The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate

This is a sequel to The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, Jacqueline Kelly's 2010 Newbery Honor Book, but you don't need to have read it in order to enjoy this one.

It takes up right where the previous book left off - the beginning of the year 1900, in the Tate home in Fentress, Texas.  Twelve-year-old Calpurnia Virginia ("Callie Vee") Tate, the middle child among six brothers, is thrilled to find it snowing - a rarity in Central Texas in the winter.

This book continues the Darwinian theme with epigraphs for each chapter from Charles Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle.  Fitting, too, because this time, Callie's scientific explorations - mostly conducted with her grandfather - focus on animals instead of plants, as well as the weather and stars.

Callie's younger brother Travis (all but the oldest brother are named for various early Texas heroes) plays a big part in this book, with his quest to find the ideal pet.  He adopts a series of inappropriate ones - an armadillo, a blue jay, a raccoon - and finally a half-coyote dog he names Scruffy. Callie's involved in (trying to) help him keep them hidden from their parents, and in caring for them when they are ultimately discovered.

In an interview, Kelly said she'd wanted to write a sequel,  "but our big old house in Fentress, Texas, which served as the inspiration for so much of the first book, was struck by lightning and burned to the ground in 2010.  It was a horrible experience and it took me some time to get over it."  She also said she "drew a lot of inspiration from our dog Laika, a stray living near the San Marcos River, who we are pretty sure is half-Chow and half-coyote." Laika is the inspiration for Scruffy.

Kelly, who lived for a while in Galveston, works the 1900 hurricane that devastated that city into the story. Callie sees a coastal gull that's flown far inland, and her grandfather has her build a homemade barometer and make observations.  They predict the big storm and try to warn their family in Galveston.  After the storm, Callie's father and oldest brother go to help, and return with Callie's older cousin Agatha who comes to live with the Tates for a while - getting the bed in Callie's room while our heroine sleeps on the floor - while her family home is being rebuilt.  They are accompanied by a veterinarian who sets up practice in Fentress.  Callie assists him with some of his patients, and is frustrated by 1900s customs that would seem to prevent her from becoming a veterinarian herself.

The gentle reminders that girls didn't have the kinds of opportunities in the early 1900s that they do today, plus Callie's interest in science, encouraged by her grandfather (she even dissects a worm and a frog, and builds an astrolabe to learn about latitude and longitude), make this book especially appropriate for girls age 11 and up, as well as "all nature lovers, and all curious kids, and all strong readers," according to Kelly.

Once again, the beautiful silhouette on the cover was designed by the talented Beth White.  And native Texan Natalie Ross also reads this audiobook, with her soft but musical Southern-accented voice, perfect for Callie, who tells her own tale.


© Amanda Pape - 2015

[The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate is available on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library in the Curriculum Collection, call number EDUC PZ7 .K296184 CU 2015.  The audiobook is also available in the Audiovisual Collection on the lower level, call number AV-AUDIO PZ7 .K296184 CU 2015B.]

Absolutely Normal Chaos

If you've read Sharon Creech's 1995 Newbery Medalist, Walk Two Moons, you might recognize some characters from that one in Absolutely Normal Chaos, Creech's 1990 novel, which is built around the journal assignment that also appears in Walk Two Moons. The Finney family, as well as some of Phoebe and Sal's classmates from Walk Two Moons, made their first appearance in this book.  Absolutely Normal Chaos did not seem to have much press until after Creech won the Newbery, which is why many seem to think it was written after Walk Two Moons.  Nope.  It came before.

Mary Lou Finney, the second of the five children, is the journal writer in this book.  And what a journal it is!  She writes "on and on" sometimes, just like her best friend Beth Ann talks "on and on" about her latest boyfriend.  I would hope thirteen-year-old Mary Lou just got caught up in the journal writing and didn't really intend to turn all this in to her teachers.

Author Sharon Creech says the inspiration for the book came when she was living in England and missing her family.  Just like Mary Lou, she actually has three younger brothers named Dennis, Doug, and Tom, but the book characters' behavior is fictional, just like those of her parents, older sister, and cousin (the latter two not named Maggie and Carl Ray in real life).  Creech "did have a cousin who came to live with us when I was Mary Lou’s age, and he was quite like the character Carl Ray is," and "Mary Lou gives her address in this book as 4059 Buxton Road—and that was my real address," although it was in South Euclid, Ohio, and not the fictional Easton of the book.

While some of the plot isn't too plausible (especially Carl Ray's story), the portrayal of family life at the unnamed time is.  There's a bit of timelessness in the setting of this novel that makes it appealing even today, 25 years after it was written, and nearly 60 years after the author was Mary Lou's age.  The only real clue it's not set in the present is the many references to telephones that are *not* cells (or smart) - the kids call each other and don't text.

The book addresses some serious issues - death (the next door neighbor, who is not elderly) and poverty (Mary Lou travels with Carl Ray back to his home in Appalachia - no electricity, no flushing toilet).

Besides the summer journal to keep, Mary Lou also has a summer reading list.  She picks out a book of poems by Robert Frost and the Odyssey to read, and makes comments and writes notes about them in this book as well.  Her commentary is quite amusing.

Probably the funniest part of the book was the stretch in the journal where Mary Lou's mother tells her to stop saying "God," "stupid," and "stuff" so much, and to expand her vocabulary.  So Mary Lou uses a thesaurus to find synonyms and starts using those instead, even in her journal.  The results are hilarious (from page 139):

Not much elixir happened today.  Alex had to work all day, so I stayed home, watched Tommy, read some more Odyssey, and quintessence. 

