My last look back (for now or forever I do not know)! This time I will look at the 2010s, this is the decade when I started my goal of reading all the Newbery books so many of these books I read when they were still newly published.
I really like this batch - the books aren't quite tops for me but a few break the top twenty. I can't really get a grasp of the decade as a whole, style and themes seem to bounce all over the place.
When You Reach Me (2010) - 5 Stars - There's a lot of nuance in this book, and you're going to need to bring prior knowledge of A Wrinkle in Time. Stead has wonderful characterization that ties her characters together in complex ways that need to be taken in slowly.
Crossover (2015) - 5 Stars - I was flummoxed when I heard about this book. Poetry and basketball??? But Kwame Alexander is one of my favorite contemporary authors now!
Merci Suárez Changes Gears (2019) - 5 Stars - I identified so hard with Merci. I love how this book approaches Alzheimer's Disease in a caring and explanatory fashion that had me crying for several pages.
Moon Over Manifest (2011) - 4 Stars - A well-crafted narrative intertwining the past with the 'present'. This book could have been truly great if the present of the story was just a little bit fleshed out. I never did solve the publication date mystery - but fewer sites seem to show that 1995 date.
The One and Only Ivan (2013) - 5 Stars - This proves itself an enduring favorite nearly a decade later; I still see this one frequently recommended in groups I follow. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I did read the sequel and, frankly, was underwhelmed.
The Girl Who Drank the Moon (2017) - 4 Stars - I'm surprised more people don't talk about this one. It has the hard fantasy elements found in many popular works, there is something just so perfectly crafted here that it is hard to explain.
Hello, Universe (2018) - 4 Stars - This one is very similar to my own writing style in that the point of view character keeps changing. I like the way this is done to give us as much of the whole story as possible.
Dead End in Norvelt (2012) - 4 Stars - A book that I had to stop and wonder, isn't this supposed to be a memoir? What does autobiographical novel even mean? Where does fiction start and reality begin, or vise versa?
Last Stop on Market Street (2016) - 4 Stars - This book is good... as a picture book. I never will be satisfied with this one winning a Newbery especially in a year with Echo and The War That Saved My Life.
Flora and Ulysses (2014) - 3 Stars - The book that proved to me that Kate DiCamillo can, in fact, write something below average. The quirkiness and whimsy felt overly forced and didn't mesh well with her writing style.
Recommendation of the Decade
Crossover is a book that I'm forever recommending to anyone that will listen. I've yet to meet someone that doesn't like it once they've read it. One of the biggest surprises in all of the Newbery winners. I hadn't heard of it before it won, and I distinctly recall being unenthused by the concept... however, after beginning I simply couldn't stop. In the last few years, I've read so many of Kwame Alexander's books and they never fail to please!
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