Fifth Round-Up

For a while there I wasn't sure I'd make it to this round-up. But here I am, with fresh resolve, so I'm going to keep it going as long as possible. Astute readers will notice that there are only nine in this round-up; I did that to balance everything out for my even fifty.

A Wrinkle in Time - One of my favorite books in any line-up I always knew that this one would be shooting for the top. I love books that have new deeper layers as you grow and A Wrinkle in Time never fails to disappoint. Madeline L'Engle is one of my favorite authors and for me, as many others, this was the first of her books I read.

The Twenty-One Balloons - This was simply a fun romp. The pieces fit together to give us a fairly unique work. Most children's books, including the award-winners have a kid as the protagonist. Here we are given a middle aged man. Not a wildly crazy man. I mean yes, he does attempt to spend a year living in a balloon house, but the man is very scientific about the whole thing.

The Graveyard Book - A very different sort of book than I usually read. The mystery was never quite brought to full fruition though. I just don't understand what was the catalyst force in the novel, which I feel like ought to have been revealed, or, if it was revealed, needed to be a little more explicit.

The Summer of the Swans - A lovely book that handled what might have been a poor topic choice with the delicate and understanding hand that it needed. It shows its age, but not in a bad way.

Shen of the Sea - A fun collection of short stories posing as Chinese folktales. These do show their age however, the author seems constantly pleased to point out that - look! It's foreign! Exciting! Chinese!

Shadow of a Bull - A solid coming-of-age story that explores what legacy can mean and how it can hurt you and help you. I feel that this falls very squarely into the 'boy-appeal' stack, which is a stack that never seems to catch the girl-appeal. (I don't sort all books this way because the vast majority appeal to both.

Flora and Ulysses - So. Much. Quirky. It was cute, but far to cutesy for my taste. I was quite disappointed with Kate DiCamillo's second Newbery winner and felt that the honor books stacked much higher.

Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze - Eh. Another coming of age story. Another set in China. My favorite character was the mother, whom we saw far too little of. I think it works best as a historical narrative, unfortunately this has never been a time or place I was interested in historically.

Up a Road Slowly - This was such a boring book. And the only one that I would would set in the 'girl-appeal' pile simply because there isn't really anything here for the young men to take away. Girls might at least connect with the protagonist.


The entire countdown!

1.  A Wrinkle in Time
2. Number the Stars
3. Crispin: Cross of Lead
4. Island of the Blue Dolphins
5. Julie of the Wolves
6. Maniac Magee 
7. Bud, Not Buddy
8. King of the Wind
9. Out of the Dust
10. When You Reach Me
11. The Tale of Despereaux
12. The Door in the Wall
13. Holes
14. Caddie Woodlawn
15. Kira-Kira
16. Sounder
17. Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village
18. The Giver
19. The Westing Game
20. Bridge to Terabithia
21. The View from Saturday
22. Sarah, Plain and Tall
23. Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices
24. Call It Courage
25. The Cat Who Went to Heaven
26. The One and Only Ivan
27. The Midwife's Apprentice
28. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
29. The Twenty-One Balloons
30. Onion John
31. The Graveyard Book
32. The Summer of the Swans
33. Dear Mr. Henshaw
34. Missing May
35. Tales from Silver Lands
36. A Gathering of Days
37. The Whipping Boy
38. Shen of the Sea
39. Shadow of a Bull
40. Rabbit Hill
41. Strawberry Girl
42. Flora and Ulysses
43. The Matchlock Gun
44. A Visit to William Blake's Inn
45. Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze
46. It's Like This, Cat
47. Up a Road Slowly
48. Johnny Tremain
49. Dobry
50. Daniel Boone

The Summer of the Swans, Newbery Winner 1971

This is my 50th reviewed Newbery Winner! I still have a ways to go, but trust me when I say that there have been many, many doubts on my part whether or not I could even make it this far. I'm not someone who can easily follow through with long projects, but in just a few weeks I'll have been chipping away at this project for 3 full years! That is basically a record for any project less important than going to school. So I think it is time for an internet party! You're all invited!!!

Okay, enough fun. We're here for a reason, a super-serious one guys. I knew that the big 5-Oh was coming and I did my homework. It turns out that it was possible for me to read none other than the 50th book to win the Newbery. I counted several times just to make sure, I was so dead set on this event happening! So, without further ado, my review of The Summer of the Swans.

