The Newbery Book Club

Cafe Society
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Here’s what I posted in Dendarii Dame’s All-Time Favorite Newbery thread:

I’ve read 47 of the Newbery winners–I teach Children’s Lit on the college level, but the reason I teach it is that I love, adore reading children’s books and even before teaching Children’s Lit I had already read 16 of the winners.
I’m female, grew up in several countries around the world and have lived in the NY area for the past 30 years. I was a precocious reader and the first Newbery medalist I read was “The Voyages of Dr. Doolitle”, at age 7.

Some of the books I’ve read since the “book club” started:
Flora and Ulysses: I really preferred Kate DiCamillo’s earlier work, Because of Winn-Dixie and Tale of Despereaux. The whimsical, quirky element in Flora and Ulysses seems overdone to me–it was present in Tale of Despereaux but I felt it fit in much better there. I can see why some people might love Flora and Ulysses (it did win the Newbery after all) but I also understand why others might strongly dislike it. I’m kind of in between myself–I didn’t hate it but I didn’t find that much in it to like.

Moon over Manifest–I found it on Overdrive and really enjoyed it, and when I found that another of this author’s books was also available on Overdrive (Navigating Early) I read it as well. Moon over Manifest reminded me a little of the family quest plot in Holes, as well as the Depression setting and social justice issues in Bud, Not Buddy.

Maniac Magee: Uneven but parts of it were really touching–I don’t remember when I’d last cried so much when reading a children’s book. I especially liked Maniac’s relationship with Earl Grayson.

Dear Mr. Henshaw: I remember trying to read the Ramona books some years ago and not being able to get into them, so I approached this one with a little trepidation and found myself more absorbed than I expected. However I wonder whether it’s a book that adults might think that kids should like–I don’t really know what kids would think of the focus on writing to an author and learning how to develop an authentic voice.

Missing May: I picked this up at the library and realized that I actually have it tucked away somewhere on my shelves. I think I must have picked it up at a garage sale years ago and never got to reading it because I was put off by the cover illustration being odd. Missing May - Wikipedia
Yes, I know, “don’t judge a book by its cover” but in this case I thought that the cover was actually an accurate reflection. It’s odd, sad and sweet and short (more like a novella or even an extended short story) and at the end I found myself asking, was that all?

I also picked up Strawberry Girl, which I read at least 10-15 years ago and remembered enjoying, but as jsgoddess notes above, the accent / regionalisms spelled out are a bit off-putting at first. Has anyone read “Innocence”, a short story by Rose Wilder Lane, daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder? It’s based on the family’s stay in Florida in the 1890s and it reminds me of a darker, more adult version of the world of Strawberry Girl. I think I read a print version; unfortunately it’s behind a paywall here: http://harpers.org/archive/1922/04/innocence/

Next on my list, also picked up from the library shelves, are two older ones, The Twenty-One Balloons and The Wheel on the School, and Dead End in Norvelt–hubby looked at the blurb on the back and said “‘Laugh-out-loud Gothic comedy?’ Is that your kind of book?” I have to admit it’s not, so we’ll see how that goes :slight_smile:

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Heh. I would exactly reverse BnB and Westing Game: the latter was a fun intellectual puzzle (made more fun when people explained it to me in very small words), but I never gave a crap about the characters, and it never made me laugh. Bud Not Buddy moved me both to tears and to raucous laughter; I still giggle thinking of him in the car at 2 am.

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Started The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate. It’s very good so far, much better written than the other two Newberr medalists I’ve read recently, Moon Over Manifest and Crispin: Cross of Lead. It seems much more original, and I care about the characters more.

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Finished The One and Only Ivan. It’s outstanding, and I’m very glad I decided to finish reading the rest of the Newbery Medalists, because otherwise I never would have read it.

Just started The Higher Power of Lucky, but Susan Patron.

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It is very, very good, but it sort of violates one of my rules about children’s books:

[spoiler]The Dog Dies!

Okay, the elephant, but same principle: the thing where you get children to fall in love with an animal and then kill it off just feels too Very Special Episode to me.[/spoiler]

Nevertheless, I have a fellow teacher who reads it to her class every year, and they adore it, so I think this is more my personal problem :).

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I just finished reading The One and Only Ivan (available on Overdrive, yay!) and highly recommend it. The point of view, theme and even the spoiler that Left Hand mentions above reminded me a little of one of my childhood faves, an abridged version of Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty (which BTW is available, unabridged, on Project Gutenberg Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell English Quaker (1820-1878))

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Johnny Tremain (1944), by Esther Forbes. I wasn’t enamored from the start, but it grew on me. I didn’t like Johnny at all when it began. I don’t think we were supposed to (at least I hope not), but he changed and the book changed and I changed and we were all hopey changey.

Recommendation: I think this one is worth reading as an adult. It’s not treacly, has really solid and distinct characters, and captures the confusion and fear and bravery and idealism and foolhardiness of that moment in history in a really plausible way for me.

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Just finished The Higher Power of Lucky, by Susan Patron. I recommend it. Next up is whatever one I haven’t read yet that I can find at the library next.

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Started The Crossover by Kwame Alexander, which is pretty good so far. It’s in verse (some blank, some rhyme) which works for the main character, who narrates.

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Just finished The Crossover. It’s excellent. The plot really feels like something that could realistically happen just as written, and I cared about the characters.

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I finished three this week. Two were by the only parent/child Newbery winners, Sid Fleischman’s The Whipping Boy and Paul Fleischman’s Joyful Noise. Both father and son are whimsical and fun.

I read the first few chapters of The Whipping Boy 5-7 years ago when my son was reading it and somehow I liked it more then than I did now–maybe because I found the opening of the book more interesting than the ending. I didn’t really find the character of Prince Brat that credible as the book went on. On the other hand my son liked it back then, so maybe it appeals more to its target audience than to adults.

