Battle of the books: Compare two Newbery 2025 contenders
As Steven mentioned in Friday’s post, we have 20 Newbery potentials that are currently “top contenders.” That number is a bit high, especially considering we already have an Early Six Final Book List, and Steven seems to think we need to keep the list under 100 or something like that (15 or less.)
So today, we will do an exercise where we compare two Newbery potentials in a game called “Battle of the Books.”
- Pick a potential 2025 Newbery contender. It can be one from our nomination list, but doesn’t have to be.
- Look at the Newbery Terms and Criteria and compare the two titles. You don’t have to discuss every category but at least one .
- Explain what one book does better than the other and why that book stands out.
The purpose of this exercise is to see how closely we need to evaluate the books and to look at how they compare against each other. It’s important to remember that all these books are being discussed because they have redeeming qualities, now we’re seeing what stands out as the best of the best.
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To start us off, I’ll take a look at two books consistently at the top of our list: THE TENTH MISTAKE OF HANK HOOPERMAN VS. LOUDER THAN HUNGER.
Both titles have young male characters with strong personalities that are going thru struggles at home. Both lead characters make new friends that help them navigate their battles and receive varying levels of support from the adults in their lives. Each title has strong plot development, ultimately ending in the main character finding support. THE TENTH MISTAKE OF HANK HOOPERMAN has strong development of secondary characters and excellent presentation. LOUDER THAN HUNGER has very strong theme development and delineation of setting. This is a very tough competition but I think the winner is LOUDER THAN HUNGER. (If you disagree please use these titles as your compare and contrast in the comments!)
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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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THE WRONG WAY HOME vs A STRANGE THING HAPPENED AT CHERRY HALL
I appreciate the way both of these books have strong, involving plots and well-developed characters. The personalities of the characters and the decisions they make are tied tightly to the stories. In WRONG WAY, Fern’s wish for sameness and security conflicts with her interest in new things and different people, and that’s all crucial as she tries to decide whether or not to return to The Farm. In CHERRY HALL, the painting theft drives the plot, but Rami’s motivations for taking on the mystery are wrapped up in his particular situation: he doesn’t fit in with friends anymore and his Mom is unjustly suspected because of the way she looks and talks. So he takes the risks partly because of his mother’s plight and his commitment to his new friend Veda.
Though I think both books succeed at what they set out to do, I’ll give the nod to THE WRONG WAY HOME, going back to plot, which gradually builds in intensity until Fern finally decides and makes it to safety. CHERRY HALL is, intentionally, not quite so intense and high-stakes, which isn’t a flaw, but makes it slightly less distinct to me.
THE TENTH MISTAKE OF HANK HOOPERMAN VS. LOUDER THAN HUNGER
I didn’t personally enjoy either of these books, but I see their literary merit. HANK comes out on top in my opinion. Emily mentioned the character development of the full cast is much stronger in HANK and I agree. LOUDER had some flat supporting characters, particularly the staff and other patients at the treatment center and Jake’s father.
More words are not necessarily better than fewer, but where LOUDER fell short for me was in the simple and repetitive text. It felt like a high-low book and I’m not sure that’s a strength in terms of the Newbery criteria, though it’s definitely a strength when it comes to engaging reluctant readers. There was something about LOUDER that felt very binary like black/white, right/wrong, good/bad. HANK had a lot more moral complexity.
Good points about LOUDER, Dest. I appreciated the simplicity in some ways, and the direct way it addressed the issues, but it was kind of like there was no breathing room for the reader. We’re right in Jake’s head and it’s all so immediate, without reflection. I think this was all intentional, and kind of a bold way to explore the themes. But that repetitiveness in terms of textual style can wear on some readers…
I also agree with you. I was initially enamored with LOUDER THAN HUNGER (and I still think it’s a great book), but it feels maybe just a bit amateur compared with some other books this year. It sometimes seems like Schu is trying too hard to produce an emotional effect. Some examples of this include Jake’s multi-page scream and a paragraph completely consisting of the words “I sob and sob and sob and sob and…” It is truly excellent at conveying Jake’s internal thoughts and emotion, but I wonder if it will suffer by not feeling distinguished enough. It’s the full cast of HANK HOOPERMAN that pushes it over the edge for me. Boo is one of the best-written toddlers I have read. Lou Ann, Sparkle, the girls at school, the boys at the youth home…these characters make HANK HOOPERMAN seem more distinguished to me. It provides a sense of community that the introspection (although excellently done) of LOUDER THAN HUNGER does not.
