Heavy Medal Mock Newbery Finalist: MALLORY IN FULL COLOR by Elisa Stone Leahy
Introduction by Heavy Medal Award Committee Member Kate Olson
Mallory Marsh is a people-pleasing, comic-drawing tween who has been tasked with being a primary caretaker of her twin brothers after school. Her mind wanders whenever she tries to accomplish tasks outside of her webcomic, and she is too afraid to tell her mother that she is intimidated by the swim coach. Mallory’s anxieties are ramped up when she lies about her age to enter an online comics contest, and then her identity is in danger of being revealed at her school. This is all a lot for a tween to handle, but when you add in her questions about identity and frustrations with her parents’ separation, Mallory is at her breaking point.
MALLORY IN FULL COLOR by Elisa Stone Leahy tackles a lot, and still manages to educate readers about terms relating to sexual and gender identity and drag, and includes minor romantic storylines. Panels from Mallory’s webcomic are included throughout the book, allowing readers to see how Mallory has represented real life in her fictional world.
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“It was bad. I really screwed up.” Mal gripped the quilt in her fists and sniffed. “I’m such a terrible person! I never should have said all that—”
Chapter 20 page 241
“No, you’re not.” Her dad scratched his chin. He needed to shave, and Mal remembered that he’d just gotten back from a business trip. “You just have …. feelings. And you can’t bottle them up.”
Mal raised her eyebrows. Her dad never talked about feelings.
All discussion on this book is welcome, but I am especially interested in thoughts on how this book ties in with others on our list this year. Numerous books include themes of children feeling misunderstood, ignored, abandoned or unduly burdened by parents – how does this book connect with and stand out in relation to the others?
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 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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Thanks Kate Olson for a great intro!
MALLORY IN FULL COLOR hit the final HMAC nomination page in force, and I eagerly read it. It was a late release, with a publication date of November 19th, but it has popped up on best books for youth library lists in NY and Chicago.
The plot, setting, and language are interesting. In terms of Newbery criteria, it is distinct in characterization and style. It was really different.
Because I read this late in the year, I didn’t annotate. For characterization, I noted that she is dealing with multiple aspects of Mallory’s identity. How can she be herself if she hides a big piece of herself from the world? Mallory creates a sci-fi webcomic hero, Dr.BotGirl, to explore feelings about herself and her peers. The addition of comic-style illustrations helps connect her unique perspectives, and the readers can experience the complexity of the character’s emotions and struggles. There is tension and drama when her friends see themselves in the characters she has created. It’s a pretty original presentation and is well organized. I think that will resonate with middle-grade readers.
It misses some Newbery rubrics, but it is a great book to add to Middle and High School library collections.
This was a late publication and as such it wasn’t in any of my library systems. This is also one of the few that I have only read once.
There was some really good writing in the book. When Mallory’s mom was talking to her sister and Mallory was listening in everything her mom said “made Mal’s stomach drop another notch, like an elevator going down from floor to floor”. I also liked the conversation on page 182 where Mal and Noa are talking about happiness. Mal does and says things to keep the peace and make people happy while Noa questioned that idea and said, “I wouldn’t want someone to lie to me just to make me happy.”
The plot was clever and well done. It treated some typical middle grade tropes in a new way and things were resolved nicely. With Mallory in particular you can see her growth in learning to make her own voice heard even if it is uncomfortable or causes tension or even unhappiness.
As a teacher I must say I was annoyed pretty early on that none of her teachers communicated with her mom that she was falling behind. And to be honest, shouldn’t her mom have noticed – these days grades are easily accessible to parents at any time. I also was annoyed by the cat… how could they have missed the fact that the signs and missing cat was clearly the librarian’s cat?
Overall I though the book was well done and I can see it finding an audience. I am just not sure it rises to the top of the pile of contenders that we have.
Thanks for mentioning the cat, Julie. It was so obvious to us readers that the cat would be the librarian’s….When the characters finally realized it, I was a bit surprised because: how did they not know that already? It seems like a small thing, but in a book where the plot relies, to some degree, on the author’s hand, it can stand out. Other plot elements that were directly related to the themes seemed more carefully (and successfully) developed: The way the story time was resolved was very satisfying, for example, and plausible enough; same with the way Mallory’s portrait was so powerful and her web-comic secret worked out overall. So I feel a little nitpicky to worry about the cat, but that’s what can happen in Newbery-world, where we’re looking for the one book among hundreds….
I liked the addition of the webcomic pages, it made the parallelism between Mallory’s life and the story she created very clear. (It wasn’t subtle, but eh… I don’t think it had to be). I enjoyed reading the book because as a librarian, I was invested in the drag story hour happening for Noa and the kids, and I really hoped Mallory would learn to say no to things and take the time to learn about herself. I agree with Julie, there’s some good writing here, and I like how the author used the self-portrait assignment to get Mallory to that point of beginning to see herself “in full color.” BUT I don’t think the other characters were as developed. Mallory’s mom does eventually realize that she was putting a lot on her, but – compared to THE COLOR OF SOUND, for example, where we and Rosie learn more about Shanna – we don’t really know where she’s coming from. More importantly, Mallory never finds out either. So while I enjoyed the book enough (and liked the art!)….I also don’t think it makes it to the top 5 for me.
I just finished Mallory In Full Color yesterday. I purchased it as a late Christmas to myself and look forward to adding it to our library system this winter. As many have already mentioned, this is a middle grade novel that should find an audience pretty quickly. In terms of Newbery Criteria one area that this novel particularly excels in is Delineation of Character. Mallory is an exceptionally complex character and one that we don’t always like or support. Mallory’s need to accepted by her peers is a relatable one and leads her to make some poor decisions. This is a particularly strong element of her characterization. I also really appreciated how Mallory’s discovery of her identity was a bit messy and overall really unresolved. There’s an honesty to this I think will really resonate with young readers.
I think it is fair to say that Mallory in Full Color is strong in Mallory’s characterization but that some of the other characters lack depth. I wonder how much of that is because we, as readers, are tied so closely to Mallory’s perspective. I also think that the presentation of the information is also particularly distinguished with the inclusion of Mallory’s webcomics and how they show us, the audience, how Mallory is processing what is happening in her real life.
I did really enjoy this one and I can see myself recommending it to kids at the library, but I’m not sure if it rises to the top of the list when compared to some of the other titles we have discussed or will be discussing.