- Kelly H.
- Wednesday, January 26, 2022
I'm feeling pretty proud of myself right now. With this year marking the 100th anniversary of the John Newbery Medal -- the ultimate honor in children's books -- I decided to participate in a mock process to select the winning title.
And I did it! I predicted the book that would become the winner of this year's Newbery Award.
Each year more than 5,000 children's books are considered for the Newbery, which is awarded to "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children." This year's winner is The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera.
Two former Newbery panelists led "Heavy Medal," a School Library Journal blog dedicated to selecting a non-official award winner. I read the top 15 titles chosen by blog readers, and The Last Cuentista was my choice for the winner. The Heavy Medal voters didn't see it that way. Instead, they chose a book that I liked, but didn't pick as one of my top five.
When I looked at the cover of The Last Cuentista -- which translates as "The Last Storyteller" -- I didn't expect to find a space story. But that's exactly what I got...and more. It's the tale of 12-year-old Petra, whose family is chosen to leave Earth to avoid an out-of-control Halley's Comet. But things go horribly wrong during the nearly 400-year trip to their new home on the planet Sagan. When Petra awakens from a hibernation-like state, her parents and brother are missing, and the other children in her pod know themselves only by Zeta names. Petra -- who is now known as Zeta-1 -- appears to be the only one who remembers her life on Earth, and she finds herself drawing on the stories told by her grandmother as she plans for her future.
My connection to the Newbery Award goes back to my childhood -- not quite all 100 years, but close enough. Two of my favorite books of all time are Newbery winners: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle won the Newbery in 1963, and From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg won in 1968. I've read both books many, many times.
Named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery, the Newbery Award was the first children's book award in the world. It is given annually to a book published for children up to age 14 in the previous year. The author must be an American citizen or a resident of the United States. Fiction, non-fiction and poetry books all are considered.
In addition to the Newbery Award, up to five Newbery Honor books also are named. This year there were four: Red, White and Whole by Rajani LaRocca; A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger; Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff; and Watercress by Andrea Wang. To be honest, I wasn't quite as successful in choosing the honor books: I went 0-for-4. However, most of the books I chose did win other awards.
You can find this year's honorees below.