Yup, you read that correctly Honor. Certainly not the first Newbery Honor book I've read (see post one) but the first I'll break down and review. Why? Because it is brand new!!! Yes, the night of the announcement I happened to get the news and ordered all of my copies before they were put into backorder! They arrived this week and I decided to read the honors first to see how they compare before hitting up the winner. Savvy?
Anyway The Year of Billy Miller is a great read, though I felt like the characters spoke in a manner that seemed slightly more verbose than your average seven year olds... and I KNOW that the little sister was more expressive than most three year olds. But I still liked the characters and felt that they fairly accurately captured the essence of childhood.
I was even more surprised to see that the author is someone I recognized the works of, Kevin Henkes. He has written several picture books including the very popular Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse and several other stories with the same kind of mouse characters.
I think that this book skews towards the younger end of the Newbery crowd simply because the age of the main character lends itself to a sort of simplicity, though I think it would be too difficult for 2nd graders to read on their own. It would make an excellent read aloud though!
A word of caution:
I am what might be considered a squeamish adult, and heaven only knows that I've read plenty of books with creepier details (Harry Potter, anything by Roald Dahl....) but there is one scene that seems out of place in the simple, youthful text that surrounds it. I'm reprinting it here for review purposes so you can know ahead of time for any reading aloud what might need to be curbed.
Billy Miller tries to stay up all night, but as he starts falling asleep, he imagines things to keep himself awake. Eventually imagining monsters, including one described thusly: "The something had white melted flesh with oozing clusters of pimples for eyes. Its nose was a wet hole that made a whistling noise with each breath. It had long, stringy gray hair and thin, knobby fingers and bloody sores all over its naked body. It creaked and rattled and groaned. The thing ate children. Its teeth were sharp as needles. It was stretching and reaching, reaching and stretching. Creeping. Right under him." ... Holy cow, I am a grown adult and I recoiled at the image of this creature. Pretty sure is would have haunted my nightmares if I read this as child. Sometimes less is more. But in this case more is more terrifying. I would likely edit that down a lot if I were to read this to my Kindergarteners next year.
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