Newbery 1997

The View From Saturday
Author: E.L Konigsburg
Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction
Plot: A group of friends called the Souls enter a trivia competition.
Verdict: Awesomely woven story
My rating: 4 stars


A Girl Named Disaster
Author: Nancy Farmer
Genre: Fantasy
Plot: Nhamo runs away when her village attempts to marry her to a man with three wives.
Verdict: Great tale of survival
My rating: 4 stars


The Moorchild
Author: Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Genre: Fantasy
Plot: Sasaki is a girl wrongdoers not realize she is a changeling that replaced her parents' human child.
Verdict: Interesting changeling twist
My rating: 3 stars


The Thief
Author: Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: Fantasy
Plot: A renowned thief is released from prison to steal an artifact for the king.
Verdict: I liked the ending twist
My rating: 3 stars


Belle Prater's Boy
Author: Ruth White
Genre: Fiction
Plot: Woodrow comes to live with his grandparents when his mother disappears.
Verdict: I love Woodrow's stories
My rating: 4 stars

Both The View From Saturday and A Girl Named Disaster stand out as my clear favorites.  Both books are excellently written with great characters.  Both authors have been on the Newbery list multiple times for good reason.  Konigsburg has two medals and an honor and Farmer has three honors ( I hope she finally wins one day).  Plot-wise, these books are completely different.  The View from Saturday is a book with an ensemble cast, The Souls, who are a quiz team for their school.  A Girl Named Disaster has a solo main character who spends most of the book on her own as she flees from an arranged marriage. 

Belle Prater's Boy is a realistic fiction book and I enjoyed Woodrow and his stories very much.  The sequel, The Search for Belle Prater, is also good.

The other two books are more on the myth/folktale type. They are decent reads but don't shine as brightly as the first two on the list in my opinion.  The Moorchild  delves into the realm of changelings, a term for a faerie child who is swapped for a human child.  The Thief is a rather interesting story of a notorious thief who is released from prison in exchange for stealing an item of importance. 

Newbery 2015

The Crossover
Author: Kwame Alexander
Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction/Poetry
Plot: Josh and Jordan are twin brothers who play basketball in middle school. Things change when their dad gets sick and Jordan discovers girls
My verdict: Made me cry
My rating: 4 stars


El Deafo
Author: Cece Bell
Genre: Biography/Graphic Novel
Plot: Cece loses her hearing at age 4.  She struggles to understand in a world of speech and to fit in at school.
My verdict: Loved it!
My rating: 5 stars


Brown Girl Dreaming
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Genre: Biography/Poetry
Plot: Woodson talks about her childhood.
My verdict: My favorite Woodson book
My rating: 4 stars

Once I finished reading all three books, I realized that none of them are "normal" novels.  We have two poetic novels and a graphic novel.  I am glad to see that the American Library Association is tipping its hat to "non traditional" novels when they have great content.  I can honestly say that I enjoyed all three books (even though I didn't think I would).

I find that poetic novels are quick and readable and often invoke an emotional response that you wouldn't normally get in a regular prose novel.  It is also great for biographies because you can get short snippets of a person's life easier in poetry. The Crossover is all about basketball.  I don't like basketball so I thought I would hate it.  However, the poetry drew me in and I ended up crying at the end.  Brown Girl Dreaming was being pegged as the winner for this year and I can see why.  This is an excellent autobiography of Woodson and it never has a dull moment. 

The book that I really wanted to read from this year was El Deafo.  The cover looked so intriguing.  To my knowledge, it is the first graphic novel ever to receive a Newbery honor.  There are several books on the Newbery list that address disabilities (A Corner of the Universe, Rules) but this author addresses her disability with a sassiness that makes the book so upbeat.  I loved how she used rabbits with their long ears as the characters.   Even if you don't like graphic novels, you need to give this one a try.

Series: The Dark is Rising

Series: The Dark is Rising Sequence
Author Susan Cooper
Genre: Fantasy
Plot: Three children and the youngest of the Old Ones, Will (who is 12) together with Merriman fight for the cause of Light in the face of a rising Darkness.  Each book is a different quest to find another piece of the whole.
Books:

1. Over Sea, Under Stone
2. The Dark is Rising
3. Greenwitch
4. The Grey King
5. Silver on the Tree 

My overall rating: 3 stars

Even though I read a lot of fantasy, I only discovered this series recently when finding Newbery books on Scribd.  I would classify this as high low fantasy as it is set in the real world but has epic quest features of high fantasy.

