A Gathering of Days, Newbery Winner 1980

A book that reads like a diary can be very compelling. This one however was only so-so; while I enjoyed the book I never really had a strong desire to keep on reading just a little bit more. Certainly Joan Blos has captured the thought and spirit of a young girl in the 1830s but this girl is in the heart of a very uninteresting year. When I read historical fiction I prefer my characters to be within the action of the time, for instance the subplot with the runaway slave was interesting but such a tiny part of the story that I would quickly lose interest.
One thing I should note about the prose is that it by turns amused me and annoyed me. I laughed over how realistic some of the grammar and spelling choices were but then I would be conflicted about using it in a classroom for the same reason. Ah well, que sera,
Overall I liked this book, though it is definitely one I am fine with just having a single read. I was touched by how realistic Catherine was, but often bored by the mundaness of her life.

Maniac Magee, Newbery Winner 1991

Yet another re-read for me this holiday season. The last time I read this was about 12 years ago, but I still remembered it quite vividly. Once again I stayed up late reading; the chapters average about 3 1/2 pages making 'just a couple more' stretch on all night!
This is a story about how a legend is created. And though Maniac himself has no trouble at all passing between the 'white' and 'black' parts of town, I'm still not sure that this book shows his legacy as bringing the two halves together. Perhaps my favorite character is Amanda Beale, I always did appreciate that she loved books. But she is also a no nonsense girl who really puts Maniac in his place and shows him what it means to be home. All in all this is a surprisingly simple story. Ah well, still a very good story and an interesting starting point for many discussions about race, family, and home.

Now if only Maniac would go to school.

Island of the Blue Dolphins, Newbery Winner 1961

Of all the Newbery Award winners I had read previously, this was possibly the one I read the fastest. I picked up Island of the Blue Dolphins one day in the middle of a snowstorm and read through it very quickly. It is by no means short compared to a lot of the works I have read, yet it is so exciting that it is nearly impossible to put down!
One of the reasons that this book is so interesting is that it is based, however loosely, of a true story. The most gripping parts of the tale are true, but what Scott O'Dell writes only augments the original tale - a young girl living alone on an island after her people leave. It is among the most straightforward example of person vs. nature that you can find, yet reading it gives you a sense that it wasn't so much Karana vs. the island but that Karana was a part of the island.

Here is an overhead shot, it is Navy owned now I can't find any really good photos.

 

I found it to be a fascinating story, certainly one of the best in the sub-genre of survival. I can also appreciate Karana's attitude in much of the story, she is not angry, though she can be very sad and lonely. But what I truly love is her fondness for animals. My own family has a large menagerie consisting of three cats, and three dogs, with an additional fish that I keep at college; over the years though we have owned 4 dogs, 6 cats, a gerbil, 3 hamsters, 2 newts, 2 salamanders, dozens of snakes (winter relocation project), 2 rabbits, and a hedgehog. This doesn't even touch on the numerous animals that we have taken in that were lost (seriously, our house is like an operating branch of the Humane Society) or injured, such as a pigeon that lived in our grill while we fed it and it recuperated. In fact, the last cat that became a permanent resident was hit by a car on the street just in front of our house, we were going to bury him, but discovered that he was alive. The Humane Society fixed him up and when he was put up for adoption nearly a month later I went down and paid the price. He is funny looking, basically he broke half his face, but he fits into our family so smoothly.

Karana also took in the injured animals, likely because she was lonely. I cannot imagine never being able to talk to anyone; I get restless after a couple days of only relative solitude. Overall this is among the most powerful narratives, the first-person viewpoint really sucks you into the story, I will definitely be offering this book in my classroom (which is closer than ever as I'm about to start student-teaching!)

Teacher Survey of Newbery Books

While doing some research for a paper, I came across this interesting survey... I'm going to take the test and then check how I compare! Mind you, I'm doing this from memory, no looking at the list of titles.

Descriptor/Clue Title

1. Claudia runs away and lives at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is one of the winners I had previously read, I hope to be able to review this gem soon! Maybe I'll read it when I'm home for Christmas break.

2.  An epic type book set in the land of Pyrdain
Ummmm... I know it's by L. Alexander. Can't remember if it is The Book of Three or not.

3.  Poor black sharecroppers and a faithful coon dog

Wooo! Here's one I read for the review. I recommend this book to anyone, even those who aren't particularly fans of the 'dog story' genre.
4.  A mentally disabled younger brother named Charlie
I believe this one to be Summer of the Swans, but again I'm not sure.

5.  Super rats
I haven't the foggiest idea.

6. Her Eskimo name is Miyak

Another one I reviewed and loved! Certainly one I'd consider using in a classroom someday.
7. A 13 year old white boy is forced to join the crew of a slave ship and "dance" the slaves
Well, based off of the description I'm pretty sure this is Slave Dancer.

8.  Mayo Cornelius Higgins
Not a clue.

9.  Will Stanton tries to find the golden harp to awaken the ancient sleepers
I'm thinking that there is a book called The Golden Harp.

