Newbery 2016

Last Stop on Market Street
Author: Matt de la Pena
Genre: Picture Book
Plot: CJ and his grandma ride the bus after church.
Verdict: Good themes
My rating: 3 stars


Echo
Author: Pam Muñoz Ryan
Genre: Fantasy
Plot: Three different children possess a magical harmonica
Verdict: The stories are interesting
My rating: 4 stars


The War That Saved My Life
Author: Kimberly Brubraker Bradley
Genre: Historical Fiction
Plot: Ada and Jamie escape to the English countryside during the bombing in World War II
Verdict: Great story
My rating: 4 stars


Roller Girl
Author: Victoria Jamieson
Genre: Graphic Novel/Realistic Fiction
Plot: Astrid signs up for roller derby camp but her friend does not.
Verdict: Awesome story about friendship transitions in middle school
My rating: 4 stars

The big stir over this year's Newbery awards was that a picture book took the medal for the first time in decades.  I enjoyed The Last Stop on Market Street and I can definitely see why it won the medal.  It has some great themes and the art really adds to the story.  However, as happens to me a lot, I enjoyed the honor books more than the medal winner.

Echo is a fantasy/historical fiction book with four storylines.  The first reads like something out of Grimm and introduces us to a possessed harmonica.  The three main story lines in the book follow a German boy prior to World War II, a pair of brothers in Philidelphia who live in an orphanage and a Mexican-American girl who lives in California.  The book touches on some rather controversial subjects like the German sterilization of "imperfect" people, corrupt orphanage directors, the Japanese internment camps and the placement of all Mexican American students in "naturalization" schools.  The War that Saved My Life is a historical fiction set during World War II.  Eva has a club foot and is mistreated horribly by her mother so she and her brother Jamie escape to the countryside with the other children who are feeling the bombings in London.  They are housed reluctantly with a woman named Susan and Eva's life improves drastically.  I think this was my favorite.

For the second year in a row, a graphic novel has been honored by the Newbery committee.  This year, the book is Roller Girl.  It centers on Astrid, who signs up for roller derby camp.  She thinks that her friend Nicole will also sign up but Nicole opts for ballet camp instead.  Astrid is hurt but continues with roller derby, learning the new sport and making new friends. This book is extremely relevant for middle schoolers who often find that they lose old friends and make new friends when transitioning to middle school.