Mrs. Furtz came over again, all crying and nub, about some cabbageheaded letter she got....I do feel sorry for her and all, I really do, but Omnipotent!

I like this book cover, with its with its flying pages of journal-writing.

© Amanda Pape - 2015

[Absolutely Normal Chaos is available on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library in the Curriculum Collection, call number EDUC PZ7 .C8615 AB 1995.]

2010 Scott O'Dell Award

The Storm in the Barn, a graphic novel written and illustrated by Matt Phelan, won the 2010 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction written for children or young adults.  It was also a Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee in 2011-2012.

It's set in Dust Bowl Kansas in 1937, and it hasn't rained in four years, since now-11-year-old Jack would have been old enough to help around on the family farm.  Since there's no farming possible, Jack's father seems to perceive Jack as being useless.  Being picked on by the town bullies doesn't help.  The general store owner tells him stories of Jacks of folklore to bolster him.  His sister Dorothy suffers from dust pneumonia, and it seems the only bright spot is when she reads aloud from some of Frank Baum's Oz books. Like Oz, the only illustrations in the book that are not monochrome occur when Jack's mother reminisces about the past.

Otherwise, Phelan's pencil, ink, and watercolor drawings use muted tones, browns and beiges in the daytime, and blues and grays at night, inside the barn, and during the rain that finally comes.  In an author's note at the end, Phelan says some of his inspiration was the black-and-white images of Works Progress Administration photographers of the era such as Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans.  He wrote,  "I began to imagine what the experience of living in the Dust Bowl must have been like through the eyes of a kid. Without the complicated explanation of the history of over-planting, soil erosion, and other factors, a young boy or girl would only know ... The rain had gone away. But where?"

While graphic novels are often good for struggling readers, the sparseness of the text in this story might be difficult for some.  It was difficult to interpret what was going on in a few of the textless panel sequences.  For this reason - and because of a (thankfully not-too-graphic) section about killing off jackrabbits that were overwhelming the area - this book would be best for somewhat older readers, age 11 and up.  The fantasy element in the book (the "storm in the barn" pictured on the cover), might make it more appealing for children.

© Amanda Pape - 2015

[The Storm in the Barn is available on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library in the Curriculum Collection, call number EDUC PZ7.7 .P485 ST 2009.]

1958 Newbery Medalist

Rifles for Watie won the Newbery Medal for "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children" in 1958.  Unlike most Civil War novels, it is set on the western front, specifically in (what is now) Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas.

Jefferson Davis "Jeff" Bussey is sixteen-year-old farm boy in Linn County, Kansas, when the war begins in 1861.  Inspired by his admiration for Abraham Lincoln and an attack on his family by pro-slavery Missouri bushwhackers, he joins the Kansas Volunteers at Fort Leavenworth.

Jeff is eager to see battle, but has only a background role initially.  Later he learns the harsh realities of combat, moves from the infantry, to an emergency participation in the artillery, to the cavalry, and becomes a scout.  His time "undercover" on the Confederate side was one of the most interesting parts of the book.  He learns that the Rebels are people just like him, and when he falls in love with a Confederate Cherokee girl, he feels torn between the two sides.

This book held the interest of a non-fan of war fiction throughout.  It's well-written and provides much insight into the day-to-day life of soldiers in the Civil War's western front.  The reading level and content of this book makes it more appropriate for grade six and up.

Author Harold Keith, a native Oklahoman who had a master's degree in history, interviewed 22 Confederate veterans then living in Oklahoma and Arkansas as part of his research for the book.  He also read diaries and journals of mostly Union veterans, and hundreds of letters, including many from the mixed-blood Cherokees who participated in the war, such as family members of the Confederate general Stand Watie of the title (although there is no evidence Watie ever attempted to get the repeating rifles of the title and the fictional plot).


© Amanda Pape - 2015

[Rifles for Watie is available on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library in the Curriculum Collection, call number EDUC PZ7 .K255 RI 1957.]

The Boys Who Challenged Hitler

This is the true story of the book's subtitle, Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club.  Pedersen founded the group, consisting of himself and seven other teenage boys, to perform acts of sabotage against the Germans occupying Denmark in World War II.

The story is told primarily through Pedersen's words.  National Book Award winner Phillip Hoose worked with Pedersen in 2012 to create an English version of his story, little-known outside Denmark.  Hoose conducted 25 hours of face-to-face interviews and exchanged nearly 1,000 e-mails with Pedersen.

The narrative is exciting and should hold the interest of the target teen audience, especially boys.  The book can definitely be used in history classes on World War II (there's a teacher's guide from the publisher on the author's web site), and could also spark some interesting discussions on courage, on the morality of sabotage in wartime, and on taking risks and keeping secrets.

The book includes photographs, maps, and other illustrations, as well as a bibliography, end notes, and index (useless in the e-book as there are no page numbers or links).  An audio version (narrated by the author as well as actor and voice artist Michael Braun) is also available, and  would enhance understanding for any struggling readers in the targeted high school age group.


© Amanda Pape - 2015

[The Boys Who Challenged Hitler is available on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library in the Curriculum Collection, call number EDUC D802 .D4 H645 2015.]

2015 Newbery Honor Book

This partial autobiography/memoir in graphic novel format won a much-deserved John Newbery Award Honor Book designation, given "to the author[s] of the most distinguished contribution[s] to American literature for children."