I hope you all appreciate the lengths I'm going to in order to show you the exact cover of the copy I read.

This is a bit of an embarrassing backstory. I - who almost never confuse children's books and authors - couldn't keep this book and The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White straight in my head, even though the descriptions are about as different as two books can be (or ARE they?). I eventually had to, horrors, ask the library the author's name when I was there today, and this person, whom I hadn't heard of, Betsy Byars, turns out she's written a lot of children's books, compared to White's three. Funnily enough The Summer of the Swans and The Trumpet of the Swan were published the same year, so I'd like to imagine booksellers and librarians getting just as confused I was.

I wandered into this book with a fair amount of trepidation. I knew that a significant portion of the plot was dedicated to a boy with a mental handicap, a subject that I was a afraid to trust to the '70s, especially after a short run-in with '67's winner Up a Road Slowly. I found that my fears were relatively unfounded though, our heroine Sara has lots of love for her brother and their neighbors feel concern for him and seem to be very understanding.  The author's website revealed that Charlie was inspired by children she worked with as a volunteer, so there is a lot of realism in his actions.

Sara herself grew over the course of the one day in the novel. She starts out very self-absorbed, concerned primarily with how a person looks. She feels morose about everything, even though nothing has changed from the last summer, and she is proud for being able to steadfastly hold a grudge. She will not listen to anyone, believing they just can't understand, yet she is also upset if someone doesn't listen to here. By the end of the story she has shifted a lot of her self-centered ways into looking at how everyone has to face their own challenges, not just her. She seemed to have matured remarkably quick, it does feel realistic given the circumstances, and I'm sure she'll have bouts of regression.

What does not feel realistic is the stinking party. Good golly. If my best friend's little brother had wandered off and gotten lost, I don't think I'd be reminding her that I need to go home and wash because this super-cute boy asked me to his party and-by-the-way-sorry-you-weren't-invited. I wouldn't be headed to that party under any circumstances until he was found. And Sara! When she gets invited, after a day of hiking through the woods, yelling for her brother, I thought for sure she would politely decline. But, naw, a party sounds like an excellent way to clear my mind of the trauma, pretty sure my brother won't be needing any support tonight anyway, let's go!

One more thing: swans. I fully expected two things from this book and it didn't deliver either. I thought it would take place over all or most of a summer, not less than two days, and I thought there would be significant swan involvement. As it is they are just barely a catalyst. Charlie likes watching them so much that he wanders toward the lake but gets lost and confused. Honestly though, I think that wandering into a bunch of swans in the middle of the night would be traumatizing. Those suckers are mean. I was once chased by a giant one across a lake while boating. It is the only time I've ever understood how someone can be terrified of birds. If you thought geese were territorial, it is nothing compared to swans (at least the mute variety) and you should consider yourself warned.

The experience was less, "oooh, look at the beautiful, graceful symbols of love,"and more... 

"DIIIEEEE!!! HUMAN SCUM!!!"

Other than the party though, this book struck all the right notes. Each character seeming perfectly developed in their role. The author admits that she prefers writing dialogue and it certainly shows in the book. It was really the only complaint of substance I found in any reviews, but the amount of dialogue isn't what I would consider distracting in any way. I never really even noticed until the author herself pointed it out.

Tune in tomorrow for the Round-Up!

Up a Road Slowly, Newbery Winner 1967

So... the original copy (my cover).

And three other incarnations:

Besides the amusing fact that she seems to be wearing three variations of the same outfit (an outfit I don't recall be mentioned in the book). I can't get over how similar they all are... they have a cheap romance look about them (especially that first one) or a Sweet Valley High sort of vibe. In any event they certainly don't look exceptionally exciting to me.

