Mock Newbery 2022

 We are going to be highlighting the best in children's literature and competing for the upcoming Newbery medal. 

The 2021 New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books

 

Mock Caldecott 2022: Red by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

 

In this beautifully detailed picture book, a fox goes through a 

range of emotions.  -- fear, love, anger, and more-- through the use of vivid color.

Titles to Watch Out For!

 

Kaleidoscope by Brian Selznich

 

A ship. A garden. A library. A key. In Kaleidoscope, the incomparable Brian Selznick presents the story of two people bound to each other through time and space, memory and dreams. At the center of their relationship is a mystery about the nature of grief and love which will look different to each reader. Kaleidoscope is a feat of storytelling that illuminates how even the wildest tales can help us in the hardest times.

Mock Pura Belpre Areli Is a Dreamer by Areli Morales

 

Mock Pura Belpre: Coquí in the City by Nomar Perez

 

Miguel's pet frog, Coquí, is always with him: as he greets his neighbors in San Juan, buys quesitos from the panadería, and listens to his abuelo's story about meeting baseball legend Roberto Clemente. Then Miguel learns that he and his parents are moving to the U.S. mainland, which means leaving his beloved grandparents, home in Puerto Rico, and even Coquí behind. Life in New York City is overwhelming, with unfamiliar buildings, foods, and people. But when he and Mamá go exploring, they find a few familiar sights that remind them of home, and Miguel realizes there might be a way to keep a little bit of Puerto Rico with him--including the love he has for Coquí--wherever he goes.

Mock Pura Belpre 2022: The Cot in the Living Room by Hilda Eunice Burgos and Gaby D'Alessandro

 

A young Dominican American girl in New York City moves from jealousy to empathy as her parents babysit children whose families work overnight shifts in this honest and warm picture book debut.

Night after night, a young girl watches her mami set up a cot in the living room for guests in their Washington Heights apartment, like Raquel (who's boring) and Edgardo (who gets crumbs everywhere). She resents that they get the entire living room with a view of the George Washington Bridge, while all she gets is a tiny bedroom with a view of her sister (who snores). Until one night when no one comes, and it's finally her chance! But as it turns out, sleeping on the cot in the living room isn't all she thought it would be.

With charming text by Hilda Eunice Burgos and whimsical illustrations by Gaby D'Alessandro, The Cot in the Living Room is a celebration of the ways a Dominican American community takes care of one another while showing young readers that sometimes the best way to be a better neighbor is by imagining how it feels to spend a night sleeping on someone else's pillow.

Mock Pura Belpre 2022: I love you Baby Burrito by Angela Dominguez

 

Angela Dominguez is known to book lovers for her middle grade books, In this book, she creates beautiful pastel colors to tell the story of a new baby coming home into the loving arms of his parents.

Newbery 2022 watch: The Lion of Mars by Jennifer L. Holm

 

The Lion of Mars by Jennifer L. Holm 

Newbery 2022 Watch: Maybe, Maybe Marisol Rainey by Erin Estrada Kelly

 

Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey

by Erin Estrada Kelly

Geared towards a younger audience and told in short chapters, this delightful book has received starred reviews from all the major literary journals. 

Marisol Rainey’s mother was born in the Philippines. Marisol’s father works and lives part-time on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. And Marisol, who has a big imagination and likes to name inanimate objects, has a tree in her backyard she calls Peppina . . . but she’s way too scared to climb it. This all makes Marisol the only girl in her small Louisiana town with a mother who was born elsewhere and a father who lives elsewhere (most of the time)—the only girl who’s fearful of adventure and fun.

Will Marisol be able to salvage her summer and have fun with Jada, her best friend? Maybe

Mock Printz 2022 : A Sitting in St. James Rita Williams Garcia

 

n unblinking view into plantation life in the Deep South.

