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 may now depend on us to carry the torch.  And for me, it’s always about the journey as much as the destination.  Happy reading during the coming year and we’ll see you again after Labor Day!

ALSC NOTABLE CHILDREN’S BOOKS 

At some point today, ALSC will probably post Notables here, and we’ll be able to see many of those titles we had hoped to see on Monday.  Keeping my fingers crossed for about a dozen erstwhile Newbery contenders.

2014 NEWBERY READING LIST

Here is an early reading list.  Please to discuss these–or bring other titles to our attention–in the comments.

JINX by Sage Blackwood . . . Three starred reviews.  I know nothing about this one except that it looks like a longish fantasy that straddles middle grade and young adult. 

EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION by Tonya Bolden . . .  Three starred reviews.  Here’s your friendly writer of color alert!  Oh, did you mean writer of color of fiction?  Tsk. Tsk.  

COURAGE HAS NO COLOR by Tanya Lee Stone . . . Three starred reviews.  This one could be called ALMOST PARATROOPERS.  I liked it, but I’m trying to decide why my expectations are different from what the book delivered.  Was I led to believe that there would be some actual combat in this book?  I don’t know. 

ONE CAME HOME by Amy Timberlake . . . Three starred reviews.  Saw some brief discussion on Betsy’s blog about the ending, but I haven’t read it yet.

NAVIGATING EARLY by Clare Vanderpool . . . Three starred reviews.  I like this one a lot, but I think there are an *awful* lot of coincidences that happen in the final stretch of the book, and I’ll be curious to see whether they bother more people on a rereading.

HOKEY POKEY by Jerry Spinelli . . . Two starred reviews.  Monica gave this one a positive review and Eric has mentioned somewhere that he liked it, but I’m 40 pages in and finding it unreadable.  Does it get better?

And while I do remember that this is a Newbery blog, I have to be excited about a little history making, this year, in the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott with Jon Klassen’s gold and silver. It’s been done only once in Caldecott history before (1947 by Leonard Weisgard), and only once in Newbery (1968 E.L. Konigsburg)*. We’ll be celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Caldecott this year at the ALA Annual conference with a Preconference and other programs, and a special celebration at the Newbery/Caldecott awards banquet. Several low-cost ways to attend, especially for members, so don’t miss it.

Jonathan and I will post through this week and wrap it up for the season. I know many of you are dished out on this, but…knowing what we now know, and knowing that Newbery committee members can divulge their own personal opinions but not the committee discussion…what question might you ask of a Newbery committee member this week? (Let’s see if any answer….)

*(This text corrected at 7am Jan 29th, after Travis Jonker notes my error in the first comment below.)

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 accessibility and literary merit that THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN does and it doesn’t surprise me one bit that the committee was able to build consensus around it.  THREE TIMES LUCKY is also sure to be a crowd pleaser.  And both SPLENDORS AND GLOOMS and BOMB were strong favorites here.  Please share your reaction to either the Newbery picks or the Youth Media Announcements.

So I’ll just mention that my top four choices are BOMB, CHICKADEE, NO CRYSTAL STAIR, and TWELVE KINDS OF ICE in no particular order. I don’t know whether any of them will be announced on Monday, but I sure hope so.  There are an additional dozen titles that I would also be quite pleased to see.

When we pressed Thom Barthelmess for his Newbery picks earlier in the year, he graciously declined.

If I learned anything from my Newbery experience it’s to trust the process, to believe that the inarguable dilligence of those 15 readers will produce the proper result, more or less by definition. So, rather than suggesting a title, I’ll reaffirm my faith in the 2013 Newbery Committee and promise to openly examine their choices, looking for evidence of excellence.

Picturing myself in that frame of mind…we all know what titles Jonathan and I have felt strongly for or against this year. (And you can find many of them at the just unveiled BoB contenders list) But what titles might I be the least surprised to end up surprised about?

TWELVE KINDS OF ICE by Ellen Bryan Obed is one we didn’t give a lot of bandwith to here, at least in comparison to its buzz. We considered it for our shortlist, but a late pub date and unlikeliness to be in public library collections knocked it for us. From a marketing perspective, this is a Holiday Gift Book, and so easy to overlook, but Obed’s writing is clean, playful, rhythmic, understated, and clearly technically distinguished. My one question is whether the “interpretation of theme or concept” is as distinguished as others this year for a child audience. To me, the full emotional punch of the story resides in an adult nostalgia. Still: such strong writing, I like how it holds up against other fare this year.

SON by Lois Lowry. I haven’t said anything about this title this year because…I didn’t think it was very good. It felt thin to me, and–much more than TWELVE KINDS OF ICE–to depend on an adult sensibility (of parenthood) for full appreciation. Yet it made 3 “best” lists this year so clearly I’m not getting something. Could this be one that someone could totally turn my head around on?