10.  Cassie Logan, a girl reared by a proud and independent black family
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry... I'm not entirely sure that's one of the winners.

11.  The secret land of Leslie and Jess

A great book, hard to believe I read it almost a year ago, I still remember it very vividly.
12.  Sixteen heirs to the Sam Westing estate
The Westing Game, haven't read but know the premise.

13.  A 14 year old New Hampshire girl keeps a journal for two years and during this time her father remarries and her best friend dies
A Gathering of Days - look for my review of this one soon!

14. Chesapeake life of Caroline and Louise
I don't know.

15.  A book of poems about life at an imaginary inn run by William Blake

Uhhhh.... Yeah, I've read it. And it's okay. 
16. Dicey, James, Maybeth and Sammy Tillerman
Dicey's Song

17.  Journal writing of Leigh Botts to his favorite author
I don't know. 

18.  Aerin, with the guidance of the wizard Luthe and with the help of the blue sword, wins the birthright due her as the daughter due her as the daughter of a Damarian King
Crap, I don't know, but this one sounds awesome!

19.  A mail-order bride from Maine

Yet, another great read! My review is almost as long as the book!!!
20.  Prince Brat and Jemmy

This is a fun little read. I recommend this for the younger patrons of the Newbery Medal.
21. 16th president "in pictures"
Abraham Lincoln: A Photobiography

22.  Celebration of insect life and insect poetry

Super enjoyable! I wasn't sure about this book, but when I listened to it I found it to be very interesting.

23.  Danish Jews escape/Copenhagen 1943

Still my favorite among the winners! If you only read one of the Newbery Winners this is the one I would recommend.
24.  Jeffrey Lionel was always running

Another of my favorites, haven't reviewed it yet, but this is the first book I stayed up late reading.

25.  A lost beagle, Marry Preston and Judd Travers
Possibly Shiloh?

26.  Aunt May, Uncle Ob, Summer and Cletus

A real short read. Simple, but very nice; not thought-provoking but feel provoking.
27.  Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas and Gabriel
No idea.


So now that I've done the survey I'm looking at the results.

Results of Survey 2 -
Newbery Award Books 72 respondents
Title - Percentage of teachers answering correctly - Did I get it?

1.      From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler                      0         Yes

2.      The High King                                   0                       No (But close)

3.      Sounder                                           51.3                     Yes

4.      Summer of the Swans                      33.3                    Yes

5.      Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH       62.5                No

6.      Julie of the Wolves                           20.8                   Yes

7.      The Slave Dancer                             11.1                    Yes

8.      M.C. Higgins, The Great                  25.0                   No

9.      The Grey King                                   0                       No

10.  Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry          19.4                  Yes

11.  Bridge to Terabithia                          51.3                   Yes

12.  The Westing Game                             11.1                 Yes

13.  A Gathering of Days                          18.0                 Yes

14.  Jacob Have I Loved                            50.0                 No

15.  William Blake's Inn                             0                    Yes

16.  Dicey's Song                                      9.7                   Yes

17.  Dear Mr. Henshaw                            20.8                   No

18.  The Hero and the Crown                          0                No

19.  Sarah, Plain and Tall                         70.8                   Yes

20.  The Whipping Boy                             16.6                  Yes

21.  Lincoln: A Photobiography                   4.1                 Yes

22.  Joyful Noise                                          4.1                 Yes

23.  Number the Stars                             19.4                    Yes

24.  Maniac Magee                                 11.1                     Yes

25.  Shiloh                                                 4.1                    Yes

26.  Missing May                                   2.7                       Yes

27.  The Giver                                            0                     No

Which gives me a 70.4%. Not too bad, all the ones I got wrong are ones I hadn't read yet, so I'm feeling pretty good. Would you be able to do it?

Rabbit Hill, Newbery Winner 1944

I know, it's been a long while since I've written anything, but I've kept pretty busy with school work. Anyway, I took the holiday weekend as an opportunity to breeze through this short work.
Rabbit Hill was written by Robert Lawson who, though a prolific author, isn't very famous today. His only other work that I had heard of was Ben and I. I had seen his illustrations before in The Story of Ferdinand and Mr. Popper's Penguins.
The problem I found with this book is that it is quite obviously dated. Mind you it is still enjoyable in it's own fashion but I have no idea what demographic I recommend it for; I enjoyed it and I think that my brother may begrudgingly find amusement in it, but we also had several of the old talking animal stories read to us as children, far more than I see with my peers or younger children. For instance, I found some of the best bedtime stories in this book:

Raise your hand if you remember this.

 

No one I know has even heard of Uncle Wiggily, whom my young mind believed to be as important as Winnie the Pooh. Turns out Uncle Wiggily was popular in the 1910s - 30s. There was even a school reader!

However, I just cannot think of any child today who is both willing to enjoy a simple story such as Robert Lawson has penned and verbose enough to comprehend the dialogue of the characters.

