Heavy Medal Mock Newbery Finalist: LOUDER THAN HUNGER by John Schu
Introduction by Heavy Medal Award Committee Member Meghan Baranski
Everything feels out of control to Jake Stacey. When middle school started in sixth grade, the year had its ups and downs. When seventh grade came around, the days were decidedly tipping towards more bad than good. At the start of eighth grade, Jake sobbed so hard after the first day he knew he didn’t want to go back. Once his friends decided he was no longer worth taking up space, school became a relentless wasteland of name calling, bullying, and loneliness. To regain some sense of control, Jake starts listening to the screaming Voice in his head telling him to restrict calories, exercise more, sleep through the loneliness, and make himself as small as possible.
Jake’s only true friend is his grandmother, whom he spends weekends with at the library, watching musicals, and singing their lungs out in the car to Broadway soundtracks. She sees Jake when he can’t see himself and as the pounds slip off his frame, she becomes concerned that he is not living up to his promise to “take care of her boy.” The Voice screams louder, telling Jake to eat less, exercise more. He is too much and not enough at the same time.
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Jake’s mother receives a phone call of concern from an elderly resident at a nearby nursing home where Jake volunteers after school. Forced to truly look at him, she sees that he is slipping away and is in danger mentally and physically from his self-harm. She has him committed to an inpatient care facility called Whispering Pines where over the course of 313 days, Jake has to confront his anorexia nervosa diagnosis head on with nowhere to hide.
It
said
I would
be
the
best
at
not
eating.
It
said
I
didn’t
need
food.
I listened.
I learned.
I lied to everyone..
I
gave
in
to
my
eating
disorder.
It
controlled
me
when
I thought
I controlled
it.
(Day 146, pg. 370-371.)
Based on author John Schu’s own struggle with eating disorders, LOUDER THAN HUNGER shines as a Newbery contender with its character development, its graphic portrayal of self-harm and starvation, and gives a realistic glimpse into the mental battle it takes to confront a Voice that is relentless with its lies and harm. Coming in at 506 pages of prose, it is a behemoth novel in verse. However, the brisk pace and gripping narrative allows a strong reader to devour it in one sitting. Unlike other novels covering this topic, I admire how Schu doesn’t tie up the ending in a neat bow and lets the reader know that this will be a lifelong battle Jake will have to face for the rest of his life. Sprinkled with hope, love, and gratitude for the power of poetry and art, LOUDER THAN HUNGER is a frontrunner for me as a Newbery winner. Do you agree? I’ll see you in the comments.
Heavy Medal Award Committee members and others are now invited to discuss this book further in the Comments section below. Let the Mock Newbery discussion begin!
Filed under: Book Discussion, Heavy Medal Mock
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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I concur, Meghan. I see this being one of the most distinctive and unique books on our list this year. It’s actually the one I marked for on the survey on the question about “which book must be on our list” or however it was stated! I had the honor of seeing Schu speak about this book pre-publication at my state’s library conference and was moved to tears. There are not nearly enough books about boys struggling with mental health issues and eating disorders and I feel that this title can speak to almost any reader who has ever felt not-enough in any area.
I got to see him in Texas last year and he is truly an inspiring speaker! I kept thinking about this book as a companion to Jarrett Lerner’s novel A Work in Progress. Both are so powerful!
Apologies for this off-topic comment, but just wanted to let folks know that the ALSC Notables book discussion are happening this week, and you can observe the sessions via Zoom. Their current list includes about 100 books…and that’s only about half of the books they’ll be considering, since they discussed another big batch in the summer. The full discussion list and information about free registration is on the ALSC blog.
Thanks for sharing this, Steven! Happy to see many of the titles we’re discussing on there as well as the July discussion list!
From my first read in March, LOUDER THAN HUNGER has really stood out as the most “distinct” book of 2024.
I believe that LOUDER THAN HUNGER is the top contender for the 2025 Newbery medal. Language choices create a narrative that captures the complexities of dealing with complicated mental health issues while still being appropriate for middle-grade readers. The creative use of space with line breaks and indentations makes the book weighty but visually engaging, giving meaning beyond words. The authentic characterization is distinct, and supporting characters give the book important history and context, furthering the plot. Making the voice inside Jake’s head a unique character voice was distinct and brilliant.
The subject is timely: most mental health conditions begin by age 14, and the stigma of eating disorders (and all mental health issues) can prevent kids from getting the help they need. According to the NIH “Globally, nearly 15% of young people ages 10-19 experience a mental health disorder, accounting for 13% of the global burden of disease in this age group.2 In 2016, almost 20% of children in the United States ages 2-8 years (17.4%) had a diagnosed mental, behavioral, or developmental disorder.” (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK587174/)
As a literacy and health advocate I sit on multiple national high school advisory boards. I believe that normalizing conversations about mental health for kids is THE issue that needs to be addressed in our school and civic community. Childhood and adolescence are critical times for physical and mental development. We all have mental health, and talking about that starting in elementary school is really important. I passionately recommend books as a tool to help in this space.