CeCe Bell suffered a severe hearing loss as a result of meningitis at age four.  While she could wear a less conspicuous hearing aid at home, she needed to use a "phonic ear" at school, a rather bulky personal sound amplification system, to best hear the teacher.

Bell, who also did the illustrations (colored by David Lasky), gives her characters rabbit ears and faces, and they remind me of the anthropomorphic characters in Marc Brown's Arthur series -  which, interestingly, came out about the time this book begins, in the late 1970s, when Bell is age four.  The book ends when Bell is in the fifth grade.

The rabbit ears, of course, highlight the issue of hearing.  Empty speech bubbles (when Bell can't hear) and random collections of letters (when she can hear but not understand) emphasize some of the issues she had.  The Phonic Ear and her hearing aid solve some of these, but not when they are broken or have dead batteries.  CeCe learns to lip read at in a kindergarten class with other hearing-impaired children.  The summer following, though, her family moves to a smaller town, and CeCe is in a regular classroom for first grade on.

CeCe struggles to find a best friend who will accept her as she is and not make a big deal of her deafness.  She has her first crush.  She imagines a superhero alter-ego she christens "El Deafo" to help her through the tough times.  All in all, though, this memoir is positive, because CeCe remains upbeat.

An author's note at the end of the book explains that deafness has many causes and degrees - and that deaf people choose different ways to deal with it, ranging from trying to fit in, as CeCe does, with hearing aids and lip reading, to embracing the Deaf community or culture, in which sign language (which CeCe resists learning as a youngster) is the preferred means of  communication.  I loved her conclusion:

I found that with a little creativity, and a lot of dedication, any difference can be turned into something amazing.  Our differences are our superpowers.

Despite the picture-book like illustrations, at 233 pages, this book is probably most appropriate for third through sixth graders.


© Amanda Pape - 2015

[El Deafo is available on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library in the Curriculum Collection, call number EDUC HV2534 .B44 A3 2014 .]

2014 Banned Books Week: Most Challenged Books in Texas Schools

Since 2002, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas has posted an annual report, Free People Read Freely, during Banned Books Week that provides information about challenged books that have been removed, restricted, or retained in Texas public and charter school libraries and class reading lists during the previous school year. This information is obtained through an Open Records request by the ACLU under the Texas Public Information Act.

Here, in no particular order, are the eight children's books on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library that were challenged (elsewhere!) in 2013-2014.  Click on the titles to get the call numbers and more information about the books:

1. It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
Reason Cited: Inappropriate for grade level (a middle school)
Action Taken: Retained (no restrictions)

2. Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz
Reason Cited: Politically, socially, or racial offensive (parent felt book promoted illegal immigration and was not age appropriate)
Action Taken: Retained (no restrictions) - 5th/6th grade

3. Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Reason Cited: Sexual content
Action Taken: Retained (no restrictions) - intermediate school

4. Lovingly Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Reason Cited: Sexual content or nudity
Action Taken: Use restricted (book was moved from elementary to secondary campus)

5 A Bad Kitty Christmas by Nick Bruel
Reason Cited: Promotes homosexual/lesbian couples
Action Taken: Banned from a PreK-8 charter school

6. The Giver by Lois Lowry
Reason Cited: Offensive to religious sensitivities
Action Taken: Alternate book allowed (curriculum only)

7. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Reason Cited: Parent did not want the student reading about ghosts
Action Taken: Alternate assignment was provided for the student

8. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Reason Cited: Politically, racially, or socially offensive
Action Taken: Retained (no restrictions) in a high school


© Amanda Pape - 2014

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

It's 1899, and almost-12-year-old Calpurnia Virginia ("Callie Vee") Tate is growing up as the middle of seven children (and only daughter) of a wealthy cotton and pecan farmer and gin owner in Fentress, Texas.  She's a bit of a tomboy, and would rather accompany her retired grandfather on his expeditions to study plants and wildlife than learn to play the piano, cook, or sew, all expected of a girl of that age and time.  She even helps her grandfather in his experiments to make an alcoholic beverage with pecans, and in identifying what they hope is a new species of vetch, a common plant in Texas.

The book starts in the summer of 1899 and ends as 1900 begins.  The reader experiences everyday life with Callie's large and active family, as well as special occasions such as holidays, the county fair and a trip into town for a photograph.  These feel authentic to the time period.

This book was a Newbery Honor Book in 2010 (for the "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children,") and I can see why.  I loved it!  The developing relationship with her previously-remote grandfather is wonderful.  I found it amusing that five of Callie's six brothers are named for early Texas heroes--Sam Houston, (Mirabeau) Lamar, (William B.) Travis, Sul Ross, and Jim Bowie--and she has interesting (and funny!) interactions with most of them, particularly her oldest brother Harry (named for a rich bachelor great uncle).  Even her exasperated mother and the overworked family cook, Viola, are rendered vividly.

I also liked the emphasis on the scientific method (particularly recording your observations), and the way debut author Jacqueline Kelly worked new inventions into the story - the telephone, the automobile, and even an early motorized fan (much appreciated in the Texas heat!).  I felt she did a fine job with the Texas setting.  Born in New Zealand, growing up in the rain forest of western Canada, moving to El Paso, Texas, in high school, and later living in Galveston, Austin, and Fentress, she seems to have a true appreciation for my home state, and got a lot of details right, adding to the story.  In a 2009 interview on Cynsations, Kelly said,

The book was inspired by my huge 140-year-old Victorian farm house in Fentress, a tiny community on the San Marcos River. I bought the house some years ago and promptly ran out of money to fix it up. The house is grand but falling down around my ears. One summer, I was lying on the daybed in the living room under the ancient air conditioner, which was barely cooling the room, and I thought to myself, how did people stand it in the heat a hundred years ago, especially the women, who had to wear corsets and all those layers of clothing? And with that thought, Calpurnia and her whole family sprang to life to answer the question for me.