My Thirteenth Winter, Schneider Family Book Award Winner 2005

Perhaps you read the title of this post and thought, "Wait a minute. I thought you were blogging about Newbery Award Winners, what's this?" Well, technically it is an award winner. The Schneider Family Book Award is given to books that represent "an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences". You might not have heard of it, I believe the award was first given in 2004.
Anyway... I believe that this book should be required reading for anyone becoming a teacher, or, for that matter, just anyone interested in working with kids. I read this book quickly, soaking in Samantha's words and feelings. I do not have a learning disability, but I felt like I connected with Samantha Abeel on so many levels. I would read portions of text and think, "Finally! Someone who gets it!" For this reason I think it would also be an excellent reading choice in middle or high school classes.
Samantha Abeel is both gifted and an LD student. (That's Learning Disabled for those of you not in the education racket.) She was passed through the system for years because she was so bright, never disrupted class, and always tried very hard. When her mother finally decided that it wasn't worth her daughter's health and peace of mind to try to keep up with her classmates in math class, she requested that Samantha be put into a special education math program.
This book is full of thought-provoking statements about learning disabilities. I was frequently outraged by the adults in this memoir, I felt that many of them had failed Samantha in a way. She was tested in first grade and discovered deficient in math but gifted elsewhere. The school decided that she would be best off left in general education programs and that eventually it would even out.
Finally, in seventh grade, after years of being nervous about school and anything that required math to the point that she was ill, her mom fought to get her into special classes.
If you care to know what happens next, make sure to pick up this book! :)

The Matchlock Gun, Newbery Winner 1942

For some reason I imagined more of the Newbery books to be longer. People always cite Sarah, Plain and Tall as an example of how a short book can go a long ways, yet here I am with another short Newbery winner. The Matchlock Gun took less than an hour to read... while eating lunch, and walking, and stopping to talk to people, you get the idea.
While I liked this book, I was a bit confused as to why it should be considered so great at the time it was written as to merit the award. Books never exist within a vacuum, which is why we end up with literary classics that may seem prejudiced and insensitive. One look at the date and it is easy to imagine where the committee was going with this one.
The story is one about a family who finds themselves and their freedom threatened. But they fight together and protect their land from the invading Indian forces, saving their freedom even at the cost of health and property... Oh I get it.
You see the award year is actually a year past the publication year. So the award in 1942 is given in January and applies to those books which were published throughout 1941. So in January 1942, when the committee voted on and awarded the medal to The Matchlock Gun they probably had headlines and images in their heads like this:

 

Oh, I get it now.

 

You see, to the committee they are voting on contributions to future literature and current literature. I can see how they would find this an important book for children to be reading. The U.S. had just been attacked, but we had been watching a war unfolding in Europe for a while now. The world was about to see one of the devastating wars in history, and the message about protecting freedom would soon be everywhere you looked, The Matchlock Gun simply had a bit of a head start.
So if you're looking for a short historically relevant piece, I highly recommend The Matchlock Gun.

The Cat Who Went to Heaven, Newbery Winner 1931

This was a sweet, simple story. I am a cat person so the name of the story greatly appealed to me. I believe that children would enjoy this book, but an adult with some knowledge of Buddhism will need to be on standby. I really don't know more than basic tenures of Buddhism but I found the story easy enough to follow. It is a really short tale and there is no plot, but you come to really love the little cat, Good Fortune. It would be interesting to hear more of the old Buddhist folktales, they were new to me and I found it quite interesting to hear how there was a story about all the different animals in the painting. The ending was very satisfying, though some may find it sudden.

Second Round-Up

Well, it's that time again! (Actually, it's past that time, I've read 11 books instead of 10!) Time for me to line 'em up against the wall. Order them, if you will. This was occasionally a difficult batch to get through, so difficult that I actually avoided a couple of books like the plague. There are some here I'm glad to tick off my list and there are some here that I can't wait to read again. Alright, from the top!

1. Crispin: Cross of Lead - This entry wins this section hands down. An amazing adventure story with great characters, not only the best award-winner I read this summer, but the best book period. I cannot wait to delve into the sequels and Avi's other works.

2. Caddie Woodlawn - Like Little House lite, this book is good old-fashioned fun. I'm always a sucker for good frontier literature though, giving this book a head-start on the list.

3. Kira-Kira - Without a doubt the most deeply emotional book of the lot, I enjoyed the simple, realistic and modern story. A was a refreshingly different sort of novel for me.

4. Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village: A wonderful collection of monologues. This is a literary style that is often overlooked, but I'm pleased that this collection was chosen, you get several little stories, plus one overarching tale of simple living.

5. Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices - That's right, I rated a book of bug poems higher than some of the 'great classics of children's literature'. This book is short, which kids like, and funny, which kids love.

6. Onion John - Oh Onion... You're too slow to absolutely love, but too good to hate! To the middle of the pack you'll have to go.

7. Missing May - A wonderful tale that explores the emotions surrounding grief. As a bonus I just figured out that the author also wrote one of my favorite picture books, The Dreamer.