THREE TIMES LUCKY by Shelia Turnage. I started re-reading this one recently and have to admit its quick charm, lively style and strength of story. It’s a book that respects its audience’s desires and delivers with enthusiasm. I didn’t finish my re-read because I got bored, but…while I still see many other stronger titles this year, I can see this one being a consensus builder.

I am still harboring my own fondness for MIGHTY MISS MALONE, both Horvaths, WONDER SHOW and FOURMILE, but walking into the discussion based on the discussion we’ve had here, I’d already be ready to start setting those aside. Even though the Newbery Criteria keep us from comparing our eligible titles to titles of previous years, I do hold in my mind my own favorite Newbery winners and honors of the past, and as I moved forward towards voting I would be holding my choices up against those to make sure I am voting from the most thoughtful, rather than wishful, place. Which ones this year will be the ones to stand up there with THE WESTING GAME, THE THIEF, MRS. FRISBY & THE RATS OF NIMH, ONE CRAZY SUMMER, A LONG WAY FROM CHICAGO….

“I don’t know what it is, but it is gonna be great“

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) + 5 (3rd) =55

THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN . . . 4 (1st) + 7 (2nd) + 8 (3rd) = 53

LIAR AND SPY . . . 6 (1st) + 6 (2nd) + 5 (3rd) = 52

TWELVE KINDS OF ICE . . . 4 (1st) + 4 (2nd) + 8 (3rd) = 44

THE MIGHTY MISS MALONE . . . 3 (1st) + 4 (3rd) = 20

CHICKADEE . . . 2 (1st) + 2 (2nd) + 1 (3rd) =16

MR. AND MRS. BUNNY . . . 1 (1st) + 2 (2nd) + 3 (3rd) = 16

WONDER . . . 1 (1st) + 2 (2nd) + 3 (3rd) = 16

SUMMER OF THE GYPSY MOTHS . . . 3 (1st) = 12

SERAPHINA . . . 2 (1st) + 1 (3rd) = 10

CROW . . . 2 (1st) = 8

JAKE AND LILY . . . 1 (1st) + 1 (2nd) = 7

TITANIC . . . 2 (2nd) = 6

THE LIONS OF LITTLE ROCK  . . . 1 (2nd) + 1 (3rd) = 5

MOONBIRD . . . 2 (3rd) = 4

EACH KINDNESS  . . . 1 (2nd) = 3

NO CRYSTAL STAIR . . . 1 (2nd) = 3

THREE TIMES LUCKY . . . 1 (2nd) = 3

WOODEN BONES . . . 1 (2nd) = 3

BENEATH A METH MOON . . . 1 (3rd) = 2

CHILD OF THE MOUNTAINS . . . 1 (3rd) = 2

GOBLIN SECRETS  . . . 1 (3rd) = 2

JEPP WHO DEFIED THE STARS . . . 1 (3rd) = 2

WATER SINGS BLUE . . . 1 (3rd) = 2

These results offer up the opportunity for us to have a conversation about honor books.  I see three scenarios.

1.  We name SPLENDORS AND GLOOMS as the sole honor book.  This is truly the runner-up, but nobody likes only one honor book, especially in such a rich year.

2.  We could also take the next three titles clustered together–STARRY RIVER OF THE SKY, THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN, and LIAR & SPY.  This would mean four honor books, and it would make more people happy.

3.  We could reach even further down for TWELVE KINDS OF ICE.  Some people would feel like the prestige of the honor is significantly diluted with five honor books, but TWELVE KINDS OF ICE would give us a second outside-the-box title in our line-up.

What would you do?

Meanwhile, in some comment that I can no longer find, I promised a “Nonfiction Smackdown.”  Building our shortlist, there was very strong showing of potential nonfiction candidates that Jonathan and I talked about including.  We chose BOMB and MOONBIRD as two of the strongest that also exemplified different kinds of nonfiction narratives.  But, if we’d let ourselves and go whole-hog with a nonfiction-only shortlist, it might have looked something like this.  (The first four are YALSA nonfiction finalists and I’m just listing them randomly after that.)   Talking about nonfiction specifically with only the Newbery criteria in mind is an interesting exercise that doesn’t necessarily do full justice to the book.  But each of these below succeeds primarily because of the literary strengths of their texts.  Which ones (okay: pick three) could you make the best stand for at a Mock Newbery?

BOMB by Steven Sheinkin / Roaring Brook Press.  Have we exhausted this one yet? Most recent discussions at Mock Newbery Results and More Bomb.

MOONBIRD by Phillip Hoose / FSG.  The discussion at our Mock Newbery detailed the uneveness in arc and focus that made this feel weaker than Sheinkin, but I still think that Hoose’s sentence-level narrative skills might be the top of this list, and his source notes provided exactly what I felt Sheinkin’s lacked.  For a previous post/disucssion, see Jonathan’s thoughts.