At first glance this epic seems to be focused on the ups and downs of the Guilbert family, slaveholders living in the Louisiana parish of St. James whose legacy is protected by 80-year-old matriarch Madame Sylvie Bernardin de Maret Dacier Guilbert. However, Williams-Garcia doesn’t stop in the salons and sitting rooms; she brings readers into the cabins and cookhouses of enslaved people whose perceived invisibility gives them access to ideas and knowledge that empower them in ways that few fiction writers have examined. Sixteen-year-old Thisbe is the personal servant to Madame Guilbert—treated like a pet and beaten with a hairbrush for the smallest alleged slight. Her narrative to liberation is intricately webbed within the story of the Guilberts. Thisbe’s silence helps her acquire the language to affirm her humanity to those who would deny it. With a cast of characters whose assorted genealogies feel like an ode to the mixing of peoples and cultures in Louisiana, this story broadens and emboldens interrogations of U.S. chattel slavery. Williams-Garcia’s meticulous research processes shout volumes about the importance of taking contemporary inspiration into the archives to unearth sorely needed truths as we continue to navigate questions of equity and justice for the descendants of enslaved people.

Newbery 2022 Watch: Amber & Clay by Laura Amy Schlitz

 

Welcome to ancient Greece as only genius storyteller Laura Amy Schlitz can conjure it. In a warlike land of wind and sunlight, “ringed by a restless sea,” live Rhaskos and Melisto, spiritual twins with little in common beyond the violent and mysterious forces that dictate their lives. A Thracian slave in a Greek household, Rhaskos is as common as clay, a stable boy worth less than a donkey, much less a horse. Wrenched from his mother at a tender age, he nurtures in secret, aided by Socrates, his passions for art and philosophy. Melisto is a spoiled aristocrat, a girl as precious as amber but willful and wild. She’ll marry and be tamed—the curse of all highborn girls—but risk her life for a season first 

Mock Printz: Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

 

This book is already being made into a Netflix series by former President Barack Obama and Michele Obama! 

Daunis should be focused on a fresh start at college after her uncle's untimely death. She is sucked back into the world of ice hockey and starts slowly falling for Jamie, one of her brother's new teammates. Soon she finds herself living two disparate lives: one as a loving daughter, niece, and granddaughter in her family and tribal community, and one as a confidential informant to the FBI as they investigate a deadly new drug. She dangerously furthers the investigation on her own after witnessing a murder, and ultimately must choose between protecting the people she loves or protecting her tribal community.

Newbery 2022 Watch: Red, White and Whole by Rajan La Rocca

 

Reha feels torn between two worlds: school, where she’s the only Indian American student, and home, with her family’s traditions and holidays. But Reha’s parents don’t understand why she’s conflicted—they only notice when Reha doesn’t meet their strict expectations. Reha feels disconnected from her mother, or Amma, although their names are linked—Reha means “star” and Punam means “moon”—but they are a universe apart.

Then Reha finds out that her Amma is sick. Really sick.

Reha, who dreams of becoming a doctor even though she can’t stomach the sight of blood, is determined to make her Amma well again. She’ll be the perfect daughter, if it means saving her Amma’s life.

From Indies Introduce author Rajani LaRocca comes a radiant story about the ties that bind and how to go on in the face of unthinkable loss. This is the perfect next read for fans of Jasmine Warga and Thanhhà Lại.

What We're Reading: Liz

 Rating out of 5 stars 

★★★★★

Ever since Ellie wore a whale swimsuit and made a big splash at her fifth birthday party, she's been bullied about her weight. To cope, she tries to live by the Fat Girl Rules—like "no making waves," "avoid eating in public," and "don't move so fast that your body jiggles." And she's found her safe space—her swimming pool—where she feels weightless in a fat-obsessed world. In the water, she can stretch herself out like a starfish and take up all the room she wants. It's also where she can get away from her pushy mom, who thinks criticizing Ellie's weight will motivate her to diet. Fortunately, Ellie has allies in her dad, her therapist, and her new neighbor, Catalina, who loves Ellie for who she is. With this support buoying her, Ellie might finally be able to cast aside the Fat Girl Rules and starfish in real life—by unapologetically being her own fabulous self.

What We're Reading: Erin

 

                                                                       Rating out of 5 stars 

                                                                        ★★★★☆

Nora O'Malley's been a lot of girls. As the daughter of a con-artist who targets criminal men, she grew up as her mother's protégé. But when her mom fell for the mark instead of conning him, Nora pulled the ultimate con: escape. 

For five years Nora's been playing at normal. But she needs to dust off the skills she ditched because she has three problems:

#1: Her ex walked in on her with her girlfriend. Even though they're all friends, Wes didn't know about her and Iris.