8. A Visit to William Blake's Inn - Thinking over these poems for a couple of days helps nothing. The book is still trying to hard to be great. I do like the illustrations though, and a couple of the poems merit re-reading.

9. Johnny Tremain - Goodness, I hated this book. It took all my will power to sit down and finish it. It commits the crime of ruining what should be a good story. I'll never know how Forbes did it, but somehow she made the American Revolution boring. Only gets this high on the list for managing to stay in print, which brings us to...

10. Dobry - For a book in which absolutely nothing occurs (and takes its own sweet time doing it) the only bright spot was that it was set in Eastern Europe and we got a Christmas chapter.

11. Daniel Boone - Forget the crime of offensiveness, few will ever make it that far in the book. It was like wading through mud to retrieve a bucket of dirt. Ultimately, you saw no reason to continue. The only reason I finished is because I'm stubborn (save one page that had been removed by library, parent, or reader for which I'm am grateful to them for shortening the book).

There, I know it is difficult seeing Missing May next to William Blake but I strenuously apologize. A countdown from the beginning!

1. Number the Stars
2. Crispin: Cross of Lead
3. Julie of the Wolves
4. Bud, Not Buddy
5. King of the Wind
6. Out of the Dust
7. Caddie Woodlawn
8. Kira-Kira
9. Sounder
10. Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village
11. Bridge to Terabithia
12. Sarah, Plain and Tall
13. Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices
14. Call It Courage
15. Onion John
16. Missing May
17. The Whipping Boy
18. A Visit to William Blake's Inn
19. Johnny Tremain
20. Dobry
21. Daniel Boone

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Midieval Village, Newbery Winner 2008

I'd been led to believe that this book would be a real snore by the stories citing it as an example that the Newbery committee was out of touch and choosing books that children would never read. For what it is worth I loved it. This book lets you take a highly personal look at several children. None are incidental, I also found them to be telling a larger story that spans a long period of time. I always found it interesting when one monologue would refer back to another. There were also several stories where I would like to know what eventually happened, but, alas, I cannot. Perhaps for the best, since undoubtedly the hopes and dreams of the lower class would never be fulfilled, such was life for them.
Each monologue is written in a slightly different style, giving a wide variety of tastes something to chose from. I think that this would be a fun work to use in a classroom, like Shakespeare for the younger crowd. In any case, I'm sure that many readers will like the short 'story' format offered by each monologue, and there is something here for everyone romance, action, thievery, kindness, and more!

Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, Newbery Winner 1989

The committee in the 80s must have loved poetry! All I can say is that, as skeptical as I was regarding this book (every poem is about bugs?), I found it to be immensely enjoyable.
I stumbled through the first poem several times, it is almost impossible to read poems for two voices by yourself I discovered. If you are also struggling with these poems I assure you they really are beautiful. Paul Fleischman has even managed to make me care about a wasp, an animal I never thought of as remotely emotional. The secret is sound, these poems must be heard to be enjoyed, you can't just read them yourself, there must be another.
Watch this video to hear for yourself, even though the poems are in a different order than the book.

 

Amazing, isn't it? You just listened to poetry about bugs. I enjoyed this so much more than William Blake's Inn. It was far more aware, and dare I say, emotional. Emotion is the foundation of poetry, something that really came through in this collection. I was pleased to have such a wonderful book to pass the minutes away with, it seems I've been in a bit of a rut with the books being outside of my interest range.

A Visit to William Blake's Inn, Newbery Winner 1982

Ummm... Well it was short. I don't know, when I think of poetry for children this isn't what really comes to mind. There is more than the usual amount of deep thinking that might be associated with a picture book. That isn't to say that I think all kids' poetry should be rhymed couplets with fanciful drawings, actually my favorite children's poets are Stevenson and Kipling.

Maybe if I had been familiar with William Blake's poetry I'd have enjoyed this more. Then again, maybe I was expecting something completely different from what I got. While the poems aren't bad, I really loved a couple of them, they just weren't outstanding. However, I feel the book has it's usefulness, it might work well in a unit about reading fluency. You really have to nail these poems for them to sound right, it took me a couple of tries on some of them.

Johnny Tremain, Newbery Winner 1944

Well...
I was told this was a boring book. I've spent nearly ten years using it to mock my brother. But until now I didn't truly know just what this book had in store for me. Should there be any doubt as to my feelings about this book you only need to check the dates between this review and the last one. About 2/3rds of the way through the book I ran out of steam and kept putting it off for later. I'm finally done, and only because of an impending due date at the library.

In theory it should have been a great book for me. I love historical fiction and I'm positively obsessed with the American Revolution. Take this one sentence summery: A horrible accident befalls a young silversmith, forcing him to leave his trade; however Johnny Tremain soon finds himself entwined with the events leading to the American Revolution and the founding of a new country. Doesn't that sound awesome? To me it did but I was so disappointed. The writing was good, the story itself was exciting, but somewhere, something, was wrong. I've thought and thought about went wrong and as near as I can tell there isn't actually anything bad about the book but... I just didn't care. Maybe the descriptions just bogged me down; any one description by itself is fantastic and detailed, all together there is just too much.

