About Jonathan Hunt

IT’S TIME TO SAY GOODBYE As we wrap up another season of Heavy Medal, we’d like to thank all of our readers for their contributions.  It’s always hard to recognize only a small handful of books every year, but I always feel like we are able to celebrate many more worthy titles here, titles which [...]

Newbery Medal THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN Newbery Honors SPLENDORS AND GLOOMS BOMB THREE TIMES LUCKY Can I just say how pleased I am with this committee?  Really.  I think these are awesome choices.  As I mentioned on the Battle of the Kids’ Books site, I think no other book this year has the combination of [...]

The anticipation of Monday’s announcements is making me giddy and restless.  It’s also making me lose my blogging mojo.  I wrote about potential Newbery books for a third grade audience, but wasn’t happy with it.  Then I wrote about second-guessing the Newbery committee, but decided that wasn’t quite right either. So I’ll just mention that my top four choices are BOMB, CHICKADEE, [...]

With 59 voters, we have the following results . . . BOMB . . . 14 (1st) + 12 (2nd) + 5 (3rd) = 125 SPLENDORS AND GLOOMS . . . 9 (1st) + 6 (2nd) + 9 (3rd) = 68 STARRY RIVER OF THE SKY . . . 3 (1st) + 11 (2nd) + [...]

I know we said we were not doing an online ballot this year, but since we’ve been doing mock nominations throughout the year, the natural and logical conclusion is to vote.  Now keeping in mind that we’ve had just over 30 people participate in each round of voting, we would probably need a single book to [...]

20 people (19 voters) gathered together yesterday afternoon at the Rockridge branch of the Oakland Public Library to discuss our shortlist with the following results. NEWBERY MEDAL           NEWBERY HONORS                     During the discussion, I thought BOMB and SPLENDORS AND GLOOMS emerged [...]

JONATHAN HUNT: Before we have another go at BOMB–I’ve finished reading it again–I want to address two of the other concerns that were raised on previous discussion threads.  First, the epilogue–well, not the whole epilogue, really–the last page where Sheinkin breaks the fourth wall and addresses the reader directly.  On rereading, I didn’t find this [...]

Consensus among best books lists is not necessarily the best indicator of Newbery recognition, and we’re now going to take a look at some books that made just a single list.  Last year, this excercise yielded a Newbery Honor book, BREAKING STALIN’S NOSE, which the Horn Book called and allowed us to save face.  Maybe one [...]

This is essentially a mystery novel, and while the central mystery is what happened to the moon, Lin delivers up little mysteries along the way: Why did Rendi run away from home?  Where did the innkeeper’s son run away to?  Why can no one else hear the moon wailing?  Why are Madame Chang and Mr. [...]

The Bulletin Blue Ribbons are here which means that we have a full complement of best books lists.  Here’s what the overlap looks like . . . 6 lists– THIS IS NOT MY HAT THE FAULT IN OUR STARS CODE NAME VERITY 5 lists– LIAR & SPY AND THEN IT’S SPRING Z IS FOR MOOSE MOONBIRD [...]