t’s time for my favorite yearly post, when I make charts and graphs (only charts this year) breaking down categories of our suggested books. Steven did most of the leg work this year breaking everything into categories, so if you have any issues take it up with him. (Just kidding, just let us know your thoughts in the comments– everything is subjective. Realistic fiction is really taking over this year! Not my favorite genre, but a lot of Newbery contenders here! With nine nonfiction titles suggested, three were history, three were science and three were biography. Where are my animal books? Probably not Newbery- worthy! Titles and breakdown are at the bottom of this post!

• These labels will guide our scheduled Wednesday posts which focus on different topics and can help prioritize your reading. I’ll try to post a separate schedule/ title breakdown later this week.
• September 20- Nonfiction
• September 27- Graphic Novels
• October 4- Poetry
• October 11- Easy Reader/ Short Chapter Books
• October 18- Picture Books
• November 1- Almost YA (ages 13-14)

Categories

• There are three illustrated books and two readers.
• Easy reader and early chapter books is one of our discussion categories, but always a tough category to find Newbery eligible titles in. I think Steven is vying for a winner in. this category one day (but I might be making this up).

Fiction Genres

• Realistic Fiction has the most titles by far, which isn’t a surprise, but typically we see more fantasy and historical fiction. We even usually see more animal fiction!
• Magical realism, humor, and adventure had one title each.

Age Groupings/ Categories

• These age groupings are very general, but give us an idea. The Newbery covers titles reaching kids birth-14, but the majority of winners tend to appeal to the “middle/ elementary crowd” ages 7-11 ish.
• I’d say our labels aren’t perfect but younger skews more Pre-K, middle is the elementary crowd and older would be more junior high age.

Title Breakdown