1997 Newbery Authors - Did You Know?

When these books were published, I was in either the last semester of high school (Class of '96) or the first semester of college. With the intentions of becoming a high school English teacher, I certainly wasn't reading middle grade books so I had to read 4/5 of the 1997 Newbery books.

Posting summaries is getting rather boring, so I decided to dig up some information about the authors to share.

E.L. Konigsburg, the author of the 1997 medal winner, The View From Saturday, holds a place in Newbery history as the only author to win both a Newbery medal and honor award in the same year. Can you name the year and the titles? Source.

Nancy Farmer, author of the Newbery Honor Book, A Girl Named Disaster, actually believed that she had a twin brother that her parents gave up for adoption. She wasn't gullible enough to believe that he was turned into a lampshade, as her older sister claimed. Source.

Eloise McGraw was 81 years old when she received a Newbery Honor for The Moorchild. The state of Oregon has named a book award after her. Source.

Although she is from Virginia, Ruth White taught middle school in my home state of North Carolina.
She wrote a sequel to her 1997 Newbery Honor, Belle Prater's Boy. Has anyone read The Search for Belle Prater? Source.

Megan Whalen Turner's Newbery Honor Book, The Thief, is the first in a series. Four book have been published, with two more supposedly forthcoming. Source.

I plan to go on a hiatus from my Newbery Challenge until the YMAs for 2015 are announced. Last year, I had read 4/5 of the Newbery books before the were awarded. Time to read lots of 2014 books! My Newbery goal for 2015 is to read the medal and honors from 1996-1987.

Becoming a writing teacher

I have admitted on this blog before that I do not feel like a writer. Someone at work recently commented that the love of reading pours out of me, and it is impossible for the kids not to see it. I enjoy teaching my library classes and feel highly competent in that area. I know that being a reader is the reason why I excel as a librarian. Co-teaching writing each morning from 8-8:30 is not an area where I feel as strong. Fortunately, the classroom teacher I'm working with has put a great deal of trust and faith in me. She is a leader (in her classroom and the school) and has put me at ease about jumping into new territory as a teacher.

I feel so honored to have these students, many of which I've seen grown from age 5 to age 10 (or 11), share their stories with me. One student shared a time when her older sister scared her on an amusement park ride. Another shared about the time she met her best friend in 2nd grade. That I knew the characters from these stories made me smile, thankful for the years of connections I have had with these students. I am also learning things I didn't know, that one student's sister has seizures and that another's greatest triumph was the time he defeated his dad in a basketball game.

Some might view this time as a chore, and would rather focus their energy on their main role at school. I see it as a time to grow. I get to strengthen my bond with my students. And, who knows, in the process of teaching writing, I may just become a writer myself.

Rediscovering Old Favorites: Frog & Toad

A month ago, if I were prompted to recall favorites books from childhood, Frog and Toad wouldn't have made the list. I had a general recollection of the books, but I couldn't remember any of the stories. A few weeks ago, I decided to use the Frog and Toad books to help teach character analysis to first grade. I could have chosen a "newer book," but for some reason Frog and Toad caught my eye. Now I find myself searching out more Frog and Toad books to read, for me. My favorite story is "The Story" from Frog and Toad Are Friends. Frog is sick so Toad decided to tell him a story. The problem is that he can't think of one and does ridiculous things like pour water over his head. I laughed along with the kids while reading it.

Then I discovered that their was an animated film, Frog and Toad Together. I never saw it as a child, but Frog's voice reminds me of one of the Fraggle Rock characters. My favorite story is "The Dream."

10 Impact Books

I was recently challenged to participate in a social media meme to list 10 books that have had an impact on my life. Talk about hard choices! Listing 100 would even be a challenge. After a lot of thought, here are my choices:

1. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White - My favorite book from childhood and a perfect model on how to be a friend. I named my daughter Charlotte after the main character; yes, she was named after a spider.

2. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery - Anne Shirley is such a kindred spirit. I always wish I could find a "bosom friend" like her.

3. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - I still have the copy of this wonderful book that my Aunt Connie bought me when I was 11 years old.

4. Paradise Lost by John Milton - I was not a fan of poetry in my high school English classes. I read this in college and loved it, probably because it was poetry that told a story.

5.  The Wizard and the Glass by Stephen King - This is Volume IV of the Dark Tower series, and my favorite by a mile. Roland's story could be read as a standalone, and if you do not want to commit to the whole series, I encourage you to do just that.

6.  Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris - A book that made me laugh like no other. Whenever I have a bad day, I think of Rooster's advice. Read this book to find out what it is.