#2: The morning after Wes finds them kissing, they all have to meet to deposit the fundraiser money they raised at the bank. It's a nightmare that goes from awkward to deadly, because:

#3: Right after they enter the bank, two guys start robbing it. 

The bank robbers may be trouble, but Nora's something else entirely. They have no idea who they're really holding hostage . . .

What We're Reading: Emily

 

Rating out of 5 stats 

★★★☆☆

wo girls. One night. Zero phones.

Kat and Stevie—best friends, theater kids, polar opposites—have snuck away from the suburbs to spend a night in New York City. They have it all planned out. They’ll see a play, eat at the city’s hottest restaurant, and have the best. Night. Ever. What could go wrong?

Well. Kind of a lot?

They’re barely off the train before they’re dealing with destroyed phones, family drama, and unexpected Pomeranians. Over the next few hours, they’ll have to grapple with old flames, terrible theater, and unhelpful cab drivers. But there are also cute boys to kiss, parties to crash, dry cleaning to deliver (don’t ask), and the world’s best museum to explore.

Over the course of a wild night in the city that never sleeps, both Kat and Stevie will get a wake-up call about their friendship, their choices...and finally discover what they really want for their future. 

That is, assuming they can make it to Grand Central before the clock strikes midnight.

What We're Reading: Jen is reading House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

 

Rating out of 5 stats 

★★★★☆

Iris Hollow and her two older sisters are unquestionably strange. Ever since they disappeared on a suburban street in Scotland as children only to return a month a later with no memory of what happened to them, odd, eerie occurrences seem to follow in their wake. And they're changing. First, their dark hair turned white. Then, their blue eyes slowly turned black. They have insatiable appetites yet never gain weight. People find them disturbingly intoxicating, unbearably beautiful, and inexplicably dangerous.

But now, ten years later, seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow is doing all she can to fit in and graduate high school on time—something her two famously glamourous globe-trotting older sisters, Grey and Vivi, never managed to do. But when Grey goes missing without a trace, leaving behind bizarre clues as to what might have happened, Iris and Vivi are left to trace her last few days. They aren't the only ones looking for her though. As they brush against the supernatural they realize that the story they've been told about their past is unraveling and the world that returned them seemingly unharmed ten years ago, might just be calling them home.

What We're Reading: Nora is reading The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt

 

Ratings are out of 5 Stars

Rating: ★★★★☆

Seventh grader Holling Hoodhood isn't happy. He is sure his new teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates his guts. Holling's domineering father is obsessed with his business image and disregards his family. Throughout the school year, Holling strives to get a handle on the Shakespeare plays Mrs. Baker assigns him to read on his own time, and to figure out the enigmatic Mrs. Baker. As the Vietnam War turns lives upside down, Holling comes to admire and respect both Shakespeare and Mrs. Baker, who have more to offer him than he imagined. And when his family is on the verge of coming apart, he also discovers his loyalty to his sister, and his ability to stand up to his father when it matters most.

RVC artwork

 

Ayla Melendez 

RVC Kids Artwork

 

The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. (as told to his brother) by David Levitan

 

In this terrific middle grade novel, David Levithan tells the story of two brothers whose bond grows even stronger when a strange happening occurs. Aidan S. has disappeared and no one can find him. When he suddenly reappears and tries to explain where he's been, things get really out of control for Aidan and his brother!

Houdini and Me by Dan Gutman

 

 Harry Mancini is a fifth grade boy who lives with his widowed mother in the same house where Harry Houdini lived. 

When Harry hits his head in an accident, he wakes up and starts receiving text messages from Houdini. Is this his imagination? You'll have to read it to find out!

StarFish by Lisa Fipps

 

In this novel told in verse, debut author Lisa Fipps goes to the core of what it means to feel comfortable in your own skin, no matter what your size. Ever since the 5th grade, Ellie has been bullied about her weight. The only place she feels comfortable is in the pool. When she finds a wonderful therapist and good friend, Ellie is able to finally be her own person.

Picture Books: Caldecott 2022

 

Milo Imagines the World by Matt de la Peña and  Christian  Robinson

This beautiful picture book by Caldecott Winners de la Peña and Robinson shows the journey of a little boy and his sister who are taking the train to visit their mom. On the subway ride, Milo draws stories 

about the different people he sees. He fantasizes what their lives are like!
This dynamic team does it again with beautiful illustart