Sadly, "the house was struck by lightning and burned to the ground" in 2010, according to Kelly in a later interview, which could have something to do with why a planned sequel hasn't materialized.

The language in this book is beautiful.  The descriptions of the natural world are detailed and evocative.  In the Cynsations interview, Kelly (who has both medical--which may explain those descriptions--and law degrees) said,

A friend of mine, a very successful trial attorney, once said, "Every lawyer I know has got a novel hidden away in his laptop somewhere." I think it's because we all love language, and using it to convey precise ideas. Or maybe it's because so many lawyers were English majors who couldn't then figure out what to do with their degrees.

Kelly begins each chapter with a quote from Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, which Calpurnia's grandfather gives to her to read early in the story (hence the title of the book). The cover art is a lovely and intricate silhouette cut by Beth White.  The narrator of the audiobook is Natalie Ross, a native Texan, who makes a perfect adult Calpurnia looking back at that half-year and telling her own story.  This will definitely be a book I'll re-read.  I think it will also appeal to avid young female readers ages 11 and up.

© Amanda Pape - 2014

[The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate is available on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library, in print in the Curriculum Collection, call number EDUC PZ7 .K296184 EVO 2009, and  in the Audiovisual Collection, call number AV-Audio PZ7 .K296184 EVO 2009B.]  

2014 Newbery Medalist and Honor Books Announced Today

Today the American Library Association announced its Youth Media Awards.  These are a number of awards for books and other media (such as audiobooks and videos) given annually in January.

The John Newbery Medal honors the author of the year's most outstanding contribution to children's literature.  There are usually a few Honor Books named as well.  This year's winner of the Medal is Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures, written by Kate DiCamillo.

Honor Books are Doll Bones, by Holly Black; The Year of Billy Miller, by Kevin Henkes; One Came Home, by Amy Timberlake; and Paperboy, by Vince Vawter.

Flora & Ulysses is also on the Texas Bluebonnet Award reading list for 2014-2015, so I had already ordered it for the Dick Smith Library.  It has been cataloged and is awaiting processing, and should be ready to check out next week.  We don't currently have any of the Honor Books in the Dick Smith Library, but I ordered all of them today.  

Kate DiCamillo's first children's book, Because of Winn-Dixie, was a 2001 Newbery Honor Book and her second book, The Tiger Rising, was a National Book Award finalist. She won the 2004 Newbery Medal for The Tale of Despereaux, and received the 2011 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award Medal (another American Library Association award) for beginning reader books for Bink and Gollie, which she co-authored with Alison McGhee.  She also won a Geisel Honor in 2007 for Mercy Watson Goes For a Ride. Earlier this month, she was named by the Librarian of Congress to a two-year term as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.  
 

2013 Newbery Medalist

What a fabulous book, and most deserving of the 2013 Newbery Medal!  I was both laughing and crying by its end.
"The One and Only Ivan," as the billboard on the interstate calls him, is a silverback lowland gorilla who's been living in a cage (he calls it his "domain") at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade for 9,855 days (as recorded by Ivan - 27 years).  His best friends are Stella, an aging elephant, and Bob, a stray dog who shares his cage at night.   He also interacts with Mack, his (and the mall's) owner; George the janitor; and George's daughter Julia.  He is an artist, drawing with crayons and paper Julia shoves through a hole in his cage, and later with markers and fingerpaints.

One day, though, a new baby elephant, Ruby, arrives, and everything changes...

Ivan narrates this touching story in very short chapters and sentences.  The print book is easy to read as a result, and is scattered with charming black-and-white illustrations by Patricia Castelao.  Actor Adam Grupper is marvelous on the audiobook as Ivan, with his rich, deep voice, but also creates unique voices for the other characters.

Katherine Applegate, probably best-known for the Animorphs series so popular with kids when my son was young (1990s), based Ivan on a real animal - the infamous "Ivan the Shopping Mall Gorilla," who spent 27 years alone in a small cage in a shopping mall in Tacoma, Washington.  I was living in the Seattle area when Ivan was in the news, with a public outcry for a better home for him.  He eventually wound up in Zoo Atlanta and died in August 2012, just a few months after this book was published, at the age of 50 from a chest tumor.  The real Ivan did in fact fingerpaint.

This book was an excellent choice for the 2013 Newbery Medal.  The audiobook is recommended for ages 8-13, grades 3-7.  That's probably about the right age range, as some of the themes of the book might be difficult for younger children to handle.  The short chapters would make it work well for a read-aloud, and yet should not frustrate struggling readers.

© Amanda Pape - 2013

[The One and Only Ivan is available on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library, in print in the Curriculum Collection (call number EDUC PZ7 .A6483 ON 2012), and will be available as an audiobook in the Audiovisual Collection later. A variation of this review also appears on my blog, Bookin' It.]

1994 Newbery Medalist

The 1994 Newbery Medalist by Lois Lowry, The Giver has become a classic - one of the most popular Newbery winners, and one that is frequently challenged in schools and libraries, for reasons ranging from “contains graphic themes,” and  “contains blasphemous ideas and content,” to “depicts ideas and actions that are inappropriate for young readers,” and “inappropriate for [elementary] grade level.”

