Heavy Medal Update: Book Discussions, Reader’s Poll, Live Webinar, and other Mock Newbery activities coming soon

Thanks to everyone for the fascinating Mock Newbery discussions so far. We won’t introduce a new book from our Heavy Medal Book List today because we slipped up and did two a couple of days ago. So instead, here’s a recap/update:

• We have 14 of our 16 books up for discussion. We still welcome comment on any of those titles, even ones that were introduced the previous week.

• Two more books remain: SIMON SORT OF SAYS on Thursday and A WALK IN THE WOODS on Friday.

• Over the weekend, we’ll decide up on our Final Five books and announce those on Monday, January 15th. The Final Five will be based on the results of the discussions we’ve had during the past two weeks and a poll taken among the 16 members of the Heavy Medal Award Committee.

• Those Final Five books will be the ones that are discussed, and ultimately voted upon, during our Live Mock Newbery Webinar, which takes place on Friday, January 19th, at 1:00 pm EST. Sign up here to watch, listen in, and cast your own vote. The free webinar is accessible by Zoom and participants can earn a Continuing Education Certificate.

• We’ll also hold our Reader’s Poll from Monday, January 15th through Friday, January 19th. That poll will include all 16 titles from our Heavy Medal Booklist.

So we’ll end up with three Mock Newbery results

• Reader’s Poll (all 16 titles, anyone can vote)
• Heavy Medal Award Committee (Final five titles, HMAC votes)
• Viewer’s Poll (final five titles, webinar viewers vote)

It’s always fun to see how those three polls compare….And then of course, there’s the REAL Newbery, which will be announced on Monday, January 22nd. Emily and I will share our real-time reactions to the Youth Media Awards that morning on Heavy Medal. You can watch the announcements live from 8:00 – 9:30 am EST (yes, that’s 5:00 am for us west coasters).

Filed under: Heavy Medal Mock, Process