TITANIC: Voices for the Disaster, by Deborah Hopkinson / Scholastic.  This one got some discussion at Disasters and Hoaxes, …and then didn’t quite make our shortlist, so probably has not gotten it’s due yet on this blog.  Of all the titles presented here, this is the one where the author most “disappears” in a completely effective way….reminding me of our discussions about Hoose’s CLAUDETTE COLVIN, noting the skill in how to select and present other people’s words.

WE’VE GOT A JOB  by Cynthia Levinson / Peachtree Press. First discussed here, this one also narrowly missed our shortlist, but keeps cropping up on people’s favorites.  It’s a fabulous read, and my own perspective needs some more tempering, because I keep wanting to compare it to previous years books on similar subjects that I think were stronger.   The author stays very behind the scenes here too, and that might be my only criticism when comparing this to others here…that even with TITANIC I had more of a sense of who the author was, and their angle.  That is really nitpicking on my part, as the voice of these four young people who “did their job” comes through loud and clear.

TEMPLE GRANDIN  by Sy Montgomery  / Houghton Mifflin. First discussed here, and picked up in comparison to other nonfiction titles frequently thereafter, this one still stands out to me for engaging narrative.  Each chapter has a clear arc, and we have a sense of Montgomery shaping this story for readers.  I said something in a previous discussion about the sections from Temple’s POV being based on interviews with Temple, which was not exactly right…  Montgomery clearly interviewed Grandin’s childhood friends, but also relied on several books by Grandin (or co-authored by Grandin).  With this, and others, if I were on the committee I’d have looked for “experts” on this material, or at least browsed some of the source material myself, to get a sense of how Montgomery has adapted her narrative.

MASTER OF DECEIT by Marc Aronson  / Candlewick.  This has not gotten a lot of discussion here, and I suspect that many have left it aside assuming that it’s “YA,” but it’s the perfect counterpoint for discussion with BOMB.  While I share Sarah Flowers’ concerns as brought up at crossreferencing, I ultimately tend to Mark’s side on the debate.  And while the concerns might keep me from casting a ballot for this one, I might have likely nominated it to get it on the table for discussion.   Aronson’s narrative shows how writers can take this genre beyond a “just the facts, ma’am” approach in a way that elevates the whole discussion for his audience, and engages them in it.  He oversteps, but no other book on this list, this year, is quite so daring.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN & FREDERICK DOUGLASS by Russell Freedman / Clarion.  Missing from the photo above because I’ve lent it! Mark called it “pointless” [update: and now regrets it], but I still find it to be one of the stronger nonfiction titles this year, and a perfect entry-point to this part of history for the upper-elementary audience who’s been introduced to it, but deserves a more engaging narrative than the text-book versions.   It also stands next to TEMPLE GRANDIN in my eye for breadth of story balanced with brevity of text.

INVINCIBLE MICROBE by Jim Murphy and ALISON BLANK / Clarion.  A perfect example of nonfiction narrative that sucks the reader in, and keeps us engaged by keeping the topic lively…taking the story of TB through science, politics, and social history.  Murphy and Blank’s source notes stand against Hoose’s (and Aronson’s) as exemplars of how the back-text can extend and support the main text.

THE GIANT by Jim Murphy / Scholastic.  Okay, no one else is getting double-billing here, but Murphy’s got two humdingers out this year, and we barely mentioned either of them (though we did get to hear from Murphy on this one).  While INVINCIBLE MICROBE might seemed to be the “heftier” or “more important” story of these two…from a purely literary perspective I think that GIANT is the stronger.  Murphy plays the subtext of the “hoax” to it’s full advantage…he starts Chapter One in his usual “you are there in the moment” style (which he does so well, often relying on the weather–a documentable fact–to make you feel like you are physically there) , relating a story that was related in his sources…and which turns out to be a story a completely manufactured moment.

And…what have I left out?   I’d have actually liked to include NO CRYSTAL STAIR in this discussion, because the elements that we’re considering when we talk about nonfiction for the Newbery are almost all present there too, and it still tops my list of anything in this post.  But figuring that might muddy the discussion too much, I’m leaving it out.

What then, would I pitch for as my top three here?  I have to take a leap of faith with most of these, not having looked at them so carefully as BOMB or MOONBIRD.  And while acknowledging BOMB’s strengths and likely lead, I have to stand by my still considered concerns for it in my first ballot and put my points behind titles I feel are due at least discussion of an honor.  So:

1. MOONBIRD.  A leap, since I acknowledge its weakness, but I’m going to assume that others would have revealed plenty too in discussion. When I think of what a distinguished nonfiction narrative voice sounds like, this is it.

2. TEMPLE GRANDIN.  For overall package, and engaging voice.

3. THE GIANT.  Just edges out several others there (notably TITANIC), but think it’s uniquely strong and likely to be overlooked.