The book delves into British folklore, borrowing heavily from Arthurian legend along with Welsh elements and the greenwitch.  It bogged down at times so I wouldn't count it among my favorite fantasy. 

Newbery 2008

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village
Author: Laura Amy Schlitz
Genre: Historical Fiction/Theater
Plot: This book is a series of monologues for different people in a medieval village.
Verdict: Fun!
My rating: 4 stars


Elijah of Buxton
Author: Christopher Paul Curtis
Genre: Historical Fiction
Plot: Elijah goes on a journey into America after a thief
Verdict: The character's voice annoyed me
My rating: 1 star


The Wednesday Wars
Author: Gary D. Schmidt
Genre: Historical Fiction
Plot: Holling Hoodhood is the only student at school on Wednesday afternoons and his teacher has to figure out what to do with him.
Verdict: Surprisingly entertaining
My rating: 4 stars


Feathers
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Genre: Realistic fiction
Plot: "Hope is the thing with feathers" for Frannie who deals with a new kid in class, her mother and her friend Samantha.
Verdict: Interesting
My rating: 3 stars

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! is a bit of an unusual choice for the medal as it's basically a collection of monologues.  However, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book as I found the characters that were speaking to be interesting and all the monologues tied together in the end, giving the book a good measure of coherence.   The author, Laura Amy Schlitz, won another honor in 2013 for one of the creepiest books on the Newbery list, Splendors and Glooms.

I was also surprised by how much I enjoyed The Wednesday Wars, a book about a boy who is the only student in class on Wednesday afternoons (because the Catholics are at Catechism and the Jews are at Synagogue) and the book is about his relationship with his teacher and how she opens his mind to new horizons.

Feathers was okay.  I didn't like it as much as Tupac and we'll see how it stands up to Brown Girl Dreaming.  I did not enjoy Elijah of Buxton at all as I did not like the voice the author used.

2015 Winners Announced

Today, the Newbery winners were announced.  I have not read any of the three but I hope to soon.

The Medal winner was The Crossover by Kwame Alexander and it is a novel in poetic form (I have read several and they can be very interesting)

There were only two honor books.

El Deafo by Cece Bell
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

I had heard predictions that Jacqueline Woodson would finally win the medal this year but instead she comes home with her fourth honor.  I have heard very interesting things about El Deafo and I am looking forward to reading it.

Newbery 2014

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures
Author: Kate DiCamillo
Genre: Fantasy
Plot: Ulysses the squirrel becomes a superhero after being vacuumed up and teams up with Flora.
Verdict: Insanely cute with great illustrations
My rating: 4 stars


Doll Bones
Author: Holly Black
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Plot: Three friends travel to bury a doll they believe is made from the bones of a dead girl.
Verdict: Creepy but not too creepy
My rating: 3 stars 


The Year of Billy Miller
Author: Kevin Henkes
Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction
Plot: We follow Billy Miller through his second grade year.
Verdict: Ok
My rating: 3 stars 


One Came Home
Author: Amy Timberlake
Genre: Historical Fiction
Plot: Georgie goes on a quest to prove that the body that was found was not her sister's
Verdict: Quite the mystery
My rating: 3 stars 


Paperboy
Author: Vince Vawter
Genre: Historical Fiction
Plot: A boy who stutters takes over his friend's paper route for the summer.
Verdict: Excellent story
My rating: 4 stars

I was very excited to see Kate DiCamillo win her second Newbery award this year.  I had actually picked up Flora and Ulysses at a local bookstore simply because it was DiCamillo's book without knowing it had won.  I absolutely loved the book and I loved how the graphic novel elements of it enhanced the book.  I doubt this is the last we will see of DiCamillo's brilliant mind on the Newbery list.

A book I was not looking forward to reading was Holly Black's Doll Bones.  It was the last book I read to complete the year.  I had tried to start it earlier but I'm not one for creepy books, especially after 2013's Splendors and Glooms.  I was pleasantly surprised at the book.  It was not horribly creepy and actually readable and while some people may not like the ending, it was something I could live with.

Of the remaining three books, I really enjoyed Paperboy.  I do not always go for books written in first person but the author's voice was excellent.  The ending and the author's note cemented my enjoyment of this book.  One Came Home  was a good mystery that will keep you guessing.  I was a bit disappointed by The Year of Billy Miller as I thought it was a little lackluster.