At least I have lots of other great sources for the American Revolution that I can use instead.

Kira-Kira, Newbery Winner 2005

Let me say first off that I absolutely loved this book. And it was very sad, probably the saddest one I've read so far. (Although I didn't technically read it, I listened to it on my car trip.)
In high school I took a keen interest in Japanese-Americans during WWII and this book played into that interest. It is set in the 50s and 60s and is about the relationship of two sisters. They face prejudice and hardship in their new home in Georgia, but they also face a devastating illness.
One of the things I enjoyed most about this book was the characters. Some reviews I've read say that the characters are flat, but I disagree. The characters aren't flat, they also aren't over the top. Each has their own past, suitable development, and fun traits.As for the relationship between Katie and Lynn, I feel it is developed perfectly. I also believe that the reactions Katie has throughout the book to different things are believable.
I did however, struggle with how appropriate this book was for children. I mean it has breasts, kissing, sperm (the word, during Scrabble), violence, prejudice, death, and swearing. I kept a tally in my head, thinking 'oh my!' every time something popped up. The problem being that I was judging them as an adult judges works for children. When I stepped back and tried to view it from a child's perspective I knew that children are waaaaaaaaaaaaay more interested in the overall picture than in nuances. (I watch old movies now and get far more of the jokes.) The only items on that list that kids will remember as important are prejudice and death. And really, that's not so bad. So I eagerly welcome the addition of Kira-Kira to my classroom collection.

Missing May, Newbery Winner 1993

First off I have been slacking. After Dobry and Daniel Boone I wasn't too keen on picking up the other two out-of-print Newbery winners. They sit, ignored, every night by my bed. So when I got a hold of Missing May I was quite eager to pick up the pace again.
This is another very short novel, less than 100 pages. But it is a very touching book, ranking right alongside Sarah, Plain and Tall in emotional value in such a short span. Let me first say that this is not the book for children looking for a plot-driven story. This story is very character driven, and there are really only four characters, one of whom has died. But even more than being a character driven story it is an examination of emotion. One emotion in particular: grief.
I'm not sure who will most understand the story, someone who has never experienced grief, someone currently experiencing grief, or someone who has experienced grief. I expect that the last category is the most appropriate, though that may be because it is simply where I fall.
In short, there isn't a lot to say about Missing May but there is plenty to feel. Go ahead and read it, it only takes a little more than an hour to get through, and the last several pages are enough to make anyone get a lump in their throat.

Daniel Boone, Newbery Winner 1940

Where do I even begin with this one? I'd been dreading reading this book, because it was an old biography, in the world of children's literature that is not a good thing. Another out-of-print Newbery winner and with good reason. It is racially charged, gruesomely graphic, and sappy. But above all those, I think that the reason this one's no longer in print is that it's boring as tar.I know, perhaps I'm not fully enjoying the experience because I'm too old or too young; I'm too modern or I've seen my own wilderness; on and on and on...
Nope. This book is boring. There really isn't much else too say, I found everything in this book to be historically sound (race relations included) and even learned a lot about Daniel Boone, the man did some fascinating stuff. But this book makes a trek into unknown wilderness about as dry as uncooked oatmeal. I believe that if the book was more interesting it would still be published today; we all know that settlers didn't get along with Indians, it's okay to write that stuff into historical fiction (that's be the historical part).
Perhaps the worst part was that I found myself not caring about what Daniel Boone was doing most of the time. I wanted very much to follow along and hear the stories of several of the side characters though: George Washington, Tom Lincoln, Lewis and Clark, his wife, his daughter, James Audubon, anyone really.
In the end this book was just as big a bust as I expected.

Favorite Fictional Fathers

In honor of Fathers’ Day I thought I’d do a countdown of my ten favorite fictional fathers. These fathers are supportive and dedicated. Also they tend to crop up in my favorite works making this list totally biased. I haven’t limited these dads to literature though, I’ve included the greats from film.

10. Mr. Murray (A Wrinkle in Time)

I admit that this one is a bit of a gimme. The real reason he didn’t get to move higher up the list is because he is more of a catalyst than anything else. But his wife and children’s undying devotion to him prove that he is an amazing man.

He's so un-there I couldn't even turn up a picture of him on google.

9. Bert (The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica Series)

It’s very likely you’ve never heard of this guy. Unless I were to tell you that he is really H.G. Wells, but that might just blow your mind. His hands are full with his daughter Aven and the three newest caretakers, but Bert is someone that the entire Archipelago of Dreams can count on and look up to.

I couldn't find a picture of Bert either, so here's H.G. Wells.

8. Mr. Ping (Kung Fu Panda)

The greatest part of the Kung Fu Panda sequel was the development of the relationship between Po and Mr. Ping. We get insight into just how insanely much Mr. Ping loves his son. We also find how he came to adopt Po.

