The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox might be the most graphic of the Newbery winners that I've read. I thought it was a good book - though I wouldn't really call it an enjoyable book. Several parts of the book disgusted me or made me uncomfortable (arguably the point). Because it delves into the 19th century slave trade this book is going to require some historical background on the reader's part. This may appear to be a slim book, but for subject matter alone I'd push it towards the higher end of the Newbery's age range. There is strong language (yes - the word you are probably thinking of), violence, gruesome death, and general immorality to be found throughout the book.
The main character is Jesse, a fife player from New Orleans, who is kidnapped and brought aboard the slave ship The Moonlight in order to play tunes for captured Africans to dance to as they are brought to the Caribbean and United States to be sold. Jesse himself is against the slave trade though the book never seems to give him stronger reasons than he is a good person (this doesn't hurt the story much because it was written for children). You can definitely pick up on the trauma the African people went through on the ship but again, due to the target audience, not a lot of depth is gone into.
Overall a good read. This book perhaps highlights the problems of reading these books as an adult. I kept wanting the author to delve deeper - but on the other hand I thought this was already pushing it about as far as it could go and still be appropriate for children.
First off - I occasion the blogs that discuss the favorites and give predictions but somehow I had not heard of a single one of these books prior to the award ceremony. Several things here to get excited about though - including historical fiction from an era I know relatively little about and a book set in Medieval France, you guys know how I'm beginning to feel about these books set in the Middle Ages.
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
As the title suggests this book is written in diary form. This is an effective way to combine historical narrative with a fictional story. It takes place in the mid-1940s when British rule ended in India and the country split into two pieces, Pakistan and India. I had a passing understanding of this time period from high school but this short book more than doubled my understanding. When the new country of Pakistan is formed it is designated as a country for Muslims (a religious minority in the larger country of India) and Muslims living in all parts of India begin migrating there. But some of the people living in this newly outlined area were Hindu or Sikhs (a religion I mistakingly believed was a sect of either Islam or Hinduism whenever I heard the word), those people began the migration in the opposite direction. This resulted in the largest mass migration in history, around 14 million people moving from one country to the other. As often happens when political and religious tensions mix with large groups of people - violence broke out. The author tells us that approximately 1 million people are estimated to have been killed (though no official number exists).
The fictional tale here is that Nisha has just turned twelve and received a diary for a gift. She uses the diary as a means to communicate with her mother who died in childbirth. Her parents were a mixed marriage, her mother was Muslim and her father is Hindi, their families had disapproved of the marriage but they were married in secret anyway. Now Nisha lives with father (a doctor), Dadi (her grandmother), her twin brother Amil, and the families' cook Kazi (a Muslim man). This interesting array of characters allows us to explore many aspects of the time period. I love how this novel touches on so many things in such a natural way - faith, culture, history, conflict (and its effects), learning disabilities, class, friendship, anxiety, and most of all - family. I highly recommend this book to any and all.
The Book of Boy by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Basic plot dump - Boy is a hunchbacked goat-herder living in 1300s France. One day he meets a pilgrim named Secundus who is collecting the relics of Saint Peter to bring them to Rome. At first Boy is frightened of Secundus but eventually grows to like him.
Ooooooooh boy. Here was another book was a large Catholic base. (I mean 1350 France and Rome hardly leave many other options besides Catholicism.) I'm beginning to see that blending Catholicism and fantasy is a tricky road to trod - probably any religion,which brings so many questions to books on my shelves. But, in honesty, I think this book came closer to getting it right than The Inquisitor's Tale and The Relic of Perilous Falls, the latter of which was written by a pretty prominent Catholic author. And this book was doing so well at writing what seemed to be an honest attempt at interpretation of the religious fervor that many had - especially concerning relics. A relic is... well here is Bishop Barron to help me out:
What is depicted in the book is when relic veneration (and probably something more akin to worship) was in its heyday. A couple reviews said this was anti-Catholic and I'd say that it is not how relics are meant to be viewed but certainly how (at least in my Church history class) many people did view them. It became such a big problem that there are now Canon Laws regarding the issue. If this had been about as far as the author strayed into religion the book would have rated 5 stars. I'm going to reveal a couple major spoilers that are the reason this book has been knocked down to 4 stars (skip blue text to avoid spoilers)
Boy is not a hunchback, he's an angel. He just doesn't know it and has been living on the manor lands the whole time. Okay, let me share a secret with you - angels are not corporeal! If you are going to go to such lengths to try to depict an accurate setting with Catholic traditions why would you go this route? I'm aware that this is a fairly common trope and angels appear human in several Bible stories, so I'm giving this point some leeway. What I'm not letting slide is the fact that Secundus is trying to complete a quest to get into heaven after 1000 years in Hell. Since the author has chosen to found the beliefs and practices of her characters in Catholicism this falls flat on its face. Catholic belief is that Hell is eternal - there are no take-backs once you realize that your wife and child went to heaven and you'll never see them again. Especially frustrating because Catholics believe in purgatory - which would have fit the story so much better and not fiddled quite so much with doctrine. There was literally a built-in half-way house just waiting to be used.
Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina
And now for the main event! I absolutely adored this book. I connected with the main character in so many ways. Meg Medina has given us a contemporary character quite unlike any I've read before. In that Merci is contemporary to the this time period. I've seen so many complaints from people saying something to the effect of this book not feeling timeless. With due respect I can't help but wonder just how old the reviewers are making those comments. Just like I might have to give up trying defend the literary merits of graphic novels to people in generations before mine, it may not be worth the fight of saying that just because technology exists in a book that doesn't suddenly take it away from being 'timeless'. I feel like The Hobbit and Holes both qualify as timeless - but I wouldn't for a moment argue that they have the same levels of technology. Yes, children have cell phones, you don't have to like it (generally I don't and this book kind of addresses why), but you should be prepared to acknowledge it and really the book would feel a little phony without them.
However, the real issues addressed in the book are what truly make it timeless. Sixth grade has been a time of tough transitions for time immemorial - if I were to pick any year to completely forget about it would be sixth grade. Bullying, as much as people try, is going to continue to be an issue as long as hormones, low impulse control, and partially developed pre-frontal cortexes are gathered together for several hours each day. Although I can sympathize with Merci's struggles with bullies, I cannot understand why she continues to try to connect and hang out with someone she continually describes as being mean.
While I identified with Merci's struggles being the target of classmates bullying, the subplot that really got me was her family story. As soon as I read the dust jacket I knew how the book was going to play out - not because it was so predictable - but because I lived it. Merci's grandfather is changing, forgetting things, getting lost, and such. Today Alzheimer's disease in the 6th leading cause of death in the US - I have no idea what those statistics were in the last two decades, but I do know that I had not really heard of it or seen it portrayed in media when my grandmother had it. I'm glad that this children's book addresses Alzheimer's because, make no mistake, children are being exposed in real life and books are a great way to learn and connect.
This book had me crying and laughing. It depicted that challenging time of life that everyone goes through around eleven or twelve, and it did so with great poise. The title is so appropriate - even if you don't really realize it until the very end.
So, do I agree with the choice of winner? Absolutely, actually I'd have been happy with either Merci Suárez Changes Gears or The Night Diaries. The Book of Boy was okay, but not quite as good. I do wish Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson and The Journey of Little Charlie by Christopher Paul Curtis had received Newbery nods. but I do think my favorite book from 2018 did win.
Oh man. This round-up spans three years! So forgive me if I'm a little vague on the details. Going back and looking I see that I rated three of them as two stars and two as three stars - obviously not my favorite batch here. But my calculator indicates that I'm 74% through with reading (not blogging) so I'm sure the remainder will be tougher as they are the books I've intentionally not read yet. I apologize to both my readers that this blog was basically dead there for a while. Hopefully by catching up I'll be able to squelch any desire to let it go so long!
1. Trumpeter of Krakow was quite easily my favorite book of the batch and probably the first I would ever re-read. I've discussed before that reading it while in Krakow surely boosted its favor with me - and I think that a re-read might have a similar effect of transporting me back to my favorite city in Europe!
2. Miracles on Maple Hill - If Trumpeter of Krakow will take me back somewhere I love. Than perhaps Miracles on Maple Hill is tops in the opposite category of making me love somewhere I've never been. I'm truly a Heartlander, born and raised in that middle bit of the country some people call fly-over. But books like this really fuel a desire to visit the rural Northeast.
