Egg on our faces?
Last year we accurately predicted that When You Trap a Tiger was a contender for Newbery recognition, and it won top honors. We also reviewed or buzzed most of the eventual winners, including All Thirteen, A Wish in the Dark, and Fighting Words. We buzzed New Kid in 2020, The Book of Boy in 2019, and Long Way Down in 2018 and they all ended up as honor books or gold medals. In 2017, we predicted three books that made the list.
This year . . . was a big bust. None of our Buzzed books ended up on the Big Three (Newbery, Caldecott, or Prinz), and only Fallout received any mention at all (a place on the Sibert Honor list for nonfiction). Most of the winners and honor books we haven’t even reviewed, with the exception of the Sidney Taylor Award for books relating to the Jewish experience. Nicky & Vera, The Genius under the Table, and Linked earned honor medals.
Two big winners we did review:
Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre won the Coretta Scott King Award for illustration and for text, as well as the Sibert Award for middle-grade nonfiction and a Caldecott honor.
Watercress was one of this year’s big scores, beginning with the Asian/Pacific American Award and going on to win a place on the Newbery Honor list plus the Caldecott gold medal for outstanding illustration.
Drum roll for the 2022 Caldecott and Newbery winners
After Watercress, the Caldecott honor books are
- Have You Ever Seen a Flower?
- Mel Fell
- Unspeakable
- Wonder Walkers
And what about those Newberys? This year’s honor titles are
- Red, White, and Whole
- A Snake Falls to Earth
- Too Bright to See (I predicted that one would be a step too far for the committee; obviously I was wrong)
- Watercress
The big winner:
- The Last Cuentista
The Last Cuentista has appeared on many “best of” lists during 2021 but seemed a long shot for the Newbery. One reason is that it’s science fiction, a seldom-favored genre, and the other is that it’s classified in library catalogues as YA, not “J” for Juvenile. (On the other hand, Everything Sad Is Untrue, which we buzzed as a Newbery candidate last year, won the top prize for the Prinz Award for YA literature. You can’t second-guess these people!)
The Last Cuentista sounds interesting, and we will take a look. We have our work cut out for us at Redeemed Reader, but over the coming weeks we hope to review most of these top prize winners. As always, we’re reading ahead for you!
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I read THe Last Cuentista this week and enjoyed it. I can definitely see why it was chosen: 100 year Newbery that looks to the future and a theme about the importance of storytelling. THe characters are well-rounded and vivid, and the theme of sacrifice is beautiful. I did feel a bit sad, though, because the book is so dependent upon the need for stories. SO many wonderful myths, books and authors were referenced throughout THe Last Cuentista, but, of course, no reference to the Scripture in any way. I did not expect that. HOwever, if you’re writing about all sorts of mythology, I think you could include at least a mention of the Bible. ANyhow, that can generate much discussion, I’m sure. Science fiction is rarely recognized, so I think they made a good choice. THe book’s a lot like THe Giver but from a different perspective.
I am now reading A SNake Falls to Earth, which is so unusual and fascinating. I hope to read Watercress if it becomes available in audio. I think the committee did well, even if the titles were totally unexpected. I do wish Starfish had received an honor, but it did win a Printz honor. It seems a bit young for Printz but maybe not. Very interesting.
I agree with you about Starfish, Meredith–it seemed much more MG to me. Thank you for your thoughts about The Last Cuentistia–more than one of us have it on our library reserve list, but there will be a wait. We’ll review it as quickly as possible!
ANd, I didn’t mean to imply that Scripture is mythology, but that would be a way for a secular author to introduce it in a secular book. THat way would be better than nothing. Sorry about that.