This is the third and final time that the Newbery committee will trade nominations (3 in October, 2 in November, 2 in December).  In order for a book to be on the table for discussion, it must first be nominated, so we may see many people use their final two nominations, not to build consensus, but to highlight some of those outliers.  That’s not the case for me, however.  Since many of my previous nominations went to outliers, I’m going to spend my final couple nominations building consensus.

You may recall that my previous five were–

THE ANIMAL BOOK

ERUPTION!

IF YOU WANT TO SEE A WHALE

THE THING ABOUT LUCK

WHAT THE HEART KNOWS

You may also remember that I was considering FAR FAR AWAY, GHOST HAWK, and THE TRUE BLUE SCOUTS OF SUGAR MAN SWAMP for my final two nominations.  I’m still very high on all three titles, but I’m going to make a purely strategic choice and nominate–

FAR FAR AWAY

THE TRUE BLUE SCOUTS OF SUGAR MAN SWAMP

Please let us know what your seven nominations are, and remember that, unlike the real committee, you are allowed to change your mind here to better reflect the reading and reflecting that you have done in the past month.  I’ll also mention that the real committee submits their nominations anonymously and they see all of the new nominations at once.  So for all intents and purposes, this list is only meant to suggest the range of titles that the committee might expect to see once they get their final set of nominations, how those nominations have varying levels of support, and how that prioritizes the final reading push of committee members as they prepare for their January deliberations.

For your benefit, I’m including below the final tally for the previous round of nominations.  You’ll notice that we slighted two of the top vote getters–DOLL BONES and THE REAL BOY–when we made our Mock Newbery shortlist.  If we were more concerned about prediction than simulation than surely we would have included them, but we expect them to have a strong showing when the Virtual Mock Supercommittee votes next month–and perhaps when the real Newbery committee votes, too!

(16) THE THING ABOUT LUCK

(15) DOLL BONES

(13) THE REAL BOY

(12) P.S. BE ELEVEN

(12) THE TRUE BLUE SCOUTS OF SUGAR MAN SWAMP

(10) FAR FAR AWAY

(7) FLORA & ULYSESS

(7) IF YOU WANT TO SEE A WHALE

(7) BETTER NATE THAN EVER

(7) ONE CAME HOME

(7) THE YEAR OF BILLY MILLER

(7) THE CENTER OF EVERYTHING

(6) HOKEY POKEY

(6) LOCOMOTIVE

(5) COUNTING BY 7s

(5) ZEBRA FOREST

(4) WHAT THE HEART KNOWS

(4) PENNY AND HER MARBLE

(4) JINX

(4) NAVIGATING EARLY

(3) ERUPTION!

(3) THE WATER CASTLE

(2) THE HIDDEN SUMMER

(2) FROM NORVELT TO NOWHERE

(2) THE LOST KINGDOM

(2) TWERP

(2) LINCOLN’S GRAVE ROBBERS

(2) THE BOY WHO LOVED MATH

(1) A SONG FOR BIJOU

(1) THE GRIMM CONCLUSION

(1) GHOST HAWK

(1) THE ANIMAL BOOK

(1) ODD DUCK

(1) BLUFFTON

(1) HEAVEN IS PAVED WITH OREOS

(1) SUGAR

(1) A TANGLE OF KNOTS

(1) DUKE

(1) CLEMENTINE AND THE SPRING TRIP

(1) SURE SIGNS OF CRAZY

(1) THE GREAT AMERICAN DUST BOWL

(1) THE MIGHTY LALOUCHE

(1) SALT

(1) THE CANARY IN THE COAL MINE

(1) THE ADVENTURES OF THE SOUTH POLE PIG

(1)  BATTLE BUNNY