Quade called QUAG, MAX’s “book art twin”, and I think HANK shares that resemblance, so I’ll pit them against each other in a three-cornered battle focusing on the pivotal decision each makes about being with their parents.
I liked MAX, but when he makes a beeline for his parents’ house as soon as he is dropped off in Germany, the book lost delineation of character and interpretation of theme points with me. I found it hard to believe that someone shown throughout the book to be so exceptional, with the intelligence and psychological astuteness to manipulate people and situations to his desired ends, would do something so naive and ill-considered. I found it hard to believe that, if he had such childishness in him, it wouldn’t have been apparent to the highly competent adults who recruited and trained him and then take an enormous risk based on Max’s disingenuous reassurances to them. So many fine WWII books are about hard choices people make (TREE. TABLE. BOOK.), but Max makes an easy and dumb choice, jeopardizing and betraying the efforts of those who depend on and trust him as well as all the many others committed to doing what’s right (like the Enigma Girls, who kept their word, even long after the war’s end). I did find MAX entertaining, and I recognize it is commonplace in today’s entertainment to have protagonists with near-superhuman talents whose “what’s right” is unthinking, personal loyalty, no matter the cost. So I was not surprised by what unfolded in MAX, but in my eyes it did reduce it from potential WWII literature to something more along the lines of a Captain America or Indiana Jones WWII-era action story. Nothing wrong with that, except for maybe Newbery contention.
HANK’s big decision to go with his mother is also his titular mistake. I think Choldenko makes this climactic decision credible and sympathetic, even as the reader is willing him not to get in the car – it’s not just the desire to be with mom (a la Max), but also his ambivalence about his situation, the self-delusion about his sole ability to care for his sister, etc. The well-drawn character interactions up to this point serve to make this disastrous decision feel right for the story as well as the aftermath, when Lou Ann gives up on Hank. The one quibble I have is after that aftermath. Katherine Paterson’s Gilly made a mistake with a similar outcome and had to live with that and a Newbery Honor. Choldenko’s neighbor ex machina might be feel-good, but it also makes the book more like many others instead of distinctive. Last year’s Lasagna Means I Love You (by WRONG WAY HOME author Kate O’Shaughnessy) for example has almost exactly the same resolution where Mo is rejected by her foster family but happily ever afters with the nice characters she was meant to be with all along. I am not saying I wanted HANK’s ending to be a downer (QUAG’s ending isn’t), just that happy ending by authorial artifice, even though it’s the ending we want, feels a little too easy to be most distinguished.
QUAG and the reader don’t realize what’s going to happen when he gets in the car, which is a major part of how this book works. So that’s not his big decision. And when she takes off without him, he had just inadvertently hurt her, so that’s not it either, though the description of her fear of him is heart wrenching. But Quag does have a choice later, like Hank, of leaving with his mother. And unlike Max, unlike Hank, he betrays her. He betrays the aforementioned unwritten rule of media entertainment that, for a protagonist, nothing is more important than family. Or rather, it is true of Quag, but that’s what makes the choice hard. Much more than the other two books, Larsen’s choices left me uncertain and sometimes wary, but even though I didn’t know where we were going, it always felt right when we got there. To me, that hits the elements in the definition of “Distinguished” of achievement, distinctiveness, and excellence.
“Authorial artifice.” That’s excellent. Cool review.
So I have a question for Steven. What makes a Newbery “distinguished” ending?
Does an ending have to be complicated, unexpected or uncomfortable to make a book distinguished?
I look for endings that align with the story’s themes and provoke critical reflection. I am drawn to endings that follow with a flipping backwards through the pages to see how it was organized and lined up.
