Sharon McKellar
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December Nominations
In December, the real committee submits two more nominations and this is crunch time. It’s the committee’s last chance to nominate titles (unless things come out later in the year) and each member’s last chance to ensure that their choices are on the table for discussion. Here at Heavy Medal we did nominations in October […]
It’s Here! Announcing the Short List and Oakland’s Mock Newbery!
We are so excited to announce our short list today! But before we get to that, let me tell you a little bit about our plans for this list and some of our plans for the blog for the rest of the Newbery season. This short list will be used in the Mock Newbery discussion […]
Picture Book Possibiities
We haven’t talked too much about picture books yet this year, and I wanted to check in and see where everyone was in terms of picture books with potential. After LAST STOP ON MARKET STREET took the gold, I think we are all thinking even more about the text in picture books and how it […]
Moving On Up: Princesses, Capers, and Crocodiles
What do you call these books in your library? Here, in Oakland, we call them “Moving Up” books. More advanced than easy readers, but not as sophisticated as chapter books. Featuring lots of pictures, but integrating more complex language. In any case – they don’t tend to get a lot of Newbery love. There are […]
The Awards U Win
Indulge me a little bit with this one, friends, and follow me into this thought experiment. Let’s pretend that the quick arguement I’m about to give in terms of age range of Newbery and this book fully convinces you that the book is eligible. I’m open to arguements that it’s not, but I’d love to […]
Sometimes a Tree isn’t Just a Tree
Katherine Applegate is the master of a certain kind of quiet novel. I’ll resist comparisons to her previous Newbery winning title, though, and stick to just this book and this year. WISHTREE whispers its message of tolerance and hope With such slight text, Applegate manages to make characters that are real, believable, flawed, and honest. […]
YA? Why Not?
So, what about YA? We talked about this quite a bit in the comments of our post about the National Book Award Longlist, which was heavily Young Adult. It’s come up in other places too, including in one of our very first posts this year, about VINCENT AND THEO. There are quite a few titles […]
Amina and Auma
I’ve been thinking a lot about didactic content recently. As the Newbery Criteria states: The committee should keep in mind that the award is for literary quality and quality presentation for children. The award is not for didactic content or popularity. So, what do we do with books that are important and what counts as didactic […]
The First Rule of Middle Grade Fiction: Be Yourselves
The first rule of punk, according to Malú’s dad, is to be yourself – as if yourself is a single, easy-to-define, tangible something. But when you’re in middle school, figuring out who you are is a lot more complicated than that. The First Rule of Punk has starred reviews from Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, and School Library […]
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