Mock Newbery 2026 discussion

It was a stellar year for publications and there were a lot of wonderful Newbery contenders.

Our final vote has awarded the Mock Newbery to:



The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary D. Schmidt


With Honors to:




Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow

The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh



Do you agree with our voting?

What do you think the 2024 committee will decide?

What books did your local voting choose, if you held a Mock Newbery?

The Labors of Hercules Beal is Gary D. Schmidt at his best. I will be thrilled if it wins a Newbery next Monday.

Cool opportunity to watch a Mock Newbery that models the actual committee discussion from School Library Journal: https://www.slj.com/event/whats-it-re...

Link to Heavy Medal's list: https://heavymedal.slj.com/2023/12/12...

Kristen -

It would be awesome if you were willing to share the goodreads results to the ALSC Blog's Mock Election Results page at https://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2024-mo...

Just fill out the form at https://airtable.com/appxKWoVfIG6Okzd...

Yay! I held off on voting this time because I still have two books to read from the final round of voting. So excited for Monday!

I have been rooting for Gary to bring home the gold since THE WEDNESDAY WARS, which remains way up on my all-time top-ten. I would be over the moon if HERCULES does it. And I really hope SIMON does earn a silver medal. But now I am going back to reread National Book Award finalist GATHER, which got no traction here, but was my favorite, most memorable read of 2023.

Richie wrote: "I have been rooting for Gary to bring home the gold since THE WEDNESDAY WARS, which remains way up on my all-time top-ten. I would be over the moon if HERCULES does it. And I really hope SIMON does..."

Gather is one of the best books of 2023. It has barely been mentioned in any groups which is unfortunate. It would be cool if it swooped in and received an honor. Or even the gold.