In a nutshell:  Main character Jonas learns his utopian world is really dystopian.

In his community, everyone lives a regimented life.  Birth mothers produce children for other families, which created by matching compatible men and women.  Medication is taken to eliminate sexual desire.  Old people, babies that don't thrive, and other misfits are "released." No one - except Jonas, and he only a little - sees color.  And twelve-year-olds - which is what Jonas is about to be - are given "Assignments," matched to a career or more menial job best suited to their abilities and temperament.

Jonas is selected to be his community's next Receiver of Memory.  All memories of past events and sensations have gone to one person - and he is now the Giver (who can also see color), and will pass these on to Jonas.

In a 2004 interview, author Lois Lowry said she got the idea for The Giver when visiting her parents in a nursing home. Her father was still in good physical health, but his memory was failing. Her mother was physically ill, but her memory was intact.

"I would travel home with that in my mind, and I began to think a lot about the concept of memory. When it was time for me to begin a new book, I began to create in my mind a place and a group of people who had somehow found the capacity to control memory," Lowry said.

Many other events in her life influenced the plot, and Lowry talks about them in her Newbery acceptance speech.  I found interesting that the old man on the cover of my audiobook and print copy is actually a photo Lowry took of artist Carl Nelson when she wrote an article about him in 1979.  She described him as a man whose "capacity for seeing color goes far beyond" others - and he later became blind.

Some people don't like the book's ambiguous ending, but I'm fine with it.  I think it fits perfectly with the whole theme of memory.  For those who don't like it, though, Lowry has since written three companion books (I've read one, Gathering Blue), the latest published just last year.

Broadway, movie, and television actor Ron Rifkin was okay as the audiobook narrator, better voicing male characters than female.  The background instrumental music played to emphasize important scenes was often too loud and distracting.


© Amanda Pape - 2013

[The Giver is available on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library, in print in the Curriculum Collection (call number EDUC PZ7 .L9673 GI), and as an audiobook in the Audiovisual Collection (call number AV-AUDIO PZ7 .L9673 GI 2000). A variation of this review also appears on my blog, Bookin' It.]

2002 Newbery Medalist

A Single Shard, by Linda Sue Park, is set in Korea in the 12th century.  Orphan Tree-ear lives under a bridge with another beggar, an older cripple called Crane-man.  Tree-ear admires the work of the famous local potter, Min, and when he accidentally damages some of his pottery, he must go to work for him.  Tree-ear volunteers to take a sample of Min's work to be considered for a royal commission, a long and arduous journey by foot.
This seemingly-simple story is full of lovely imagery and characters to care about.  Here's an example of the former:

Once...he had watched the potter place a plum branch in a finished vase to judge the effect.

The gentle curves of the vase, its mysterious green color. The sharp angle of the plum twigs, their blackness stark amid the airy white blossoms. The work of a human, the work of nature; clay from the earth, a branch from the sky. (p. 52)

There's even a discussion of intellectual property rights:

Tree-ear spoke slowly. "It is a question about stealing." He paused, starting to speak, stopped again. Finally, "Is it stealing to take from another something that cannot be held in your hands?"

"Ah! Not a mere question but a riddle-question, at that. What is this thing that cannot be held?"

"A - an idea. A way of doing something."

"A better way than others now use."

"Yes. A new way, one that could lead to great honor."

Crane-man lay back down again. He was silent for so long that Tree-ear thought that he had fallen asleep. Tree-ear sighed and lay down himself, thinking, thinking....

...And therein lived the question-demon: If Tree-ear were to tell Min what he had seen, would that be stealing Kang's idea?

Crane-man's voice startled Tree-ear.

"If a man is keeping an idea to himself, and that idea is taken by stealth or trickery - I say it is stealing. But once a man has revealed his idea to others, it is no longer his alone. It belongs to the world. (p. 62, 64).

(Although I have to admit, I felt some sympathy for poor Kang.)


In an interview in a teacher's edition of this book, Park said "three ideas - the pottery, family, and journey - are the basic threads of the story."  Research on Korea for her earlier books showed "that in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Korea had produced the finest pottery in the world, better than even China's, and I decided to set my third novel in that time period," according to her Newbery acceptance speech.*

According to the interview, "the idea of family...is crucial to Korean society:  I made Tree-ear an orphan because I wanted to explore what family means to someone who has no blood relations....

I also wanted to write an adventure story because I loved reading them when I was young, and still do! I love traveling...So I knew right at the start that I wanted Tree-ear to go on an exciting journey."  And, according to her Newbery speech, her son, an admirer of Newbery Honor Book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, "wanted me to write an adventure story, a road book."

In her author’s note at the end of the book, Linda Sue Park writes, “Every piece described in the book actually exists in a museum or private collection somewhere in the world.”  Her website has some photos of celadon work and other items and locations that are mentioned in the book (spoiler alert), including the Thousand Cranes Vase (pictured below left). More on Goryeo dynasty (918–1392) celadon can be found on the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art's website.

I thought it was interesting that in her Newbery acceptance speech, Park, who is of Korean heritage but only visited the country as a child, thanks Simon Winchester, author of the bestseller The Professor and the Madman, about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, for his descriptions in his earlier book Korea: A Walk through the Land of Miracles, as his 1987 walk went on the route from Puyo almost all the way to Songdo.