Books like LOUDER THAN HUNGER have the potential to change lives and normalize hard conversations. Schu’s bravery and choice to address the topic of anorexia with sensitivity and hope makes it an influential piece of children’s literature. I am glad the book is thick and bold- it fills a big need.
John Schu writes this story of an outsider- but in my mind, he is a librarian, reading ambassador, and teacher who has written a story that combines his truth and his vast experience with books. While there is some discussion about where this fits in the “appropriateness of style” – I think Schu’s experience and sensitivity directed his choices to a MG audience. Those choices are medal worthy. He is very much an insider in the book community. Schu-in for a Newbery nod in 2025.
Yesterday, I met virtually with the Bank Street Youth Ambassadors. These are experienced youth reviewers from all over the USA who read through a high percentage of newly published books from Children’s picture books to YA. We all had varying opinions about out “favorite” award contenders- but all agreed, LOUDER THAN HUNGER is this year’s stand out in middle-grade fiction. BLACK GIRL YOU ARE ATLAS was our consensus for Poetry/YA.
I agree with Meghan Baranski that this is the “front runner” and with committee member Kate Olson, that LOUDER THAN HUNGER is a book that “must be on our list” for HMAC final discussion.
Quade – this might be the best thing on the internet so far in 2025 ~ “Schu-in for a Newbery nod in 2025”.
Louder Than Hunger was done so well. While I questioned a bit the use of poetic narrative with yesterday’s book, there was no doubt that poetic narrative was the perfect format for this book. Using free verse to get inside Jake’s head was so well done.
What struck me the most when I reread the book was font size. At the beginning of the book when the Voice was louder than hunger all of the language the Voice used was in large font and capitalized (pg 9 for example) and Jake’s voice was in smaller text (pg. 115). As the book progressed, the size, especially of the Voice got smaller and was not as frequent.
Louder Than Hunger ticks all the boxes for me and I believe deserves a place at our final discussion.
I agree with everyone who has commented thus far. LOUDER THAN HUNGER is not a personal favorite, but it is objectively one of the more stand-out books of the year. Thematically, it is a unique entry about a subject for which there should be more books available: the mental health of children, preteens, and teens. As several of us mentioned during the discussion for KAREEM BETWEEN, the verse form is no longer unique, but in LOUDER THAN HUNGER, I felt like the repetition of key words and the same thoughts created the “louder than” effect suggested by the title. It was as if the author wanted readers to feel as jumbled as Jake felt. And the setting!? Oh man, the sound of the scales, the monotony… it was all so vivid and unnerving. My only critique – and here I agree with everyone else as well in saying that it deserves to be discussed further – is that there was little build up to Whispering Pines. We’re immediately thrown into the middle of Jake’s struggle with the Voice and I think we could have spent some more time with him at home before the Voice took over. We knew he loved weekends at grandma’s….but we weren’t really shown why he doesn’t feel as safe or comfortable at home, nor how the Voice got to be so loud.
I wholeheartedly agree with what everyone is saying here. This is a very distinctive book. The subject matter, while mature, is handled age appropriately for the Newbery audience and the choice to write this book in verse felt very natural. Sometimes verse feels forced in a middle grade novel, but this made complete sense for both Jake as a character and for the mental health struggles he was going through. The verse in this novel really helped to give the plot even more urgency.
I took the opportunity to reread this book for this conversation. I wanted to see if my initial feelings were the same as when I first held this book in my hands. Oh my goodness, this is a book that same as others have said marked as “must be discussed.” It is a book that while daunting due to its length could not be done in any form other than free verse, prose, etc. I truly got into the mind of Jake. I felt his pain. I felt the Voice yelling at him about not being good enough. About food being a problem. Normally conversations like these have a girl protagonist–this made Louder Than Hunger original and unexpected.
You definitely can read this in one sitting, I just did. However, I was struck by how important side characters were to the story this go around. Jake’s relationship with his grandma are a huge role in this book. Including how an unfinished note with a key phrase “I am _______” had such an impact on Jake. Same with every nurse and patient encountered at the Pines. All have a voice (both good and bad) in Jake’s internal narrative. To me, a Newbery winning book does not just rely on one character. Every person used has a purpose and I believe that is achieved in Schu’s raw, honest work.
I am going to veer right into broken record territory, but this is another HMAC that I think will clean up in Printz and isn’t a good fit for the Newbery. It is a stunning book. Honestly, it is so beautiful. This deals with a middle schooler who is on the verge of starting high school and I think would be more appropriate for a Printz nomination. I think it will do really, really well this award season.
There were points where I was so tuned into this novel it hurt, and there were others that felt very disconnected. I don’t know if this had to do with having to internally distance myself because there were parts that were so deep and so dark that I had to put some space between me and the text OR because there were parts that were so deep and dark that Schu pulled back. It just burned so hot and cold for me. Sometimes you are diving so deeply into Jake’s thoughts that you can feel them unspool on the page and other times it’s like there is a wall between you and the text.
