Take Five: Newbery Picks

You know what’s fun? Being wrong publicly, in print. Now, I’m not saying my choices here for the 2025 Newbery medals WILL BE WRONG. I mean, they’re my picks—I want them to win. I think they deserve to win. But what are the odds I’m right on anything more than MAYBE one? I’ve already put my Printz picks out there, so may as well hit Newbery too.

Longtime readers of the blog may remember that I used to cover almost exclusively YA. I switched to more middle grade many years ago, partially because I’ve worked in elementary schools for almost a decade now, but mainly because there is so much great middle grade out there that it’s just dominating my TBR. And, of course, this year has been our Mind the Middle project, so I’ve focused on books for that age group more than ever. To create this post, I picked what ended up to be ten guesses for this medal and then had to be ruthless and chop it to five, because this is a Take Five list and I am nothing if not an ardent rule follower. BUT THEN, I decided, you know what? I make the rules for everything I write here on the blog. So, yes, I stuck to five, but next week you’ll see my other five. Because I say so.

Careful readers will see I’ve picked one book to be on both my Printz AND Newbery lists. It could happen!

All descriptions from the publishers. If I reviewed the book, there’s a link to that. Feel free to leave a comment and let us know your picks!

Not Quite a Ghost by Anne Ursu (ISBN-13: 9780062275158 Publisher: HarperCollins Publication date: 01/16/2024, Ages 8-12)

From the award-winning author of The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy comes an unforgettable and deeply personal story of the ghosts that surround us—and the ones we carry inside.

The house seemed to sit apart from the others on Katydid Street, silent and alone, like it didn’t fit among them. For Violet Hart—whose family is about to move into the house on Katydid Street—very little felt like it fit anymore. Like their old home, suddenly too small since her mother remarried and the new baby arrived. Or Violet’s group of friends, which, since they started middle school, isn’t enough for Violet’s best friend, Paige. Everything seemed to be changing at once. But sometimes, Violet tells herself, change is okay.

That is, until Violet sees her new room. The attic bedroom in their new house is shadowy, creaky, and wrapped in old yellow wallpaper covered with a faded tangle of twisting vines and sickly flowers. And then, after moving in, Violet falls ill—and does not get better. As days turn into weeks without any improvement, her family growing more confused and her friends wondering if she’s really sick at all, she finds herself spending more time alone in the room with the yellow wallpaper, the shadows moving in the corners, wrapping themselves around her at night. 

And soon, Violet starts to suspect that she might not be alone in the room at all.

Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice by Anna Lapera (ISBN-13: 9781646143719 Publisher: Levine Querido Publication date: 03/05/2024, Ages 10-14)

For fans of Donna Barba Higuera’s Lupe Wong Won’t Dance and Aida Salazar’s The Moon Within comes Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice – a contemporary middle grade novel full of spunk and activist heart.

Life sucks when you’re twelve. You’re not a little kid, but you’re also not an adult, and all the grown-ups in your life talk about your body the minute it starts getting a shape. And what sucks even more than being a Chinese-Filipino-American-Guatemalan who can’t speak any ancestral language well? When almost every other girl in school has already gotten her period except for you and your two besties.

Manuela “Mani” Semilla wants two things: To get her period, and to thwart her mom’s plan of taking her to Guatemala on her thirteenth birthday. If her mom’s always going on about how dangerous it is in Guatemala, and how much she sacrificed to come to this country, then why should Mani even want to visit?

But one day, up in the attic, she finds secret letters between her mom and her Tía Beatriz, who, according to family lore, died in a bus crash before Mani was born. But the letters reveal a different story. Why did her family really leave Guatemala? What will Mani learn about herself along the way? And how can the letters help her to stand up against the culture of harassment at her own school?

(Amanda’s review here.)

The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly (ISBN-13: 9780063337312 Publisher: HarperCollins Publication date: 03/05/2024, Ages 8-12)

A FINALIST FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

When twelve-year-old Michael Rosario meets a mysterious boy from the future, his life is changed forever. From bestselling author Erin Entrada Kelly, winner of the Newbery Medal for Hello, Universe and a Newbery Honor for We Dream of Space, this novel explores themes of family, friendship, trust, and forgiveness. The First State of Being is for fans of Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me.

It’s August 1999. For twelve-year-old Michael Rosario, life at Fox Run Apartments in Red Knot, Delaware, is as ordinary as ever—except for the looming Y2K crisis and his overwhelming crush on his fifteen-year-old babysitter, Gibby. But when a disoriented teenage boy named Ridge appears out of nowhere, Michael discovers there is more to life than stockpiling supplies and pining over Gibby.

It turns out that Ridge is carefree, confident, and bold, things Michael wishes he could be. Unlike Michael, however, Ridge isn’t where he belongs. When Ridge reveals that he’s the world’s first time traveler, Michael and Gibby are stunned but curious. As Ridge immerses himself in 1999—fascinated by microwaves, basketballs, and malls—Michael discovers that his new friend has a book that outlines the events of the next twenty years, and his curiosity morphs into something else: focused determination. Michael wants—no, needs—to get his hands on that book. How else can he prepare for the future? But how far is he willing to go to get it?

A story of time travel, friendship, found family, and first loves, this thematically rich novel is distinguished by its voice, character development, setting, and exploration of the issues that resonate with middle grade readers.

Louder Than Hunger by John Schu (ISBN-13: 9781536229097 Publisher: Candlewick Press Publication date: 03/19/2024, Ages 10-14)

Revered teacher, librarian, and story ambassador John Schu explores anorexia—and self-expression as an act of survival—in a wrenching and transformative novel-in-verse.

But another voice inside me says,
We need help.
We’re going to die.

Jake volunteers at a nursing home because he likes helping people. He likes skating and singing, playing Bingo and Name That Tune, and reading mysteries and comics aloud to his teachers. He also likes avoiding people his own age . . . and the cruelty of mirrors . . . and food. Jake has read about kids like him in books—the weird one, the outsider—and would do anything not to be that kid, including shrink himself down to nothing. But the less he eats, the bigger he feels. How long can Jake punish himself before he truly disappears? A fictionalized account of the author’s experiences and emotions living in residential treatment facilities as a young teen with an eating disorder, Louder than Hunger is a triumph of raw honesty. With a deeply personal afterword for context, this much-anticipated verse novel is a powerful model for muffling the destructive voices inside, managing and articulating pain, and embracing self-acceptance, support, and love.

The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman by Gennifer Choldenko (ISBN-13: 9781524718923 Publisher: Random House Children’s Books Publication date: 06/11/2024, Ages 10-13)

Readers will be rooting for a happy ending for Hank in Newbery-Honor-winner Gennifer Choldenko’s gripping story of a boy struggling to hold his family together when his mom doesn’t come home.

When eleven-year-old Hank’s mom doesn’t come home, he takes care of his toddler sister, Boo, like he always does. But it’s been a week now. They are out of food and mom has never stayed away this long… Hank knows he needs help, so he and Boo seek out the stranger listed as their emergency contact.

But asking for help has consequences. It means social workers, and a new school, and having to answer questions about his mom that he’s been trying to keep secret. And if they can’t find his mom soon, Hank and Boo may end up in different foster homes—he could lose everything.

Gennifer Choldenko has written a heart-wrenching, healing, and ultimately hopeful story about how complicated family can be. About how you can love someone, even when you can’t rely on them. And about the transformative power of second chances.

(Amanda’s review here.)

Filed under: Take 5