If you didn't know he was adopted you deserved to have that spoiler.

7. James Earl Jones (As the voice of Mufasa and Darth Vader)

So Mufasa is an obvious choice. He put himself in danger to save Simba, and we know that he must have been an amazing king because everyone in the Pride Lands loved him. Well except Scar…

Darth Vader is less your conventional great dad. Actually as far as great dads go he rates at the very bottom of the list until the last hour or so of his life. Then, like Mufasa, he lays down his life to save his son, destroy the emperor, and save the galaxy. So he gets bonus points.

No Simba! I am your father!

6. Penny Baxter (The Yearling)

Honestly I haven’t read this book since grade school, but Penny always comes to mind as a great father. And if I still think of him that way after all this time it must be true right?

Awww... Wait. There's a movie?

5. Gaius (Merlin)

He isn’t technically Merlin’s father, but he thinks of Merlin as a son and is the only magical mentor Merlin has ever known. What to press either of their berserk buttons? Just threaten the other one, watching their relationship is one of the greatest parts of the show.

The eyebrow is another matter all together.

4. Arthur Weasley (Harry Potter Series)

Probably the best dad in the wizarding world, he raises his own brood of seven despite the difficulties. He also cares deeply for Harry and Hermione and helps them in the world of wizards, when it comes to the muggle world though he is a bit lost. When push came to shove though he was at the forefront of the fight against evil.

Lovely day for a phone call, don't you think?

3. Cliff Huxtable (The Cosby Show)

The irresistible Bill Cosby starred as the wonderful family man Cliff. He was always available to dispense wisdom to his many children, sons-in-law, grandchildren, house guests, neighborhood kids… you get the idea. But he was also a great husband, sharing the duties of the household, cooking and cleaning when Claire worked late at the office. But don’t get the idea that this upstanding gent was straight-laced or no-nonsense.

Because, c'mon, he is still Bill Cosby.

2. Atticus Finch (To Kill A Mockingbird)

He tops almost every list of great fictional fathers. With good reason, he’s raising two kids to be upstanding citizens, instilling in them a high regard for morals. He demonstrates this in his job as a lawyer, by defending a man whom the whole town has already convicted. In addition to all this we learn that he is a crack shot! What a well-rounded individual.

We named one of our poodles after him. So the picture totally makes sense.

1. Pa Ingalls (Little House on the Prairie)

Pa protects his family as they move around the country. He also provides for them, plowing the land, building a house, working other jobs, and even advising other members of the community. The frontier was a hard place to live, but Pa did his best to help his children see the possibilities of this new land.

Sure, the book Pa is awesome with the ax and all, but tv Pa got to be played by Michael Landon.

Dobry, Newbery Winner 1935

Well... I guess it was okay. But let's just say that I wasn't completely surprised that this book is out of print. Publishers can't print every book indefinitely and sometimes books just become a bit dated. The prose doesn't reach out and grab you, take this sample:

Dobry stood without the slightest movement, watching the light.

"It's the color that an egg white is before you beat it up or cook it," Neda said. "Come on, let's hurry."

 And that was downright poetic for this book. However, the jarring, "come on, let's go," breaks it all apart. Ultimately, the word choice is too simplistic.

This is a concept I would really like to see tackled by a current author. While I might have really loved this story set in Eastern Europe (not a popular literary destination), it was far too dated. Another problem I had was the plot, or lack there-of. We spend 80 pages waiting for a gypsy-bear. Then it arrives, hurray! But you turn the page and, "For four summers now Dobry had looked after the village cows to earn the money to pay Semo for whatever charcoal pencils, brushes, paints, sketch books, and canvas the schoolmaster could get him from Sofia." Wait, we're four years down the road just like that? And Dobry is buying art supplies?

So is introduced the conflict in the story. But conflict is much too strong a word for, 'Dobry is an artist, his mother hopes he will be a farmer, until she sees his art, at which point money must be made so he can go to art school'. Simplistic exposition, just like the book; in fact, only a dozen or so pages are ever truly devoted to this conflict.

On the flip side I loved the descriptions of the Christmas and New Year's traditions, a whole book could have been developed just from those!
But I've been having a great time besides! My days have been filled with some of my great joys: reading, puzzling, thrifting, and fantasy.

First off:
Just finished A Hero for WondLa. It was amazing, a sequel that was well worth the wait. One minor flaw, now I need to wait for the conclusion because WondLa is a trilogy. I hate waiting for the 'next book'; at least with Harry Potter it seemed like 90% of the world was waiting with me. I'm all alone at this bus terminal.

Except you never know when the bus will arrive.

Puzzling:

One of my other great loves is the jigsaw puzzle. I'll admit that I've been dedicating my evenings to the puzzle and not the page. It's just so satisfying to finish a thousand pieces of nothing and turn it into a picture.

