It’s Suggestion Season: Heavy Medal 2025 Mock Newbery Contenders
Happy March everyone. After a month and a half break, it’s time for our off-season Mock Newbery suggestion call-out.
Just like the actual Newbery committee, we take a call for monthly suggestions of Newbery contenders. We’ll do this on the first Monday of each month through August, then jump into book discussions in September.

The real Newbery Committee also uses monthly suggestions to help the group identify titles to seek out and read. Members aren’t discussing books yet, just sharing titles. We’ll follow that practice here. Here are the guidelines we use every year for the Heavy Medal monthly suggestions:
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- Suggestions are books that might have a chance to contend for the Newbery. They don’t have to be perfect, best-book-of-year type titles, but can include books that could possibly be in that discussion.
- Suggestions must be eligible books. Eligibility is addressed in the Newbery Terms and Criteria. If you’re not sure if a book is eligible, go ahead and include it. We’ll make our best guess at eligibility later.
- For Suggestions, please include title and author. If you want to add a comment, great, but we’ll save critical discussions for the Fall.
- You can suggest up to 5 titles per month. Less is fine. The real Committee typically doesn’t have a Suggestions limit, but we’ll use one to make sure our list doesn’t get too long.
- Suggest only books that you’ve read or listened to. Sometimes you hear that a book is great or you know from the author that it’s something we should all read…but you still can’t suggest it until you’ve read it yourself.
- Suggestions should be books that are already published. If you read an advance copy, please hold off on suggesting until it’s actual release date. That keeps us roughly on the same time line.
- If a book you’ve read is already on the list, go ahead and include it. We’ll post an update every month listing titles and numbers of Suggestions. Early favorites tend to lead the suggestions, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll win it all.
- If you missed a suggestion deadline, it’s ok. Just go ahead and post next month!
If you have any questions about our suggestion process, just ask below. If you’re ready with suggestions, just post them below. We’ll accept suggestions through the end of the day on Saturday, March 9th, then post the results on the following Monday.
Filed under: Suggestions
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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Amil and the After by Veera Hiranandani
Max in the House of Spies by Adam Gidwitz
I second both of those!
Misfits: A Royal Conundrum by Lisa Yee is the only one I’ve gotten to so far this year–worth a look.
I liked Misfits too.
This is the book I came here to suggest!
Not Quite A Ghost by Anne Ursu.
I loved that book too, Jenny!
Shark Teeth by Sherri Winston was fantastic!
Another vote for Max.
PS I wish Katharine Rundell were eligible for a Newbery. Of course, she has won just about every British children’s literature award (or it just seems that way). Her books are fabulous!
Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar
Thanks for the suggestions everyone! If you could help us out, please make it very clear that you’re suggesting a title by listing the title and author. As comments add up, it’s hard to go back and tally and differentate if someone is expressing enthusiasm or officially suggesting a title! Thanks for your help!
The Night War by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.
This one publishes in April, so please re suggest next month! Thank you!
Not Quite A Ghost by Anne Ursu is my standout so far this year.
Not Quite A Ghost by Anne Ursu
Light and Air by Mindy Nichols Wendell
I’m feeling behind so far!!!
So many books came out on March 5th that I’m trying to get to (or finish). Hopefully I’ll get in a couple of suggestions.
Th First State of Being by Erin Kelly ……..an amazing story about a time-traveling boy! That is all I had to say to get my students wanting a copy!
I was hoping to get the new Kate DiCamillo or Erin Entrada Kelly in time, but didn’t quite make it….there’s always next month. I do have four very good ones for March, though:
AMIL AND THE AFTER by Veera Hiranandani
CLIMBING THE VOLCANO: A JOURNEY IN HAIKU by Curtis Manley
THE ENIGMA GIRLS by Candace Fleming
MAX IN THE HOUSE OF SPIES by Adam Gidwitz
I have two to suggest.
THE FIRST STATE OF BEING by Erin Entrada Kelly (It was every bit of amazing as I hoped.)
THE ENIGMA GIRLS by Candace Fleming
March 2024.
*Max in the House of Spies: A Tale of World War II, Adam Gidwitz
*The First State of Being, Erin Entrada Kelly
*The Color of Sound, Emily Barth Isler
*The Enigma Girls by Candace Fleming (Non Fiction)
2 nice MG books that were great but didn’t quite make the March list:
-I read Ferris by Kate DiCamillo and had high expectations. Story about a girl born under a ferris wheel who links her family and community stories together. Incredible vocabulary.
-Light and Air by Mindy Nichols Wendell is a story about a girl in the early 1900’s who gets Tuberculosis and is quarantined. Great characters.
I am going to call it early. Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin writing historical non fiction MG together has got me gunning for an ARC. The Bletchley Riddle is top of my list to read in 2024.
Same with me Quade! I love everything Ruta Sepetys writes and I am excited for her MG foray!
I think The Bletchley Riddle is fiction actually, which should be interesting coming from Steve Sheinkin! I’m not calling it yet, but I think it’s definitely one to look forward to!
The Color of Sound by Emily Barth Isler
The Bletchley Riddle is the book to beat in 2024. (do your self a favor and carve out a day to read this one in a single sitting, you won’t be able to put it down)
A masterclass in plotting. An incredible page turner with meticulously drawn characters and pitch perfect dialogue. It also pairs wonderfully with both Candy’s The Enigma Girls and Adam’s Max and the House of Spies.
It will be interesting to see if these titles cancel each other out in the minds of the committee or if their individual strengths elevate each other.