Next in our guest posts, you heard from commenter Mark Flowers on one of his favorite contenders. Now here is Sondy Elkund, on Sara Pennypacker’s SUMMER OF THE GYPSY MOTHS…doing pretty strong in the Goodreads poll and our nominations.
First, like Mark, I want to thank Nina and Jonathan for letting me chime in.  My [...]

A little Thanksgiving disgestif, as I mull over a lot of threads we’ve got going on…all of them circling around the idea of what makes a Newbery book.
I’m no personal fan of Philip Roth.  But I’ve been appreciating what he has to say about his retirement.  In Sunday’s NYTimes he said: “I know I’m not [...]

Our shortlist requires a little context, so we’ll start with some details.
This year’s in-person Mock Newbery Discussion will take place on Sunday, January 13th, in Oakland CA.  Logistics and registration are handled by email, so if you’re interested in participating, email me.
Over the course of four-ish hours that afternoon, we’ll discuss and vote on, according [...]

No, but she has lent glamour to The National Book Awards announcement dinner.  This year they’re planning on Molly Ringwald to help give the awards some popular traction.  That and:
“This year it issued new instructions to the judges, in red ink no less, apparently as a signal to the judges that it was O.K. to nominate writers [...]

Anything by Gary Schmidt is subject to high expectations…so good for him for trying something a little daring, even if WHAT CAME FROM THE STARS ultimately fumbles.  Sixth-grader Tommy’s grief over the death of his mother is compounded by the evil advances of a realtor on his family’s beachfront home.   Schmidt takes his metaphor-laden melodramatic style [...]

Do you get a jolt sometimes on your commute, at your favorite lunch place, suddenly looking at the same mundane scene you see every day and think: “how peculiar?”
A slightly distorted lens on the world in fiction, when done well, can make the story that much more believable.   Here are two titles that fit my [...]

In the vein of looking at some shorter fare, let’s look a little more closely at some texts in picture book format that have been mentioned in comments here. While I like each quite a bit, I’m not sure if any of them rise to my top ten for this year in Newbery potential.  Anyone [...]

Although they’re probably not reading it right now…here’s some best wishes to those weathering Hurricane Sandy in New York.  The hardest part of a storm can be its aftermath.  In that vein, some of our New York colleagues are still watching another approaching storm: the merger of Penguin and Random House.  Those with jobs in [...]

Although they’re probably not reading it right now…here’s some best wishes to those weathering Hurricane Sandy in New York.  The hardest part of a storm can be its aftermath.  In that vein, some of our New York colleagues are still watching another approaching storm: the merger of Penguin and Random House.  Those with jobs in [...]

Fatal flaws, whether real or perceived, are so hard to handle at the Newbery table. Inevitably it’s not the flaw that’s in question, but whether or not it’s fatal, and it’s so hard to persuade those that feel fatalistic.
I need that preamble before I talk about Sheinkin’s book, because so far I’ve not found anyone [...]

There are some boy protagonists in the Newbery-potential lineup this year.  But they tend to be non-genre reads.  Where is the “boy” equivalent of PALACE OF STONES, or THREE TIMES LUCKY?  What’s the male equivalent of the “spunky girl” kind of novel?
N.D. Wilson’s THE DROWNED VAULT doesn’t make even near my top ten for the [...]

I do love a surprise in awards…when a book cover flashes up there and I just draw a blank.  It’s strangely reassuring to me that there’s plenty out there under the sun beyond the overwhelming murmur of popular opinion.
I also love it when I have a copy of said book in hand.   Out went [...]

This is the time of year that always telescopes down and passes in a flash for me,  and I’m noticing a time-warpy feeling right about now that we’re fully ramped up at Heavy Medal.
If you are feeling frustrated that you haven’t read the titles that we’re posting on: you’re not alone in that feeling.  (Doesn’t [...]

As Jonathan and I continue to start including guests in our posts now and then, it occurred to us that this could be an elegant solution to the “of two minds” problem.  This iteration of the problem being when Nina and Jonathan’s two minds are united in a single struggle to get enthusiastic about a [...]

Although Jonathan was looking specifically at “science” nonfiction books when he posted recently about BLACK HOLE and MOONBIRD, I can’t compare those two as Newbery possibilities unless I throw this one into the mix.
Technically a biography, Sy Montgomery’s TEMPLE GRANDIN: HOW THE GIRL WHO LOVED COWS EMBRACED AUTISM AND CHANGED THE WORLD is really about [...]

Although Jonathan was looking specifically at “science” nonfiction books when he posted recently about BLACK HOLE and MOONBIRD, I can’t compare those two as Newbery possibilities unless I throw this one into the mix.
Technically a biography, Sy Montgomery’s TEMPLE GRANDIN: HOW THE GIRL WHO LOVED COWS EMBRACED AUTISM AND CHANGED THE WORLD is really about [...]

Although Jonathan was looking specifically at “science” nonfiction books when he posted recently about BLACK HOLE and MOONBIRD, I can’t compare those two as Newbery possibilities unless I throw this one into the mix.
Technically a biography, Sy Montgomery’s TEMPLE GRANDIN: HOW THE GIRL WHO LOVED COWS EMBRACED AUTISM AND CHANGED THE WORLD is really about [...]

I’d like to take a moment to commend all of our excellent writers who win Newbery Medals or Honors and then…keep writing excellent books.
It has got to be hard to follow up on expectations, and we’ve got a lot of prize winning authors with new books out this year.  Their ARC tend to filter *up* [...]

Thom Barthelmess (curator and lecturer, Butler Children’s Literature Center, Dominican University, Chicago, IL) has been President of ALSC, has served on the Newbery Committee, and recently chaired the 2012 Boston Globe Horn Book Awards Committee, which will present its awards this Friday evening at Simmons College. They chose as their Fiction winner one [...]

Of any predictions I could hazard in Newbery season, my best bet would be to say that the discussion over this title will get contentious.  This seems to be a “love it or hate it” title, and if you’re not loving it, it asks a lot of you.  So take some time to get yourself [...]