She also credits 1966 Newbery Medalist I, Juan de Pareja, by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino.  "In that book, the orphaned black slave Juan de Pareja becomes an assistant to the painter Velazquez and is eventually freed by his master, which enables him to pursue his own painting career. The ending speculates on how a certain Velazquez work came to be painted, just as [A Single] Shard speculates about that [Thousand Cranes] vase."

This is a quiet book that might take more than one reading to be fully appreciated (it did for me).  Kids probably won't pick it up on their own (the cover pictured above or at right don't help; a newer cover pictured below right is at least more attractive).  However, it would be a good addition to a study of Korea or Asia or pottery.

Graeme Malcolm is alright as the audiobook narrator, but I found his British accent - especially his pronunciation of "ate" as "et" - distracting.

© Amanda Pape - 2012

[A Single Shard is available on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library, in print in the Curriculum Collection (call number EDUC PZ7 .P22115 SIN 2002 ), and as an audiobook in the Audiovisual Collection (pictured at the top of this post, AV-AUDIO PZ7 .P22115 SIN 2002 ). A variation of this review also appears on my blog, Bookin' It.]

*Park, Linda, "Newbery Medal Acceptance," Horn Book Magazine, July/August 2002, Vol. 78, Issue 4, pages 377-384.]

Thousand Cranes Vase  / CC BY-SA 3.0

Latest cover of A Single Shard

Most Popular Newbery Medalists at the Dick Smith Library

Last Monday, the American Library Association announced its annual Youth Media Awards, the top books, video and audiobooks for children and young adults.  Here at the Dick Smith Library, we own all of the Medalists and nearly all of the Honor Books for the top two awards, the Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children, and the John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature.

I thought it would be interesting to see which Newbery Medalists have been most popular (in terms of the number of times it has been checked out since we started keeping records in July 1996).  Here are our top ten, with the year the book won listed after the author's name:

 1.  Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry - 1990 - PZ7 .L9673 NU *
 2.  Dear Mr. Henshaw, by Beverly Cleary - 1984 - PZ7 .C5792 DE 1983
 3.  Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson - 1978 - PZ7 .P273 BR *
 4.  Sarah, Plain and Tall, by Patricia MacLachlan - 1986 - PZ7 .M2225 SAR *
 5.  Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor - 1977 - PZ7 .T21723 RO *
 6.  Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'Dell - 1961 - PZ7 .O237 IS *
 7.  Sounder, by William Armstrong - 1970 - PZ7 .A73394 SO *
 8.  Holes, by Louis Sachar - 1999 - PZ7 .S1185 HO *
 9.  Dicey's Song, by Judith Voigt - 1983 - PZ7 .V874 DI 1983
10.  Missing May, by Cynthia Rylant - 1993 - PZ7 .R982 MJ 1992

All of these can be found on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library, in the Curriculum Collection.  When you click the links, you'll see that some of these (* also marked with asterisks after the call number in the list) are also available here as audiobooks, in the Audiovisual Collection, also downstairs. 

How many of these have you read (or listened to)?  Tell me in the comments!  Our top ten were all published between 1960 and 1998, so most of you may have had an opportunity to read these in school.  My goal is to read all 92 (so far) medalists, but I have a long way to go.  In our top ten list, I've read seven (the ones we have as audiobooks), and I've read (or listened to) 40 in all.  I started working on this goal in August 2007!

Newbery Medalist and Honor Books Announced Today

Today the American Library Association announced its Youth Media Awards.  These are a number of awards for books and other media (such as audiobooks and videos) given annually in January.

The John Newbery Medal honors the author of the year's most outstanding contribution to children's literature.  There are usually a few Honor Books named as well.  This year's winner of the Medal is The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate.

Honor books are Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schlitz, Bomb, by Steve Sheinkin, and Three Times Lucky, by Sheila Turnage.

Bomb also won the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults, and the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal.

We don't currently have any of these books in the Dick Smith Library, but I ordered all of them today.

1961 Newbery Medalist

This is a survival and adventure story.  The tribe of twelve-year-old Karana is moved off its "Island of the Blue Dolphins" (the most remote of the Channel Islands off California, San Nicolas).  Karana leaps off the ship to get her younger brother, who has been left behind.  He dies soon after, and she spends 18 years alone on the island.   Karana makes weapons and hunts, builds a shelter of whale bones and a canoe, fights wild dogs, and explores the island.  There's also a lot of information about the animals of the island and surrounding ocean, such as sea elephants and otter.

Author Scott O'Dell's note at the end of the book states that Karana is based on a real person, the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island, later baptized Juana Maria, who lived alone on the island from 1835 to 1853.   According to his website, O'Dell came across her story while researching his 1957 adult book, Country of the Sun: Southern California, An Informal Guide.   More information about the Lone Woman was uncovered in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and in 2012, a Navy archaeologist found a cave on San Nicolas that may have been hers. 

O'Dell, obviously, wrote his book before much of this information became available, and it was likely based on the prevailing legends of the time.  A number of these stories were published in popular magazines in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  The Lone Woman was unable to communicate with anyone, so no one really knows how she ended up on the island alone, especially since she died of dysentery only a few weeks after her rescue.

In 1976, O'Dell wrote a sequel, Zia, about Karana's 14-year-old niece by that name, who believes her aunt is still alive, and helps bring about her rescue by George Nidever.

Island of the Blue Dolphins has come under some criticism over the years, for stereotyping of native Americans.  On the other hand, it's also been praised for having a female minority protagonist (at a time, 1960, when that was not common), and for its environmentalist message.  "Island of the Blue Dolphins," O'Dell wrote, "began in anger, anger at the hunters who invade the mountains where I live and who slaughter everything that creeps or walks or flies."