Thrifting:

How does a book lover with no disposable income build their collection? Thrift stores of course! I've been able to get 30 paperbacks under $10 before, unfortunately I don't know the best shops around here. I have found a Goodwill with 60 cent hardcovers and 50 cent paperbacks. It's a brutal place known as The Last Chance, with no organization and desperate shoppers, which makes walking out with choice books all the more satisfying. This week I found an old children's book by Sid Fleischman (The Whipping Boy), an old reading primer, some fun picture books, a Popples poetry book (I literally squealed when I found this), and, my personal favorite, a school geography book from 1883.

Fantasy:

It's hard to read and do a jigsaw puzzle at the same time. This gave me a chance to catch up on Merlin a fantastic BBC series. I'm on a bit of a King Arthur streak, watching shows, documentaries, and reading stray articles. Perhaps I'll go after L'morte de Arthur soon. (In addition to some other Arthur books I found down out thrifting.)

Upcoming!

Well, I've run through most of the award winners I have at college with me. Which means libraries! I have three usual libraries: Rapid City Public, Swanson Public, and CSM school library. What does this mean? Well, I need to carefully select books so that when I leave school next December the books I have left are ones sure to be found at the RCPL. Now Rapid City is a 'newer' city on the grand scale of things so its older children's literature is... non-existent. But here in Omaha there are several libraries I can roam the shelves of, however, it is one nondescript building that I chose to make my home location: the Swanson branch. Any of you out there in blog world who love children's literature and are in the neighborhood NEED to check out this library. They have a wonderful arrangement of children's literature! But on one shelf are the treasures, one look at these books tells you that they are older than any of the kids wandering the aisles, older even than many parents, the 'classics' shelf as it is called is filled with titles, and here classic is defined as old, out-of-print, and rare. They collected them from all the libraries in the city to display here.

In fact I just got three out-of-print Newberies from them this morning: Dobry, Tales from Silver Lands, and Waterless Mountain. There is one remaining out-of-print Newbery, Daniel Boone, but there was a waiting list for that one.

In addition, I checked out The Mummy Market by Nancy Brelis, on the recommendation of another blog: Collecting Children's Books. Go read it now, so addicting! Anyway, here was a book that runs fifty dollars on Amazon just sitting on a shelf for kids to pick up, only two words can describe this: crazy awesome.

Like this.

And last, but not least, I got A Hero for WondLa, a book I'd been waiting the better part of two years to come out. Its predecessor The Search for WondLa blew me away, and, as far as I'm concerned, earned its spot on bookshelves for generations to come. Go buy it, if you're lucky you might get the awesome original cover!

Only one can be the most awesome.

So anyway, I have a 500 page doorstop that I'm reading before I move onto the next Newbery. In the meantime I suggest you read the blog I mentioned earlier or, you know, a book.

Caddie Woodlawn, Newbery Winner 1936

I know that I've slowed down a bit this week. I apologize, I was busying myself with a short work that I've been writing. And I'm a very slow writer; I can spend nearly two hours on a page!
But today I read the delightful Caddie Woodlawn.
Many people compare it to the Little House series and rightfully so. The protagonist is a young girl who enjoys many of the activities that were considered un lady-like. Both are members of a pioneer family and both have plenty of adventures. It seems the whole world wishes to compare Caddie and Laura. I might as well jump on that boat.
However, I find them enjoyable on different levels. Caddie lived earlier than Laura and so we can hear a bit of the politics of the Civil War and how those people who lived on the frontier were affected by it. We also see a more 'civilized' frontier. There is a town and neighbors, they have each other but they are not part of the large population still living back east. And this book also has the nostalgic feel of listening to your older relatives gathering and telling stories of 'the grand old days'.
This is also a coming of age story. I feel that it has tremendous use for young girls today, I especially love when Caddie's father explains the difference between a lady and woman to her. Far from being a simple frontier tale, Caddie Woodlawn is a story about growing up independent. It demonstrates to young girls that it is possible to be wholly who they are and still be a woman. Caddie loved running and swimming with her brothers, but found that she enjoyed sewing too, those actions didn't have to be exclusive.
Not to say that Little House couldn't be these things as well, but I feel that Caddie Woodlawn is much better as a self-contained story. I would be willing to use it in a classroom quite readily, I feel that it would be a fun read for class when studying pioneers, and, as a bonus, I feel that it may appeal to boys due to Caddie's brothers playing a rather large role in the story.

Book Q an A

A friend sent me this list of book q and a's. I believe it is meant for facebook, but it seems far more relevant here! I'm sure some will be easier to answer than others and some I may have answered elsewhere on this blog. Off we go!

1-Your favorite Book - Perelandra by C.S. Lewis; This book completely entrances me, no matter how often I read it. It really is unlike any other book I've ever read, but if you thought the religious undertones of The Chronicles of Narnia was too much you'd best steer clear of this work.

2-Least Favorite Book - My Antonia by Willa Cather; This book is actually quite well written but we read it for school and a book I simply didn't like was drug out for months, thus turning my dislike into loathing.

