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Looking Back: 2007
Last year, we began a retrospective series where we revisited the 2005 Newbery crop. This year, we’re going to turn our attention to the 2007 Newbery picks. WHAT WON Susan Patron won for THE HIGHER...
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Picture Books
There is no stipulation that the Newbery be fiction, nor that it be long, though it tends to happen that way. Some exceptions from the lengthy category include a 1973 Honor for FROG AND TOAD TOGETHER,...
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It’s a Small World After All (And in Verse, No Less!)
Over at Calling Caldecott, they recently took time out to consider international picture books that are ineligible. We could probably do something similar here, as there seems to be quite a few...
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The Witch’s Boy
Several of you have mentioned Barnhill’s THE WITCH’S BOY, and our library copies finally hit the shelves recently. I wasn’t a fan of Barnhill’s starred debut THE MOSTLY TRUE STORY OF JACK, and was...
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Top Five
For the past several years, we’ve surveyed you about your “nominations” at various points in the fall, mirroring the process that the real committee follows. We skipped October and are late here in...
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Our Shortlist!
The genesis of this blog was as a discussion platform to build a shortlist for the Mock Newbery discussion I’ve held in Oakland CA for the past (gulp) 11 years.This year we will get together on Sunday...
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It’s a Small World After All (The Prose Edition)
Cynthia Kadohata won the National Book Award last year for THE THING ABOUT LUCK, and she follows that up with another strong book. Lightning didn’t strike twice, however. She doesn’t have the most...
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How we think we read
Over the course of last week, my mind was mostly occupied with the Ferguson decision, and some of the resulting protests here in Oakland. Between that and Tamir Rice, I purposefully limited my exposure...
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The Key That Swallowed Joey Pigza
This is the only book on our shortlist that we have not previously discussed, and while that may have made it something of a surprise, it really shouldn’t have been: the book got five starred reviews...
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Port Chicago 50 Redux
As Jonathan and I start revisiting each of the titles on our mock discussion shortlist (and please do keep commenting on JOEY PIGZA), it seems time to jump back to one of the first titles we introduced...
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Transitional Chapter Books
Since traditional chapter books have spot illustrations, and since some people might consider them picture books instead of illustrated books, I’m going to quote from some of the reviews and read your...
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Off the radar?
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...
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Revolution Redux
First of all, you should know that I am simply not the audience for this book. I find the plot too slow and the characters uninteresting, and the whole thing was kind of a slog to get through–and I...
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The Family Romanov Redux
In the original post on this title, Jonathan and Leonard Kim got into a little back and forth comparing it to REVOLUTION, so it seems apt to take this one up next. How does it compare in prose, in...
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Top Seven
Because of the holidays, this is traditionally a slow week here at Heavy Medal. And that makes it a perfect time for us to trade our final set of nominations, which is a thread that typically has a...
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Crossover Redux
Josh Bell is my name. But Filthy McNasty is my claim to fame. Folks call me that ‘cause my game’s acclaimed, so downright dirty, it’ll put you to shame. My hair is long, my height’s tall. See, I’m...
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Getting ready, whether real or mock
We are nearly done with our “redux” posts of our shortlisted titles, and as you each finish your reading, I encourage you to go back to those posts and add your thoughts. The ALA youth media awards...
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Brown Girl Dreaming
BROWN GIRL DREAMING has six starred reviews, presumably six best of the year lists (where are you Bulletin?), the National Book Award, and it’s placed the highest through our two rounds of unofficial...
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West of the Moon
There is a myth that spring books don’t win awards, and several theories about the myth…that it is a self-fulfilling prophecy because publishers save their better books for the fall, or is because...
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The Madman of Piney Woods
Our final book to reconsider is THE MADMAN OF PINEY WOODS. The first time around Nina rightly noted that despite a leisurely pace, the storytelling elements–plot, character, setting–make this a worthy...
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