Well. This book had been giving me the stink-eye from my bookshelf for quite a while now. I bought this book as a discarded library book from my college and, frankly, I'm not sure that it saw much action in the years it was there (I know it had been there a while because it had a stamp inside with the college's address from a long time ago.) Anyhow I had once twice started this book before, but never made it much past the first chapter.
So yesterday I gritted my teeth and resolved to - Get. It. Done. It took way longer than I thought it would, I'm telling you. The title is no joke. I'm pretty sure that you only got slower as you got further up the road... and I'm certain the road kept getting longer. I usually cover distance in books more quickly, but for whatever reason I was plodding along.
After all is said and done I liked most of the characters in this book, the setting was wonderful (old houses for the win), and the dialogue struck mostly true. But my grievances are thus:
1. Why bother even having the character of the brother? I'm pretty sure nothing would have changed if Chris simply hadn't existed.
2. When is this book supposed to take place? Sometimes it felt like the late 1800s but - oh, wait - they have cars? and city-schools? In the end I think it was written as the present (1966) but heavily infused with the author's childhood.
3. What was with that ending line? Pretty sure it was meant to be loving and poignant but I ended up laughing out loud.
4. Too much time! Oh my gosh, the book covered Julie's life from seven to eighteen, in 192 pages! I've seen long timespans in novels before, but for some reason it just didn't play well here.

I do adore Aunt Cordelia, and as another literary teacher she plays the part well. The kids see her as a strict disciplinarian but I personally feel that we have a lot in common, she sets very high expectations, expects fairness, and is wholly consistent. She would probably be dismayed by my lack of grammar expertise. I do find it interesting that this isn't Irene Hunt's most-well-known or even best loved novel, seeing as it is the award-winner. Her most popular book is her first one: Across Five Aprils, it was her favorite from her works as well, so I think I'll have to give it a try.

Shadow of a Bull, Newbery Winner 1965

Well. WELL. Weeeeeelllllll. Well.
I can't think of much anything to say about this book. Easy read, check. Enjoyable, uh, check. But would I readily recommend it? Probably not.
There seems to be a large faction of people willing to decry this book for not denouncing the practice of bullfighting. It never really embraces it either, it simply relates the views of the characters. I would argue that we are encouraged to believe that Manolo makes the better choice in the end. This book isn't asking you to decide how you feel about bullfighting. (I'm pretty sure that most people will either already know how they feel or will quickly decide after reading a little bit.)

Is it gory? Heh, get it? Gory??? 

That joke was so bad that even Fozzie is ashamed of me.

Okay, lame joke. Anyway....

There isn't what I would consider an obnoxious amount of gore in this book, considering the subject. In fact, while it is mentioned that the bulls die at the end of a match, the bullfighters seem to get the brunt amount of written blood in this book.

In other news, how does the author with the longest name: Maia Wojciechowska (not even my pronunciation websites had any help to offer me with that one), manage to have one of the shortest and most boring Wikipedia entries? A moderate amount of internet digging only turns up one interesting story, but repeating it here would make me blush. I wasn't really interested enough to look more into it. 

Flora and Ulysses, Newbery Winner 2014

I did it. I read all the Newbery books from 2014 and the results are... mixed. Looking back at my Goodreads feed I gave the following number of stars to the honor winners:

5 Stars

4 Stars

4 Stars

4 Stars

...and the winner? Did it stack up? I gave Flora and Ulysses a very solid 3 stars. That's right, the winner was my least favorite from the crop. I saw Kate DiCamillo was the author an got very excited; I love everything else of hers that I've ever read. But this book? Meh.

You heard that right. Meh. The characters were overly quirky. Come on, I need someone to be non-quirky normal person. Before anyone gets up in arms about normal being an illusion, I understand and agree to a point. But these were not people with quirks... these were quirks with a body, it got real old. The idea of a super-powered squirrel that has a love for poetry might have worked really well if we didn't have to keep up with a veritable cast of cloud cuckoo-landers. 

In the end I can see why it was chosen. The Association is trying to avoid the sentiment that they are out of touch and don't understand what kids will really read. They took the kid appeal road. I've always felt that the Newbery strives to award books that struck a balance between kid appeal and Literature-with-a-capital-L. Some years they do better than others, but I find that it is the books with a perfect mixture of these factors that best stand the test of time.

Which would I have selected as the winner? For me it is a toss-up. Not Paperboy (too much capital L), not Billy Miller (not enough capital L), so there is Doll Bones (which I enjoyed start to finish), and One Came Home (that ending...). 

Personally Doll Bones more cohesive and very, very enjoyable it deserved a win. One Came Home probably has less kid appeal and an ending that made me tired, but if it had won I'd be okay with it because the journey was so much fun. Sorry committee, you got it wrong. 

One Came Home, Newbery Honor 2014

I stayed up until two in the morning finishing this book, also known as way too late on a work-night. But the plot was just that gripping. I was pulled along so quickly that I simply couldn't bear to put it down. The mystery in this historic fiction is gripping enough to keep one going. And baffling enough to keep one guessing and second-guessing all throughout.

