We’ll continue over the next few weeks to review books from our shortlist and talk about the Newbery process as we ramp up to our Mock Newberies on January 11th (Oakland) and 15th (San Diego), but I wanted to take a moment to address Rosanne’s recent comment about whether we’ve noticed small/indie press Newbery contenders in the last few years…not necessarily self-published, just…off the radar.

This is absolutely the hardest part of this blog for me; it’s hard just to stay on top of the “buzz” reading, and seeking out good work among smaller presses is a challenge.  The committee is receiving these books, I can promise you, and hopefully cracking the cover the same as with any other book.   The best way to ferret out great books from smaller publishers is to leverage our collective knowledge, so I’m wondering what you all have noticed that is coming from a smaller publisher, or is otherwise not getting notice?

I’ll start–I’ve been wanting to post about this title all season, and was delighted to see it on Kirkus’ Best of 2014 for Teen.    Denise Lewis Patrick’s A MATTER OF SOULS  was published this spring by Carolrhoada Lab/Lerner…not super small, granted, but not among the “usual suspects” either.   Her short stories here vary widely in tone and subject, but each shows a clarity of voice and character that surpasses most of what I’ve read this year.  So why not on our shortlist?  I see it as a hard sell for Newbery, not necessarily for fair reasons…as with any anthology, some stories are better than others, but also, some of these stories definitely work better as YA than for a children’s audience.   Even so, I hope the actual committee is taking note of this gem, as it pushes that boundary for age level that they need to explore; as well as any of you following #WeNeedDiverseBooks.   And it makes great comparison for “interpretation of theme or concept” with BROWN GIRL DREAMING, REVOLUTION, and HOW I DISCOVERED POETRY.  Check it out.