3. The Hero and the Crown was a fun book that I suspect may have been influential in bringing us more fantasy heroines. There are still aspects that sit uneasy with me - but is it a problem to have a book that challenges you?
4. Adam of the Road is a story set in Medieval England. I'm apparently missing a whole sub-genre of literature here! The more of these stories I read the more I want. This one is great because of the traveling aspect, but also a little frustrating I just want Adam to get back to his father!
5. The Girl Who Drank the Moon was a charming tale that reads very similar to a classic fairy tale. It had all the tropes: witches, dragons, animal transformations, abandoned children, and corrupt government. Definitely a fun one to read again.
6. Dicey's Song was so dreary. The story was okay I suppose and had every right to be depressing - but it drug out so much.
7. M.C. Higgins, the Great - An odd little book. An interesting idea for a story but they just never truly went anywhere with it.
8. Ginger Pye - This was just so incredibly dull.
9. The Dark Frigate - Somehow even more dull.
10. Amos Fortune: Free Man is an incredibly dated book that I have actually ranked lower with the passage of time. Sure, Amos had a decent enough life - but at the cost of his freedom and after so much trauma. The last couple years have made me rethink my evaluation of this book.
And now, the countdown!
A Wrinkle in Time
Number the Stars
Crispin: Cross of Lead
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Julie of the Wolves
Maniac Magee
Bud, Not Buddy
King of the Wind
The Trumpeter of Krakow
Out of the Dust
When You Reach Me
Crossover
The Tale of Despereaux
The Door in the Wall
Holes
Caddie Woodlawn
Kira-Kira
Sounder
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village
Well, it's been a looooong time coming. After all, I'd read three out of four of these before the award was ever announced (and that missing book took me less than thirty minutes to read). But I'm the worst kind of procrastinator in that once I get behind I tend to just get more and more behind. Hopefully I'm well on my way to getting back on track.
Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life by Ashley Bryan is a picture book, but I do believe that the writing holds its own and can stand without its illustrations. Ashley Bryan found the names of eleven slaves on an auction list in some of his historic documents. Using this list that contained names and prices (also I believe gender and rough age) he tried to envision each of the eleven people listed. He writes a poem about each person and their dreams and creates a portrait - we not only see who they are but who they wish to be. Of course his description is more likely than not to contain inaccuracies - but it puts a personal face to the tragedy of slavery that stripped so many of their identities and prevented them from realizing their dreams.
The Inquisitor's Tale by Adam Gidwitz is the book I predicted would take the win. I initially went in with quite a bit of trepidation - I was wary of how Catholicism might be portrayed in a book with 'Inquisitor' in the title. I still am not sure how to feel - the story was enjoyable and I don't think the Church as a whole was portrayed negatively. But there were so many inaccuracies on technical things that sort of played into a fantasy aspect. As an adult I found it quite enjoyable, as a Catholic child I might have felt confused and occasionally insulted. Overall, a book that I don't feel was purposefully trying to be harmful or malicious, but was from the perspective that really mixed faith and fantasy quite a bit.
Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolf definitely leans towards the older end of the Newbery age focus. It has been compared to To Kill a Mockingbird by many reviewers. It would would probably be best classified as young adult rather than children's literature because it is quite dark. The main character Annabelle finds herself bullied by a classmate relentlessly. The bullying escalates and begins to physically harm the people in Annabelle's life. Toby, a veteran from WWI, begins to draw the towns suspicions and Annabelle's efforts to stand up for him seem to fall short. In the end whose word will prevail, Annabelle or her bully, Betty? Bring your tissues and make sure that you pre-read this book before deciding if it is right for the children in your life.
And now the winner....
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill - Another hard fantasy! I thoroughly enjoyed this fantasy and really liked how all the material came together. Starting at the beginning we have a woman that is a witch and takes a child from the village in the woods each year. This is a classic fairy tale set-up, but then we are offered the events from the witch's point of view. Xan saves this child - feeds it starlight and carries it through the forest to a family waiting for it.
One year however she feeds the abandoned girl moonlight - a meal that imbues the baby girl with powerful magic. Xan names the girl Luna and raises her in an isolated swamp as her granddaughter. Other residents of the swamp include a tiny dragon who wishes to be bigger and a swamp monster.