3-A Book that completely surprised you - My Name Is Not Angelica by Scott O'Dell; Let's just say that I used this book to write a unit plan for one of my classes but would never use it in a real classroom. I chose the book before reading it and, by the time I finished it, didn't have the time to choose another book. The ending is... a bit of a downer, and not something I would recommend for the grade level it is written at.

Seriously? That ending made me want to call my mom and cry.

4- A Book that reminds you of home - None really come to mind.

5- A Non-fiction book that you actually enjoyed - The Road of Dreams by Bruce Junek; First off, I don't like what the question implies: are we not supposed to enjoy non-fiction? I enjoy lots of non-fiction, as do many people I know. Anyway this book is amazing because I met the authors a few times in my childhood, plus it is just an incredible book. I really need to read it again just to re-experience the world-view they present.
6- A Book that makes you cry - Zink by Cherie Bennet; Yeah, it won't be winning any awards that's for sure, but this story of one girl's fight with cancer is heartbreaking and will never fail to make me mope around the entire time I'm reading it.
7- A Book that’s hard to read - Left to Tell by Imaculee Ilabagiza; This story of survival during the Rwandan holocaust seems so unbelievable. It brings images of what we wish was a long forgotten past and reminds us that it has happened within our own lifetimes.
8- An unpopular book you believe should be a Best-Seller - Year of the Hangman by Gary Blackwood; I love this author and it's a pity he isn't more well known. But this book is one of his masterpieces, a work that really makes you examine our country's founding from a new angle. A great work of alternative history for any American Revolution buff.

There's a noose on the cover and it's still not as traumatizing as My Name is Not Angelica.

9- A Book you’ve read more than once - Really? If I like a book there is a pretty good chance I've read it more than once. In fact, this is like walking up to the average person and asking if there is a movie they've seen more than once.
10- The first novel you remember reading - Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder; I've mentioned it once before but this was certainly the first big book I ever tackled. I will always remember it fondly for that fact.
11- The Book that made you fall in love with reading - Too many to remember.
12- A book so emotionally draining you couldn’t complete it or had to set aside for a bit - Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup; While the book itself is emotional, I think that it was other emotions I was feeling at the time that made it hard to finish.
13- Favorite childhood book - Panda Cake by Rosalie Sandler
14- Book that should be on hs/college required reading list - Beowulf; Surprisingly few people I've met have read this epic. It was on my high school reading list and was one of the best books that we read for a class.
15- Favorite book dealing with foreign culture - The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling; This was a bit of a toughie, most of my favorite children's authors are Brits but the British way of life doesn't seem so foreign especially some of the older works. So I decided to run with a book I really like that happens to be set in a country very different from my own.
16- Favorite book turned movie - Bambi by Felix Salten; I took this question to mean a book that became a movie and the movie improved the book. And if ever there were a movie that I found ten times more enjoyable than the book it is Bambi.
17- Book turned movie and completely desecrated - A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle; It's a shame because this is a book that actually deserves a good movie but won't likely ever get one. After all Disney tried, does any other company care to see if they can get the rights and still have a film budget? Probably not.

But, for the love of all that is right in this world, avoid this movie too.

18- A Book You can’t find on shelves anymore that you love - Voyage of the Basset by James Christensen; This book is a conundrum. The professional reviewers hated it and said to skip it by; that children didn't deserve this overwrought, sentimental work. But everyone who read it seems to have enjoyed it. Sadly it is rare enough that the only copy on Amazon will often be more than fifty. I was lucky to stumble across this book and buy it on a whim while it was cheap.
19- A Book that changed your mind about a particular subject (non-fiction) - The Freedom Writers' Diary by Erin Gruwell; This is a book that shows just how difficult life can be even in the US and how important school is. Made me consider just how much of a difference a teacher can make.
20-A Book you would recommend to an ignorant/racist/closed minded person - Depends on their ignorance.
21-A guilty pleasure book - Guardians of Ga'Hoole Series by Kathryn Lasky; Yes, they are book series about a society of owls. Now, leave me alone so I can read.
22-Favorite Series - Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis; If I could name my kids Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy without getting weird looks I probably would. Also, I think it would be fun to put a secret office behind a wardrobe for reading, writing, and painting.
23- Favorite Romance Novel - Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare; Not technically a novel but I really hate romance so this was a close as I was going to get.
24 - A Book you haven't read but feel that you should - Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank; I'm a twenty two year old bibliophile who wants to teach, I really ought to read this book.
25 - Favorite Autobiographical/Biographical book - Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder; I know it's only loosely autobiographical but several of the books are set in my home state and it is fun to be able to go somewhere you read about.
26-A Book you wish would be written - A book about George Schuster for independent aged readers. I feel that there's a great story there.
27- A Book you would write if you had all the resources - See #26
28- A Book you wish you never read - Watership Down by Richard Adams
29- An Author that you completely avoid/hate wont read - Nicholas Sparks, Willa Cather, and Stephanie Meyer to name a few.
30 - An Author that you will read whatever they put out - Well, since most of the people on my favorites shelf are dead, I'm going to have to go with J.K. Rowling.

We all know it could be this and still top the bestsellers list.