Newbery Predictions Yet Again

So this here blog proves useful for recording ALA Youth Media Award Predictions, if nothing else.

Did I gloat last year for correctly rooting for upset/surprise winner Moon Over Manifest? No? Well, let's get that over with: Yeah! Woot! Almost makes up for dissing Neil Gaiman's work hours before the Graveyard Book won a few years ago.

Getting back to business: On the eve of the Award Announcements, perhaps even while the actual decisions are still taking place, I now make my humble predictions. While I read over 130 books eligible for either the Newbery or the Printz, I can't possible list them all here.

However, here are my Top 10 Newbery Picks, in order that I read them:

• Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
• Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt
• Hidden by Helen Frost
• The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskell
• Secrets at Sea by Richard Peck
• The Absolute Value of Mike by Kathryn Erskine
• A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
• The Summer of May by Cecilia Galante
• Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
• The Cheshire Cheese Cat by Carmen Agra Deedy

Here are an additional 20 or so that I've read that I also see as Newbery contenders:

• Hurricane Dancers by Engle, Margarita
• Bless This Mouse by Lowry, Lois
• One Day & One Amazing Morning on Orange Street by Rocklin, Joanne
• Young Fredle by Voight, Cynthia
• The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Birdsall, Jeanne
• Horton Halfpott, or..... by Angleberger, Tom
• Tuesdays at the Castle by George, Jessica Day
• Wonderstruck by Selznick, Brian
• The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman by Wolitzer, Meg
• Pie by Weeks, Sarah
• Eight Keys by Lafleur, Suzanne M
• The Mostly True Story of Jack Barnhill, Kelly
• Dead End in Norvelt by Gantos, Jack
• Junonia by Henkes, Kevin
• Jefferson's Sons by Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker
• True (Sort of) by Hannigan,
• Mo Wren, Lost and Found by Springstubb, Tricia
• Amelia Lost by Fleming, Candace
• Heart and Soul by Nelson, Kadir
• The Trouble with May Amelia by Jennifer Holm

Some Newbery thoughts: Okay for Now is getting all the buzz, and is good (except for that strange ending). But Inside Out and Back Again won me over early in the year and has held up against the competition . However, IOaBA won the National Book Award, which statistically dooms it for the Newbery. My hope for a surprise win is for The Cheshire Cheese Cat or The Summer of May.

Many blogs are predicting Amelia Lost as a Newbery winner, but I don't see why. Sibert for sure, but it didn't give me that Newbery spark.


And now for Printz. I read a lot of titles this year, but simply have no idea what will/should win. Thus, I really only have a top 3:

• Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
• Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
• Where She Went by Gayle Foreman

And here are another 6 that I read that are, in either my opinion or of those of others on the internet, considered contenders:

• Toads and Diamonds by Tomlinson, Heather
• The Girl of Fire & Thorns by Carson, Rae
• The Scorpio Races by Steifvater, Maggie
• The Returning by Hinwood, Christine
• Glow by Ryan, Amy Kathleen
• Paper Covers Rock by Hubbard, Jenny
  

If it all went my way Between Shades of Gray will take home the medal (what a beautifully written story and a history lesson we all need to hear) and, as much as I don't personally agree with it's message/lessons, Beauty Queens is also a masterpiece, so an honor for Libba. Also, a couple of my Newbery picks (Dead End in Norvelt, for one) would also be nice as Printz winners...

As for Caldecott, I've looked at a lot of contenders this year, but for me there is only one book to mention:

Me... Jane by Patrick McDonnell


It's unique, beautiful, got all the details down and, well, it touches my heart, folks.


As for the Coretta Scott King awards - Kadir Nelson's Heart and Soul seems a no-brainer for one or both.
Geisel - Mo Willems and err.. Mo Willems?

Good Night and Good Luck to all!