I think the most effective part of this book was that it was in verse. It was so well laid out and orchestrated. The monotony, the loudness of Jake’s inner monologue, the jumbles of words on pages as Jake is unable to make sense of his world. Perfection. Schu & his literary team are geniuses. This is probably the most effective lay out of text. Even to how the words were placed on the page. I’m thinking of the way the schedules were laid out specifically. Where you can feel the rigidity and his frustration of the similarity from day to day. It tackles super important issues, issues that kids and teens have to deal with everyday, but it didn’t feel like a kids novel to me.
I completely love how words and phrases are laid out. Truly it is not to be understated what this book accomplished in this way!
I had the same worries and concerns as you at first about age. But then I was reminded that Newbery can encompass ages 0 to 18 and there have been winners that have skewed older. It will be interesting to see if the Newbery committee feels the same
Newbery is 0-14, but you’re right that it still falls within that boundary. We’ll see what they say and what awards it stacks up.
sorry my comment didn’t look like it posted, so I did it again and now there are 2!
We fixed that double posting, Lauren. For general information to all commenters, this can happen from time to time with Heavy Medal. The website sometimes delays posting a comment until it gets approved by a moderator. I’ve never been able to figure out why some get held and some don’t, but it happens. Emily and I are the moderators and we try to keep tabs on the comments being held, but sometimes neither one of us is free to get to it right away. Sorry for that inconvenience…
Schubery
Borrowing this. 😉
I agree with others that the verse structure worked exceedingly well here: everything non-essential is trimmed away so there’s a great immediacy and impact. The fact that the main character is male is also unique, as it’s more common to have a female protagonist dealing with an eating disorder. I actually liked that Jake got to Whispering Pines soon after the story’s start: although his healing process takes a long time, at least he gets to start on that road relatively quickly. As readers, we see him deal with real pain and hardship (the Voice, the memory of bullies, friends turning away from him, etc.), but since he’s already close to rock bottom when we meet him, we don’t have to experience the long downward spiral before he starts to get help. (I loved that Ms. Burns was instrumental – I think – in getting him that help.) LOUDER THAN HUNGER is on the upper end of the 0-14 range, I could see it being in contention for the Newbery or the Printz.
LOUDER THAN HUNGER is an outstanding Newbery contender for its presentation of language, characters and style for sure. This book tugged at my heartstrings. I agree wtih Quade in that I liked how Schu uses line breaks and indentations to show space – or Jake not responding to the doctor. Those scenes made me feel like the reader is in the doctor’s office with him.
I agree with Jenny that the verse structure worked well and the way John uses words was great. For example, when Jake takes the dog and he’s riding on the bike – to show movement on the bike going UP and
D
O
W
N
I really enjoyed that – and it puts the reader there with Jake. I really liked that this was presented as a novel in verse. The prose is accessible to middle graders and teens. If this was just presented as a novel, I think it wouldn’t have such an impact as it has as a novel in verse. Is it a behemoth of a book? You bet. However, John’s words – and the fact that this is based on his personal struggles – make it worth the read.
This LOUDER THAN HUNGER discussion makes me think of STARFISH by Lisa Fipps. I bring that book up, not as part of our 2025 Newbery discussion, but just to remind us of that odd dynamic between Printz and Newbery. In 2022, STARFISH made a clean sweep of our Mock Newbery elections on Heavy Medal (we do three: Live Webcast Committee ballot; Live Webcast Viewer ballot; and general Readers’ Poll). Which rarely happens. So it was no surprise to hear it announced as a Medal winner a few days later….the surprise was: It was the Printz Medal that book received, with no Newbery recognition.
LOUDER THAN HUNGER has some similarities to STARFISH in terms of theme and style (though both books are definitely unique), but it’s their crossover potential in regards to age ranges that leave me with no idea what LOUDER’s fate will be on January 27th: 0 awards, 1, or 2?
I thought about STARFISH, too, in thinking about where LOUDER THAN HUNGER belongs (Printz, Newbery, or overlap). Under the current definitions, LOUDER THAN HUNGER is appropriate for the very top of the Newbery age range. I’d be comfortable handing this book to a 14-year-old: a 12-year-old, not so much. Really, the overlapping age categories does books at the younger end of YA a disservice, and I wouldn’t mind if the Newbery changed it’s requirements to end at 12-years-old as the upper border. Because even though they are eligible, YA books very rarely win, and probably because most committees doesn’t want younger readers to be confused by the Newbery sticker and check out a book that they are too young to understand (LONG WAY DOWN committee, notwithstanding).
I’d argue that LOUDER THAN HUNGER’s intensity, rawness, and thematic material is more suited for the Printz.
I agree with many others – I hope this wins the Schneider AND the Printz/Newbery, wherever it falls – as someone who grew up with different psychological issues it was stunningly raw yet satisfyingly hopeful,
Good comparison with STARFISH Steven. I appreciated this book a lot and think it really excels as a distinguished contribution to literature because it covers a raw, intense topic that does not have a lot in juvenile literature. That being said I’m not sure how well all the facts are and how much it truly excels in the criteria levels… it resonated for me the most on the first read but it’s hard for me to pull of strong specific examples of characterization, setting. plot development etc….