Yeah, I am not saying an ending needs to be “complicated, unexpected or uncomfortable”, and I like your litmus test about flipping backwards.
I would say in the case of MAX that I simply disagreed with how Gidwitz, who is an Newbery Honor author I admire, ended the book. As I indicated, the character and premise didn’t add up for me, and the motivation felt tacked on as a plot device rather than the result of a well-drawn character. Though I fully expect a happy ending with Max reuniting with his family, it’s quite possible Max 2 could make me see Max 1 in a new light. (QUAG does that with its predecessor.) You’re lucky to have seen the future, and I actually don’t think you should unknow what you know when evaluating MAX. (Newbery only prohibits consideration of past books, not future — haha).
It’s worth noting that both MAX and QUAG could be seen as adoption stories (not surprising in retrospect, because they all do have that fateful decision to make) but only HANK is in the Adoption Story genre. I would say that HANK therefore gives me the ending I expected and does it well. QUAG’s “adoption” is the ending I didn’t even know I wanted. Larsen really has a distinctive approach to plotting, which could be a weakness but I am seeing more and more as a strength. I kept expecting a return to New York — why build up Cassie and the radio show to that extent if you’re going to just ditch them? So when Quag lands at Uncle Jay’s, just like Quag the reader has no inkling it might be for good. (I’m actually a bit sad to be talking up this book so much given some people might not have read it and are being spoiled.) So I’d say QUAG’s ending is surprising and satisfying both at once. HANK’s is satisfying but unsurprising, and I found MAX’s unsatisfying and unsurprising, though I still liked the book and it has its own strengths.
I understand what you’re saying about the ending of HANK. I would like to argue, however, that a little detail prevents the ending of HANK from necessarily being “too perfect” or too much like other books with happily-ending adoption stories. When Ray offers to adopt Hank as well as Boo, Hank declines for the time being. He understands—with what I think is heartwarming, emotional maturity—that Boo needs Ray as her father. But personally, Hank is willing to wait in limbo. He balances his gratitude to Ray, his love for Boo, and his commitment to his mother. He refuses to forget his mom, even with her faults. This gives the idea that though the book is over, the story is not—we don’t know the final decision. It’s not wrapped up “perfectly” like some books. It’s satisfyingly hopeful and happy, but leaves us with continued emotional investment in the story. I think that this detail goes a long way in making the ending of the book distinguished.
Owen, I actually thought of this counterargument while I was typing and actually agree with you. This line of thinking would’ve been a good candidate for the Fortunately/Unfortunately exercise. My basic take on HANK is really that it’s a Newbery Honor-winning author’s take on a formula. (I have the same basic feeling about a book we haven’t talked about, GUT REACTION by Kirby Larson.) So yes I found the book excellent with all sorts of details, like the one you mention, that show the stamp of a great writer. And I do think HANK is a better book than the more run-of-the-mill books that it resembles. But I am not sure its exellence quite transfigures its adoption story genre. I could be convinced otherwise (on MAX too).
Let’s look at THE ENIGMA GIRLS by Candace Fleming (nonfiction) and THE BLETCHLEY RIDDLE by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin (historical fiction). Both are meticulously well-researched, and both are set in Bletchley Park (and a little bit in wartime London), but Fleming’s delineation of setting is stronger: readers can sense the cold and darkness in the huts, the additional discomfort of the noise in the rooms where the bombes are at work, the deprivation of rationing.
Delineation of character is a bit more difficult to compare, as Sepetys and Sheinkin have two first person narrators, siblings Jakob and Lizzie, whereas Fleming introduces ten distinct women, along with other important figures at the Park. Yet she does this so steadily that by the time the whole process becomes clear, readers have a point of contact along every part of the chain. Jakob and Lizzie are believable characters in the way that they react to their situations: Jakob burying himself in work, and Lizzie determined to find Willa. Both books are strong on plot, though the scope is different, with Sepetys and Sheinkin focusing on the beginning years of the war, and Fleming covering more time.
Both books have fascinating section breaks; Fleming coaches her readers through (de)ciphering exercises, while Sepetys and Sheinkin include images of newspaper clippings, ads, and propaganda.