7. We Are In a Book! by Mo Willems - Willems is a genius! He makes listening to beginning readers enjoyable, a great feat indeed. These are perfect to share with an entire class or one on one with a child. 

8.  The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller - This book represents everything I am passionate about - sharing the love of reading with students. It also represents my online professional learning community that I have found through the Nerdy Book Club.

9. The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate - Winner of the 2013 Newbery Medal, this book will make you cry. It is based on a true story of a gorilla living on display in a mall.

10. The Giver by Lois Lowry - Do you like The Hunger Games and Divergent? Lowry did dystopian fiction long before Collins and Roth, and in my opinion, she did it better. This book won the Newbery Medal in 1994.

Newbery Challenge 1998

My Newbery challenge is to read every medal and honor books starting with the present and going backwards. Because the enormity of this challenge, I'm electing not to reread books that I have read since 2004.

For 1998, I had already read:

This left two honor books to read:

Lily's Crossing is set in 1944, during World War II. Lily's father is sent to build bombs in Detroit, leaving her to spend the summer with her grandmother at Rockaway Beach. Lily is not a saintly protagonist; she lies, sneaks into movies and is disrespectful to her grandmother. Her lying becomes problematic when she meets a Hungarian refugee, Albert, and promises to help him return to Europe via boat to help rescue his sister.

I obviously know what the verb "wring" means, yet I still found the idea of wringing the necks of pigeons, injured from gunshots, shocking and quite horrifying. The main character, Palmer, would agree with me. He seems to be suffering from PTSD, haunted by memories of Family Fest, a festival that includes a shooting contest involving 5,000 pigeons. Palmer is conflicted with his desire to fit into a gang of friends and his feeling about participating in acts of cruelty, including bullying a girl who is his neighbor and friend, as well as becoming a Wringer. 

So both of these books were beautifully written, and I was sure I would be rating them both as five stars. Then I got to the endings. Both suffer from the Okay For Now problem. Both start as straight-forward historical/realistic fiction, but their endings move them to the realm of implausibility. I found myself thinking, "Really? That would never happen." I realize this is an adult perspective, but it did damper my reading of the book a bit. They were excellent despite this turn so I rated them both 4 stars.

On to 1997!

Newbery Challenge 2000

I had not read even one of the books from the year 2000, so this was an interesting challenge.

The medal winner:

Christopher Paul Curtis is one of those authors whose work is something I'm always going to read. I read and loved The Watson's Go to Birmingham - 1963, Elijah of Buxton and The Mighty Miss Malone. Bud Caldwell is an orphan living in Michigan in 1936. The story opens with an awful experience in foster care. Then Bud decides to travel from Flint to Grand Rapids to find the man he thinks is his father, based on flyers his mother had advertising a jazz band. I loved the same things @MrSchuReads mentions in his #nerdbery video.  I was so excited when Deza Malome showed up! Bud, Not Buddy is definitely on my top 10 list of Newbery winners.

Newbery Honors

I loved Tomie dePaola's picture books growing up. This is the beginning of a biographical series. It reminds me of a beginning reader book because of the short chapters and overall length of the book. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to meet Tomie dePaola in September at Scuppernong Books.

This book is so, so sad. Two girls lose their baby sister, and are sent off to live with their aunt, who has no children of her own. The younger sister refuses to speak, traumatized by what happened. Their grief and getting fed up with their aunt leads them to climb up on the roof (as seen on the cover), refusing to come down. The story begins there and everything else is told in flashbacks. It is set in a North Carolina, which is interesting, but the sad topic made it hard to read.

I blogged about this book in this post.  @colbysharp referred to this book in his #nerdbery video for Bud, Not Buddy.

I have already read Holes, the 1999 Newbery winner, and A Long Walk to Chicago, the only Honor book for that year so on to 1998!

#booksmiles #1

My twitter friends started a hashtag called #booksmiles. You write a blog post about a book that makes you smile and post it with the #booksmiles hashtag on Twitter.

A book that makes me smile:

 

Why?

1) Ana is a middle schooler I could identify with growing up. Very shy, having a few close friends.

2) Ana's family is interesting.  Her parents work at a zoo. She has a twin brother who is social and outgoing. Her grandfather is a star, and comes to town with his reality tv show film crew in tow.

3) The romance is sweet, without being over the top.

4) I love what happens to one of the bullies.

5) Book 2, How to Outswin a Shark Without a Snorkel will be released on January 6, 2015. Plus, there will be a Book 3!

6) Finally, the author, Jess Keating, is friendly and awesome! We struck up a friendship on Twitter in June, and I got to meet her at #nErDcampMI. She was one of 12 authors who gave their time to work with kids at Nerd Camp Jr.