October Nominations: Name Your Top Three Newbery Contenders

It’s finally nomination time!

In our Heavy Medal Mock Newbery’s we try to match our process with that of the real Committee when we can. That works pretty well with nominations. Each of the fifteen Newbery Committee members will nominate three books in October, and we’ll do the same here. We’ll do two more in November and December (as the real Committee does).

Submit your top three titles so far in the comments below. Title and author is all we need, but you can justify your choices if you want to (see below). Deadline for this round of nominations is Saturday, October 5th.

Here’s a little more about the nomination process, using a few excerpts about the nomination process from John Newbery Manual (p 27-28), followed some comparisons of how the Newbery Committee and Heavy Medal differ, plus a couple of notes about changes over time: 

“Committee members will be asked to nominate three, two, and two books…and to provide complete bibliographic information and a justification statement for each book.”

• Newbery Committee:  Those written justifications are really useful. Members not only learn which books their group are rating highly, but why. When members re-read the nominated books, the justifications can help them identify qualities that others have noted.
• Heavy Medal:  All we need on Heavy Medal is author and title. However, if you would like to also write a bit about why you chose your titles, please do. 

“…a total of seven distinct nominations.”

• Newbery Committee: With 15 members and seven nominations each, the maximum number of nominated books is 105. Of course many books will have multiple nominations, so the likely number is probably somewhere in the 40-70 range. Only the Committee members will know for sure, though, because even the number of nominations is confidential. 
• Heavy Medal:  We are also looking for seven nominations per person through the nomination process. But there’s no limit to the number of people who can nominate. Last year we had 64. So we’ll have many more titles from the nomination process. And then we’ll narrow it down in December. 

Justification statements are usually no more than 100 words, and serve as preparation for oral discussion by providing practice in how to succinctly state points that speak to the award criteria. 

• Newbery Committee: The revised 2023 Manual is the first place I’ve seen that 100 word guideline for the justifications. On my last Committee (2013) nothing was specified; as Chair I could have given strict guidelines, but chose not to. I can see how that limit could be effective and encourage members to be succinct. But I have to confess, I was the opposite of succinct. My seven nominations averaged 400 words each…and I struggled to keep it that low! I just had so much to say about those books.
• Heavy Medal:  Again, you don’t have to write any more than title + author. But if you choose to, “succinct” makes sense, since we will be doing fuller discussion of many of the nominated books later in the season. (I promise I won’t do 400 words for mine). 

Ranked preferences are not given on the nominating ballots. Serious consideration is to be given to all nominated books, including those with minimal support. 

• Newbery Committee: With no rankings, it’s still possible that a book with one or two nominations could emerge with a Medal. This is especially important for books that are published late in the fall or have not been widely reviewed. Members will see which ones have the most nominations, though, and can gauge levels of support by the justifications to some degree. But everything starts at the same level when the actual deliberations begin.
• Heavy Medal:  We don’t rank our nominations here either. Emily and I will pay attention to which books seem to have the most support, though. We’ll use nominations to help us come up with our Heavy Medal Book List in December. 

As with the suggestions process, nominations remain anonymous.

• Newbery Committee: The anonymous nominations requirement is also new with the revised 2023 Manual I believe. In 2013, each Committee could decide that question; ours went with signed nominations. I preferred that because it helped me get to know other members a little bit; but I can also see how anonymous nominations could help focus everyone solely on the words about the books and not the people who wrote them. 
• Heavy Medal:  Well, we see everyone’s username when you post, so you can kind of be anonymous if you want to.

So let’s begin the first round of nominations! In the comments below:

• List your three titles and authors
• Include a justification (succinct or not) for any or all if you want to, but that’s not required
• Get your nominations in by Saturday, October 5th

We’ll share results next week!

Filed under: Nominations