Native American actress Tantoo Cardinal's reading of the audiobook is lovely.  However, this is a book that might be better "read" in print, to appreciate its beautiful metaphors and imagery.

The Dick Smith Library has three print copies of this novel, all different editions.  One (pictured at right) has twelve full-page watercolor paintings (and the cover) by Ted Lewin, illustrator of more than 100 children's books.

© Amanda Pape - 2012

[Island of the Blue Dolphins is available on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library, in print in the Curriculum Collection (call number EDUC PZ7 .O237 IS), and as an audiobook in the Audiovisual Collection (pictured at the top of this post, AV-AUDIO PZ7 .O237 IS 1997). A variation of this review also appears on my blog, Bookin' It.]

1963 Newbery Medalist

Although it won the Newbery Medal in 1963, I never read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle as a child.  Even then, I wasn't too interested in science fiction or fantasy.  However, this is one of the more popular Newbery winners out there.  If you liked Harry Potter, you will probably like this book.

There's adventure:  misfit high school freshman Meg Murry, her odd genius little brother Charles Wallace (named for L'Engle's father and father-in-law), and their new friend, high-schooler Calvin O'Keefe, take a journey through a "tesseract" (a "wrinkle" in time - there's the science fiction, time travel) to rescue Meg's and Charles Wallace's scientist father.  There's magic, in the form of Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which.  There's dystopia at the planet Camazotz, and a battle with the evil IT.  What's not there for a kid to love?

Believe it or not, this book actually begins, "It was a dark and stormy night."  This book has also been challenged over the years for a number of reasons, including references to the occult, depictions of mysticism, characters possessing supernatural powers, and undermining religious beliefs.

L'Engle narrated the version of the audiobook (pictured at left) that we have at the Dick Smith Library, and that was a mistake.  Her voice is rough and she has a bit of a lisp, and her reading is uneven, with strange emphases and an odd rhythm.  Since L'Engle's death, a new audio version (with actress Hope Davis) has been produced - I wish I had waited to purchase that one for our library.  It was painful to listen to this book, which detracted from my appreciation of it.  I first listened to it in 2009, but cannot bring myself to listen to L'Engle's reading again.

© Amanda Pape - 2012

[A Wrinkle in Time is available on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library, in print in the Curriculum Collection (pictured at the top of this post, EDUC PZ7 .L5385 WR 1962), and as an audiobook in the Audiovisual Collection (AV-AUDIO PZ7 .L5385 WR 1993). A variation of this review also appears on my blog, Bookin' It].

1959 Newbery Medalist

In The Witch of Blackbird Pond, sixteen-year-old Katherine "Kit" Tyler, an orphan since age two, must leave her beloved Barbados when her grandfather dies.  She surprises her aunt (her mother's sister) and uncle and their two daughters, her only living relatives, in the town of Wethersfield in the Connecticut Colony.  The year is 1687.

From the very beginning, Kit can't seem to do anything right.  She jumps in the river to save a child's doll (this comes back to haunt her later), her clothes are too flamboyant,  her spirits too high.  She doesn't fit in with the strict, dour Puritans of Wethersfeld--but manages to attract the most eligible (and wealthy) young man in town, who everyone expected her cousin to marry.  This causes strife with her family members, who are frustrated with her lack of useful skills.

Kit ultimately becomes friends with another outcast, Hannah Tupper, a Quaker expelled from Massachusetts who lives near Blackbird Pond.  When an epidemic hits the town, the trouble begins.  The ending is a little predicatable, but Elizabeth George Speare makes excellent points about bigotry, tolerance, and the nature of love.

In her 1959 Newbery Medal acceptance paper*, Speare said she developed the characters first, then "was compelled to find a home for them."  She goes on:

I chose Wethersfield, the town in which my husband and I have lived for twenty years, because it is one of the oldest towns in New England, one of the first of the Connecticut settlements, because it was once a bustling river port with all the romance and color of the old sailing ships, and because the girl I could now see quite clearly [Kit] seemed ...to be at home in the quiet and lovely Wethersfield meadows that still lie for undisturbed stretches along the Connecticut River.  I chose the year 1687, arbitrarily because the story of the Connecticut Charter was irresistible, a perfect little vignette, revealing in miniature all the powerful forces which, nearly one hundred years before the Revolution, were moving America irrevocably toward independence. (pages 73-74)

Speare did a marvelous job incorporating details of life in this era, as well as the historical context, into her novel.  For example, there really were a Goody Johnson and Goody Harrison (page 182 in the text), both tried for witchcraft in Wethersfield.  I love the way Speare describes her historical research:  "I should hesitate to dignify by such a scholarly term the haphazard, indiscriminate, greedy forage in which I indulged.  History, geography, town records, genealogies, novels set in the same period - I gulped all these down with, at first, little thought of anything but my own enjoyment.  There were fascinating bypaths from which I had to drag myself back - Quakerism for one, and the early development of education in New England." The latter was another topic addressed in the novel, as Kit and Mercy run a school for a while.

I've been trying to experience most of these Newbery Medalists as audiobooks - this one (pictured above) was released in 2002.  Actress Mary Beth Hurt does a fine job as narrator.  Unique voices are created for all the major characters.  Kit's voice is a little more British (for lack of a better term) than the others, reflecting her recent arrival from the Barbados.