For me – even though I tend to prefer fiction to nonfiction – ENIGMA GIRLS is the stronger book.
If anyone wants to pull MAX IN THE HOUSE OF SPIES (Gidwitz) or THE NIGHT WAR (Bradley) into the discussion, that would bring us up to four WWII books.
THE SECRET LIBRARY (Kekla Magoon) and THE COLOR OF SOUND (Emily Barth Isler) are on my list of the top books published in 2024. They share some incredible similar: Smart middle-grade protagonists struggle with disciplined, demanding moms juggle grief, family secrets, and expectations. They explore the family history through time-bending experiences to understand family bias, belief, and value systems and establish their growing identities.
THE SECRET LIBRARY
Audience: Middle-Grade Sweet-spot (Grade 3-7, Ages 8-12)
Genre: Fiction/ Novel. Time-travel Fantasy/ Historical fiction
Characterization: Eleven-year-old Delilah “Dally” PeteHarrington is spunky and adventurous. The bi-racial daughter of an affluent, disciplined, grieving single mother has to tie together the past of her family to find her own identity.
Plot: Dally finds solidarity in their relationship with her independent and adventure-seeking Grandfather. When he dies, he leaves her a map to a magical, hidden library of books containing a portal to a specific time and place that unveils a family secret. The SECRET LIBRARY is an action-packed adventure book that is part mystery and a great historical adventure that blends past perspectives and creative plot twists to find that the treasure of family stories is understanding how that becomes part of your evolving identity.
Theme: Race, Class, Generational Trauma/Identity, Family Secrets
Organization: The pace of the book is set to a daily reading, and each book volume contains a past family secret.
Setting: The setting alternates between Peteharrington Place (South Carolina), the Secret Library, and places of the past (including a pirate ship and treasure island).
Highlights: Dally is aware that the wealth she has in her present-day life comes with certain advantages. But when she travels back in time, she has to navigate the complexities of race. There is a stark contrast between her real-world life and the harsh historical reality, where females often hide their gender for equal treatment, and she looks like many of the enslaved community. I liked that Dally can balance her belief that race is a social construct with the experience of facing an entirely different bias of the past. It’s a thought-provoking exploration of identity, privilege, and the complexities of history. GREAT STORY!
THE COLOR OF SOUND
Audience: Upper Middle-Grade (Grades 5-7, Ages 9-16)
Genre: Fiction/ Novel. Magical realism/ Time-travel Fiction
Characterization: Twelve-year-old Rosie is a neurodivergent musical prodigy with the secret gift of synesthesia, the ability to connect sound in a different sensory way (hearing or feeling colors and seeing sound). Through summer experiences and mystical, time-travel meetings with a young version of her mother, Rosie begins to understand the origin of her generational neurodiversity and ties together her family’s past to find her identity.
Plot: Struggling to balance her choices and identity, Rosie quits the violin and spends six weeks of summer at her grandparents’ home with her mother and a sick grandmother. In a small shed on her property, she meets a young girl who she recognizes as the twelve-year-old of her mom. Through those meetings, she begins to understand how her shared generational neurodiverse experience and Hungarian Jewish family Holocaust history have shaped and connected the women in her family.
Theme: Neurodivergence, Generational Trauma/Identity, Family Secrets
Organization: Meetings during the magic time shift shed and conversations with her middle-grade mother provide context to her parenting and expose the complex dynamic of generational trauma and family secrets.
Setting: Summer in Connecticut
Highlights: More than any other book I have read, Emily Bath Isler uses descriptive language to expose young readers to the strength-based experience of neurodiversity. Her descriptions of the synesthesia experience are so well-written, and I loved how other sensory experiences, like swimming, provide a portal to connection. I related to this book and was drawn in with incredible language choices.
Middle-Grade page-turner: The Secret Library
Newbery Contender: The Color of Sound crosses into the category of literary excellence by capturing the lyrical and rhythmic nature of a gifted neurodivergent experience, painting a vivid reading experience through well-crated language.
So grateful for all these complex, thoughtful responses!