It is important that (a) you only vote from the following list and that (b) you number your books 1-2-3 because it is a weighted ballot.  Failure to comply will nullify your vote–and we wouldn’t want that to happen, would we?

(21) LIAR & SPY

(20) BOMB

(20) SPLENDORS AND GLOOMS

(17) THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN

(13) STARRY RIVER OF THE SKY

(12) WONDER

(10) MOONBIRD

(9) NO CRYSTAL STAIR

(8) TWELVE KINDS OF ICE

(8) TEMPLE GRANDIN

(8) THE MIGHTY MISS MALONE

(8) THREE TIMES LUCKY

(7) SUMMER OF THE GYPSY MOTHS

(7) MR. AND MRS. BUNNY

(6) EACH KINDNESS

(6) CHICKADEE

(5) WE’VE GOT A JOB

(4) PALACE OF STONE

(4) CODE NAME VERITY

(3) JEPP, WHO DEFIED THE STARS

(3) ONE FOR THE MURPHYS

(3) CHILD OF THE MOUNTAINS

(2) THE LIONS OF LITTLE ROCK

(2) SERAPHINA

(2) WATER SINGS BLUE

(2) TITANIC

(2) KINDRED SOULS

(2) THE GREAT UNEXPECTED

(2) A BLACK HOLE IS NOT A HOLE

(2) THE MIGHTY MARS ROVERS

(1) BENEATH A METH MOON

(1) THE HUMMING ROOM

(1) ABRAHAM LINCOLN & FREDERICK DOUGLASS

(1) REMARKABLE

(1) CROW

(1) DUMPLING DAYS

(1) SHADOW ON THE MOUNTAIN

(1) DANGER GOES BESERK

(1) SAME SUN HERE

(1) WOODEN BONES

(1) THE SEVEN TALES OF TRINKET

(1) THE BROKEN LANDS

(1) STEP GENTLY OUT

(1) SON

(1) JAKE & LILY

(1) GOBLIN SECRETS

You do not need to provide a justification for each book, but I will do so in order to make my thinking process more transparent.

1.  BOMB . . . Still the most distinguished book at the top of our nomination list.  I could place others over BOMB, but they don’t seem to have enough support to beat the five middle grade novels clustered at the top.

2.  CHICKADEE . . . I’m eschewing MOONBIRD and NO CRYSTAL STAIR this time around, hoping the late surge of love for CHICKADEE can carry this into the top echelon.

3.  TWELVE KINDS OF ICE . . . This gained a substantial number of readers between our November nominations and our December nominations, and if that trend continues than I think we could see this one, too, move into contention.

Shall we set a deadline?  All votes should be in by this coming Tuesday morning.

This one hasn’t gotten a stand-alone post from us yet.  Jonathan headlined it at his Louise Erdrich post, but most of the resulting comments ended up being about THE ROUND HOUSE (which will be the first thing I read following this Newbery season).   He brought it up again at 2012 Best Books Outliers, but no one bit. Following our Mock Newbery, as I look at my shelves and think back to our discussion, this is the one title we passed over for our shortlist that I think would have stood its own.  So let’s talk about CHICKADEE.

In our first blogging year at Heavy Medal (then with co-host Sharon McKellar), we chose THE PORCUPINE YEAR as our Mock Winner. I wrote, of our discussion:

An incredible example of historical fiction, with totally believable characters–some of the most memorable and convincing characters of any of our books. The intertwining of daily details with a strongly emotional long arc allow humor and minor triumphs to support the readers through the transformative narrative.  …[this book] stayed with me more than others, and months later I continue to think about it. It’s strengths are palpable, even from a distance. 

I feel the same way about CHICKADEE, though I think it’s even stronger than the PORCUPINE YEAR.  It is a “fully satisfying” book in every respect: plot, pacing, voice, character, setting…  we talked in our discussion Sunday a lot about whether any given book did everything well that it was supposed to do, and this one does.  I appreciate the humor with which the not-very-funny plot is developed, setting an approachable tone for young readers.  I see the audience for this book as reaching from that precociously-reading younger set… the 8 or 9 year old who is still emotionally very young but can eagerly down a chapter book…to the 11 or 12 year old who will appreciate the humor (in which kids sometimes best adults) and strong sense of adventure, and may be well-served by the approachability of a predictable story structure and arc.

Compare this to STARRY RIVER OF THE SKY; THE MIGHTY MISS MALONE; THREE TIMES LUCKY; SUMMER OF THE GYPSY MOTHS…in each case I feel like this one is stronger in at least one regard (in characterization, in plot, in setting, in theme) and ultimately holds together in “every element pertinent to it“.  In the end though, what stays with me most is Erdrich’s voice, the sentence level writing: it is lyrical but natural, fluid, evocative, funny, and pleasurable to read aloud.