Back in the city Luna's mother is locked away as a madwoman, the coming heir struggles with the traditions of his city, and the council keep secrets.
One year they all come colliding together in a grand climax that is precisely how a fantasy is meant to come together. It has all the classic elements, just the right amount of darkness, a mythos, and of course - the wilderness.
So - my thoughts? All worthy, most in need of historical context and guidance, but it never hurts kids to get those things. My favorite was Wolf Hollow, but I do think that more of the targeted demographic for Newbery's is going to be excluded by the dark content/subject matter. All-in-all The Girl Who Drank the Moon was a fine choice to include with the list of winners - but perhaps I'd have liked to see Ghost by Jason Reynolds there more. Not sure what that book is? Go read it!
This book won SO MANY awards! The Newbery Medal, the National Book Award, and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award have only been collectively won by two titles - this book and Holes. I loved Holes so, obviously, going in I had expectations. Annnnnnd, meh. It was actually one of my three lowest rated books last year (not number one - I was too frustrated with another) possibly tied for second worst.
The story is billed as a coming of age story (three days?), I'm not sure about this but I can agree with it being realistic fiction. Our titular character lives in the Appalachians and is in his early teen years. He is convinced that his family's home is in danger due to mining activities, but he cannot decide if it is time to leave or not. He meets two people that help him in making a decision, a man collecting the musical traditions of the mountains and a teenaged girl traveling on her own. The ending is interesting and complex but not worth the journey we took to get there.
Many covers show M.C. sitting atop his pole. It seems like it will be really important at first, but outside of some possible symbolism (rising above hardship, isolation, seeing the world - take your pick) it doesn't feature too prominently. Overall, this is one I'd recommend skipping to anyone that isn't a completist.
This book spoke to me on all my nerdy adult introvert levels. It involves moving to a remote town in New England (I assume Vermont, but cannot remember if it was explicitly stated), raising small livestock, exploring the woods, and making maple syrup! All of those are things I either currently want to do or have once wanted to do.
I blame Reading Rainbow for this one.
This is a fairly short story but it hits so many right notes. It addresses family separation when the father stays in the country while the mother and kids go back and forth to the city, parental anxieties on both low and high levels when the parents want to move to the country permanently and bring their ideas before the kids and also when the brother goes missing on a cold winter night, intergenerational friendships including friendships with the marginalized... like I said it hits so many notes! I really enjoyed this quick read and think it probably is among the top for a cozy winter read.
I had actually typed up some lengthy run-through about the fantasy genre after I had first finished this book (in February 2017!), I couldn't really make heads or tails of where I was going with that particular except to say that high fantasy, though a popular genre with young people doesn't seem to frequently win the Newbery. Sorry past me, for deleting what I'm sure had the makings of a well thought out essay.
Past Katie is upset.
Remember when I once said that if a book was part of a series I would try to read at least the preceding books in the series? Well, chuck that right out the window because, as it turns out, this is book #2. A fact that was not conveyed to me by the cover of the book nor any of the brief blurbs that I read about it in Newbery lists. The FIRST TIME I saw #2 was on the Goodreads page when I logged my read. *Sigh.* That being said, you can totally skip the first book and still enjoy this one. Why? Because the sequel is actually a prequel! In fact, I still haven't read book one though I intend to... my research leads me to believe that this series is similar to Redwall in that everything can stand on its own fairly well.
Anyhow, this book definitely fits the 'high fantasy' mold better than any of the other Newbery books I've read thus far - I mean look at it - there's a dragon on the front cover! Anyhow, this is one of those books I'd not heard of before beginning this little quest - despite the fact that fantasy is totally my jam. I'd love to gush about the intricate plot points that drew me in - but honestly this book needs a quick wikisearch from me.
Okay - so there was apparently romance (totally forgot about that), though I did remember the 'not-quite-mortal' stuff because it creeped me out a smidgen. Let's be honest though - I came for the dragon slaying. I'm all about dragons from either side of the mythos, just so long as the mythos has decided what it is doing with its dragons I'm good. I love them all - good, bad, and in-between - forget everything being better with penguins (still true) everything is better with dragons.
A solid story that I'd recommend to anyone who loves a rip-roaring fantasy - as long as they are able to navigate the sometimes dense language.
