I think I’ve read 27 of them. Currently my third graders are finishing up producing films for the 90-second Newbery film festival, based on the three Newberies we’ve read this year: Bud, Not Buddy; Last Stop on Market Street; and The Tale of Despereaux.
Given that I’ve done them as read-alouds, I clearly recommend all three. My favorite, though is probably The Tale of Despereaux. It’s so funny, and so beautiful, and so full of rich symbolism and pathos. The movie is an abomination, but the book? Just about perfect.
Bud, Not Buddy and Holes both come in a close second, though–if you have any love at all for children’s lit, both are well worth reading.
I can overlook fantastic things in fantasy, like the people somehow losing the ability to see color and hear music, or the transfer of memories from Giver to Receiver. But it still bugs me when the non-fantastic things don’t work, like the population remaining steady despite a sub-replacement birthrate.
It’s the same way that I have no problem with talking mice and messianic lions, but the double-counterweighted trebuchets in the Prince Caspian movie took me right out of the story.
I read it for the specific purpose of finding out what literary treasure could possibly have beaten Charlotte’s Web … and it’s really a slog. You’d think Incas would make for a more exciting read, but not, it turns out.
If I taught an older grade, I might read them The Hero and the Crown every year instead of Despereaux, and then that might be my favorite. It certainly stands up there as among the great fantasy novels.
The Dark is Rising sequence is one of my favorite series. I think I agree, if you’re looking at series as a whole The Dark is Rising sequence is superior to the Wrinkle in Time series.
Not that I need to add any more books to my want-to-read list (300+ and growing), but I now want to read all the winners that others have recommended and I haven’t read.
That depends on where you cut off the Wrinkle in Time series. The first two are great, A Swiftly Tilting Planet is meh, Many Waters is decent, and the ones written many years later about Meg’s daughter are absolute drek.
