The support for Honor books of the past indicates that the Committees are doing their job well. The Terms and Criteria state that “These shall be books that are also truly distinguished.” And the Newbery Manual adds that must be “not merely strong contenders for the Award.” One way to look at that is, you’re not just picking the next few books that ranked below the winner. You’re picking books that really are Newbery Medal-worthy…just not the single most distinguished one. One way I’ve heard it described to a Committee: If the book we chose for the Medal was suddenly ruled ineligible, would every one of our Honor books be worthy of getting the Medal instead?
Looking at the 10 years myself, I can’t say that I would put every Honor book at that level, but in every year there is at least one or two Honors that I could easily see with Medals.
I’ve been enjoying looking back at these books more than I thought I would. Results and the next survey come out tomorrow!