Franki at A Year of Reading invites readers and bloggers to predict the winner(s) of the Newbery Award and Newbery Honor books. I’m sure that, like Franki and Mary Lee, I will have no success at reading the minds of the Newbery committee members, but I’m probably more prepared to make a guess this year than I ever have been. Thanks to the Cybil awards process, I have actually read several books that were published in 2007. So here are my predictions:

1. Clementine by Sara Pennypacker. I thought this book was the best of all of the books I read that were nominated for the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Fiction. Unfortunately, it didn’t make the final cut for the Cybil award, so maybe I can send good vibes about it to the Newbery folks. I’ve only read about 17 of the Cybil nominees and dipped into 3 or 4 that I didn’t like enough to finish them. I did fall in love with Clementine. Oh my darling, oh my darling . . .

2. Alabama Moon by Watt Key. Even though I thought Alabama Moon was more appropriate for young adults (high school age and up) than for middle graders, I did like the book itself very much. Well-written story, interesting subject, good characterization —a good candidate for some award somewhere. Why not the Newbery?

3. Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata. I liked this book even though it wasn’t my favorite. I think the elite of the children’s literature world will love it. It’s multi-cultural; it’s anti-war; and it’s a good story. I suppose the only problem is that Cynthia Kadohata has already won the Newbery Award once, but it’s been awarded twice to the same author before. They could do it again.

4. Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy. If funny books like Clementine don’t win the Newbery, if we have to have a Serious Subject, then Yellow Star is my personal favorite for the award. It’s deep, disturbing, with an interesting twist at the end that ties into the title, and it’s still accessible to children. My then-eleven year old read it and liked it and learned from it.

5. Rules by Cynthia Lord. This one’s a dark horse, first children’s book published by Ms. Lord, possible winner, IF the committee members appreciate the story of a girl growing up with an autistic brother and making friends with a severely handicapped young man in a wheelchair.

If The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak wins, I will resign myself to the idea that I just don’t get contemporary children’s literature and go back to my pet project of reading all the Newbery Award and Newbery Honor books of the twentieth century. If all the world proclaims that The Book Thief is the best book ever written, I will still say, “I just don’t get what all the fuss is about!” Death narrates a book about the Holocaust, indeed! Give me Yellow Star, a real Holocaust story sans the bizarre narrator.

OK, I just figured out that Marcus Zusak is an Australian and lives in Sydney, and the Newbery Award is only awarded to American citizens. Oh, well, I needed to get that rant off my chest anyway after seeing Death Takes a Holiday, aka The Book Thief on every blogger’s year-end list of favorites from here to Kalamazoo.