Mock Newbery 2026 discussion

Our Mock Newbery winner is:


Starfish by Lisa Fipps



Honor Selections:


Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca


The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo


ALA will be announcing this years Newbery awards on Monday, Jan. 24, 2022, at 8 a.m. CT.

https://ala.unikron.com


How do you feel about our selections?
What do you think the Newbery committee will choose tomorrow?

agree!

Very excited that Red, White and Whole was an honor selection! A little surprised Starfish was chosen as a Printz Honor and very glad it was.
Anyone read A Snake Falls to Earth?? That was a dark horse selection!

I was in B & N looking for Watercress last night-inventory said they had one copy- a person looked with me for 20 minutes- we could not find it. Last Friday in the public library looking for Last Cuentista - librarian could not find their only copy lol

Never heard of A Snake Falls to Earth - sounds interesting. Still need to read Elatsoe.

Shocking that Starfish is in Printz territory- editor had Fipps rewrite to make it middle level- Fipps said in an interview that she had to cut out a lot of content to do that -big surprise!

Very disappointed in the Newbery selection this year. None of our favorites made the list at all. And most of the honors I have never even heard of.

I'm reading The Last Cuentista right now. So far, it's great! I LOVED Red, White, and Whole, so I'm pleased with that. Starfish seems a bit young for the Printz. I loved the book, as someone who was fat shamed as a child/teen/young adult.

I was thrilled with this year’s newbery. I’ve read all but one of the honors and Last Cuensenita was in my top 5 books of 2021.

I’ve been listening to The Last Cuentista audiobook after seeing it on a couple of mock lists. So excited it got the medal. I was most excited by Red, White, and Whole getting an honor as this was a story that touched my heart.

Interesting that people mention books as skewing "young" for Printz. One of my favorites, Navigating Early, was described the same way when it received a Printz Honor in 2014. (I was really excited, because I was there.) Do books have to have edgier language and sex to be considered YA? Just wondering.

I am very happy with the Newbery selections overall. Definitely overjoyed about The Last Cuentista winning the Gold. I am not thrilled with Watercress winning a Newbery. Eventually, I will warm up to the win but I am not okay with it at the moment. Caldecott yes, Newbery, no.