Some of the poems in Joyful Noise lend themselves well to the “poems for two voices” concept, but in others (where there’s only one speaker) it didn’t seem to fit. Overall, though, it was an enjoyable collection.

Rifles for Watie was uneven in terms of narrative flow, but it was excellently detailed and researched, and after a while I really got into the story. It gave me the impression that the author wanted to put in as many as possible of the interesting characters and incidents that he’d uncovered while researching, but he really had enough material for more than one novel.

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Just started Dead End in Norvelt, by Jack Gantos. It’s supposed to be a mix of fact (autobiographical) and fiction about his youth. I’m only two pages in and already I want to know which is which.

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Miracles on Maple Hill (1957), by Virginia Sorensen and illustrated by Beth Krush. Cute look at a family post-WWII in rural Pennsylvania (outside of Pittsburgh). Very sweet, but I think it avoids being saccharine because the characters are pretty well-defined. It touches on some big issues, especially the circle of life and the main character’s father having survived being a POW in WWII. Marly, the protagonist, is a bit of a twit at times, but in pretty realistic, understandable ways.

Recommendation: I’d recommend reading it. It won’t change your life, and I’d say it’s nowhere near the top tier of Newbery winners, but there is a gentleness here and a sense of acceptance that I found pretty charming as an adult.

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I read Miracles on Maple Hill around 10 years ago, remember it well and second the recommendation.

Meanwhile I’m having a rough time with Onion John which I expected to like since I enjoyed …And Now Miguel by the same author, Joseph Krumgold, the first person to win two Newbery medals. I didn’t see Miguel mentioned at all on the other Newbery thread and put in a plug for it–it’s sweet, funny and also profound in its own way. OTOH Onion John just annoys me–trying to be funny and profound but missing the mark and falling flat as far as I’m concerned.

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Just finished Dead End in Norvelt, by Jack Gantos. Not bad, but it didn’t seem like a classic to me. Town filled with quirky characters, hero (with the same name as the author, who grew up in the real Norvelt) who learns a lesson, a few loose ends left hanging, etc.

Next up: Kira Kira by Cynthia Kadohata

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Agreed–it’s one of my least favorite Newberies I’ve ever read.

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Thanks for the Dead End in Norvelt reviews–now I know not to expect too much. I borrowed the book from the library 3 weeks ago and haven’t opened it yet since the blurb put me off.

I finally finished Onion John a couple of days ago. Like …And Now Miguel it’s a coming of age story, about fathers, sons, finding oneself and one’s place in the world. It’s a bit better than I thought (I almost gave upon it halfway through) and in a way I can see why the committee chose it but OTOH I also see why it hasn’t attained classic status either. And one of the books it defeated is a favorite in our family, My Side of the Mountain.
Interestingly, the character Onion John is based on a real person.

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I missed the edit window to add, about the Onion John link, the article contains spoilers!

This afternoon I found at a thrift shop two that I hadn’t read, for 20 cents each:Ginger Pye and Roller Skates. I raced through Roller Skates and liked it a lot–a spirited, imaginative, misunderstood 10 year old girl, not really appreciated by her family, struggling with social conventions of the 1890s. In some ways it reminded me of Little Women and Anne of Green Gables. I would have liked it even more when I was a kid myself. At the same time it’s a bit uneven (just who is the narrator in the 1st chapter? The adult Lucinda remembering her childhood? If so it’s not really clear) and I see why it isn’t more of a classic.

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I read Bud, Not Buddy recently, largely on the recommendation of people in this thread (notably LHoD). Enjoyed it! Several of the characters and situations are compelling, but the best thing about it is definitely the narrator, whose characterization was just very real: on the one hand, resourceful and as he says, “just about grown up”; on the other, naive and still (of course) easily frightened and rattled. Vampire bats!

My favorite line was when he goes to the restaurant and is served a dessert called “On the House.”

One issue I had:

I did think he was accepted a little too quickly and wholeheartedly by the band members.

I started Dead End in Norvelt, a book that was completely off my radar till now–unlike Bud, Not Buddy I couldn’t have told you it was a prizewinner or indeed that it even existed. I don’t know if I’ll finish it. It seems to be meandering along fairly slowly without much actually going on, which is okay if you’ve got compelling characters, a really interesting setting, or a terrific writing style–but none of that is happening for me at least. The author seems in particular to be reaching too hard for quirk in his characters at the expense of depth–not my favorite combination. Oh well!

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Glad you liked it! My favorite scene, possibly the best scene in all literature, involves Bud driving off in the car in the middle of the night.

As for your spoiler, I get what you’re saying. Here are my thoughts about that:

[spoiler]From the first chapter Bud presents as an incredibly kindhearted and polite child: even when he’s going off to a foster home, he takes the time to comfort a smaller child before he goes. Adults throughout the book notice and remark on his manners. He’s also very observant, probably as a survival mechanism. When he’s eating the paincakes, he watches others to see how big his bites should be and how much food to take. Kid is a total social chameleon.

Combine that with the fact that the band is reasonably well-off in the middle of the Great Depression, and they realize that Bud has had a helluva time while they’re doing well, and I think they just kind of fall in love with this tough, smart, polite kid.[/spoiler]

That’s kind of how I felt. The humor of the book fell flat for me, and I couldn’t figure out whether it’s because it’s like midwest humor that’s different from mine (I hate Prairie Home Companion also), or whether it’s just poorly-written humor. It’s kind of interesting to compare it to Bud, Not Buddy, where you also have a quirky, overimaginative main character, but where it cracks me up pretty consistently.