BUT
But...


The book's flaws are all in the end. There was either too much or not enough depending on how one looks at it. First, we have the major plot concerning the two sisters, it was resolved in four pages. Umm... I just went through 200 pages showing the devotion Georgie felt towards her sister and struggling to come to terms with the part she played in the whole affair. You need to give me more than four pages, especially since there was so much more that needed saying. A side-relationship as our main character finds companionship in Billy is never really resolved at all. Maybe I'm just too forgiving, but I felt like the way that one wrapped up was horrible. Georgie went from begrudged friendship, to genuine care, then to absolute nothing.

A graph of the author's development of relationship between Georgie and Billy.

I will now give you the most superfluous advice ever: three alternatives places to stop reading... but no one will follow because who puts down a mystery unfinished?

Option 1: Page 218. Do you like cliffhangers a la The Giver? This is the ending for you. We know what has happened to several of our main characters and we can use the clues given to build our own conclusions.

Option 2: Page 234. There is an incredible amount of filler now as we are nearing the end. But four of these pages tie up the biggest plot in the story, albeit in a fairly unsatisfying way.

Option 3: Page 241. Less filler than the previous 16 pages, but still just barely necessary. While most of the resolutions didn't feel fleshed out in a proper way, the one that should have remained vague was given a tidy, very complete ending.

This book actually goes to page 245. Not that far beyond my last suggestion. But those last four pages seem almost completely out of context that I don't think they are worth the bother. The last couple of paragraphs, while a possible conclusion our heroine could reach, feel out of line with the necessary means of survival on the frontier. The biggest problem is that the ending falters. It should have either stopped and let us draw conclusions, or fleshed out what was happening in a way that felt realistic. I spent four pages reading about the smell of pigeon nesting grounds, I ought to get much more than that as a conclusion for the heroine.

Moving along. I thought pigeons would play a bigger role here... but really they didn't. They were, as in life, basically an infestation passing through rather quickly. I did however find some interesting things about passenger pigeons from my good friend Mr. Google. Foremost, they were apparently the size of a crow. Crazy, I always pictured them as being basically a prettier version of the rock dove that I see all over the place.

Pictured: Not the same size.

Also, scientists have thought about a breeding/ cloning program to revive the species. Naturalists have pointed out the problems, including: there are no known subspecies, so no living DNA is preserved; the species never bred in captivity; and apparently they weren't just social, they were ridiculously social, when flocks dropped in size to a mere thousand or so members they stopped breeding within the flock.

Overall decent read. It could have been a great read if it weren't for that awful conclusion. I was really driven by the mystery and enjoyed the young questions of life and love. Georgie was a great character, reminiscent of one of my favorite American celebrities, Annie Oakley. All the characters were believably fleshed out into real people, even ones with adjective names such as Bowler Hat and Pin Eyes. I think know I could have really loved this book if it hadn't been for the resolution of the primary plot, instead I ended up just liking it. Go ahead and give it a read, just remember that you'll need to bring some reader baggage with you to help get through the end.

Paperboy, Newbery Honor 2014

An interesting book, and one I liked, to be sure... I'm just not sure that I have a whole lot to say about it. It was a great read into the thoughts of someone who stutters and it was set against the backdrop of the segregated South, which makes for some interesting moral discussions.

Our author is writing from the point of view of a boy who stutters, actually what we read is supposedly something that the main character is typing. Even though he finds talking difficult he still loves words, he thinks that perhaps he'll be a writer someday. But he hates commas and the book is accordingly sort on them; I also realized about a third of the way through that there were no quotation marks... Make of that what you will, but I didn't find that it affected readability in any way (then again, grammar/ punctuation has never been my strongest suit). He is in seventh grade but his thoughts read as though he were older, yet it still feels pretty natural.

As to the plot, it is centered around the fact that he is spending July filling in for his friends paper route. The collection happens on Friday, and each of the four Fridays is very eventful but things do happen on other days. Each person he meets working the paper route teaches him something: Mrs. Worthington, TV Boy, and, my personal favorite, Mr. Spiro.

I would say that the most noticeable downfall is the ending. This is one of those occasions where I wanted a teeny bit more closer... but I guess I'll have to live with it.