I can't believe I didn't read this book when I was a child.  I loved the character of Kit and really identified with her.  The book has something to say about fitting in; how one needs to adapt yet also stay true to oneself.  I think my 9-year-old self would have loved this book, especially since it has a little (but not too much) romance.  I think it would also be excellent as supplemental reading in social studies or history.  Highly recommended.

(At left is the cover of our library's hardbound copy; the audiobook is pictured above.)

© Amanda Pape - 2012

[*Elizabeth George Speare, "Newbery Award Acceptance," in Newbery and Caldecott Medal Books: 1956-1965, edited by Lee Kingman, Boston: The Horn Book, Inc, 1965, pages 72-77.   The Witch of Blackbird Pond is available on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library, in print in the Curriculum Collection (EDUC PZ7. S7376 WI 1986), and as an audiobook in the Audiovisual Collection (AV-AUDIO PZ7 .S7376 WI 2007). A variation of this review also appears on my blog,  Bookin' It.]

1967 Newbery Medalist

Up a Road Slowly, the 1967 Newbery Medalist by Irene Hunt, is a coming-of-age story narrated by the protagonist.  Julie Trelling is seven when the story begins with her mother's death.  She is sent to live with her mother's older sister, her spinster schoolteacher Aunt Cordelia, out in the country.  The story covers the next ten years in Julie's life, until her high school graduation at 17.

It's hard to pinpoint the setting for this quiet tale, especially temporally.  There are references to sweeping dresses, gloves, no central heat in Cordelia's home, a one-room schoolhouse with a coal stove, the idea that girls wearing pants is less acceptable, stationery, later rural consolidation of schools, telegrams, and a time when a long-distance phone call was "still considered an extravagance" (page 174).  I was ten years old when this book won the Newbery, and I can remember most of these things. so I think the book was probably set in the 1950s or early 1960s.  It seems to be post-World War II and definitely pre-Vietnam, but could be as early as the 1920s or 1930s (author Irene Hunt was born in 1907).  In a way, the book has rather a timeless feel to it.  Ditto the physical setting - it could be most anywhere, but is probably the Midwest.  Because of its timelessness, I would classify this as realistic fiction.

There's no thrilling plot, but the book touches on a number of issues unusual for children's books of the time period.  Julie has a classmate who is mentally retarded, dirty and smelly.  Her uncle is an alcoholic liar.  A neighbor's wife is insane. Julie learns some life lessons from her encounters with these characters.  Julie also has to deal with the marriage of her beloved older sister and her father's remarriage, as well as a bad boyfriend who nearly leads her astray, and a friend's teenage pregnancy.  All of these are handled without being preachy.

In her Newbery acceptance speech, entitled "Books and the Learning Process" (Horn Book, August 1967, pp. 424-429), Hunt noted (page 425),

Teachers are beginning to realize that children are not created fully equipped with such values as courage, compassion, integrity, and insights into the motives and needs of themselves and of others.  These attributes...are often learned from the behavior of the characters who people the books they read.  We adults may preach the values we wish to instill, and the children will turn away from our sermons; but a book, a fine book that mirrors life accurately and honestly - there is the effective substitute for our ineffective sermons.

Often children are troubled and in a state of guilt.  One can say to them, "You are not unique."...It is in books that an identification can be made...Julie, in Up a Road Slowly, is not set apart by virtue of her high-mindedness or moral values.  But for a watchful family she might well have stepped into the same trouble in which some of her young readers may find themselves.  (page 426)

Some of Irene Hunt's inspiration may have come from her own life.  She was seven when her father died, and she and her mother moved to the nearby farm home of her grandparents.

The book is well-written and full of wonderful vocabulary - scintillating, impeccable, pedestrian, propitiated, and hackneyed were just some of the words I wrote down.  Julie aspires to be a writer, and is telling her story looking back at her past, so this is very fitting.  Julie also quotes Shakespeare and poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay and Sara Teasdale.

Actress Jaselyn Blanchard was excellent as narrator Julie in the audiobook.  Her youthful voice often trembles and quavers with emotion, at just the right time.

I think this book would still appeal to a quiet, thoughtful young lady, and I highly recommend it.

© Amanda Pape - 2012

[Up a Road Slowly can be found in the Curriculum Collection on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library, call number EDUC PZ7 .H9156 UP.  A variation of this review appears on my blog, Bookin' It.]

1946 Newbery Medalist

Strawberry Girl was originally published in 1945 and won the 1946 Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to American children's literature.   This was the second book in Lois Lenski's American Regionals series, 17 books about the lives of children in different regions of the country, published between 1943 and 1968.

This story takes place in Polk County, Florida (in the center of the state, east of Tampa), in the early 1900s (according to the author in her foreword, although that could mean the first half of the century).   It centers on two Cracker neighbor families, the Slaters, squatters who raise cattle on open range, and the Boyers, newly-arrived landowners who want to raise strawberries and oranges.  The main characters, ten-year-old Berthenia Lou "Birdie" Boyer and twelve-year-old Jefferson Davis "Shoestring" Slater, epitomize the conflicts and (sometimes) cooperation between the two families.  The conflicts include killing each others' animals, and setting a fire hoping to burn the neighbor out.

In her Newbery acceptance speech*, Lenski said, "Because these are true-to-life stories, I have included...certain incidents which...authors, perhaps following some unwritten taboos, have not often used in children's books...We have not often put drunken fathers or malicious neighbors into a book for children.  I have done this, and I would like to tell you why.  These incidents are...true and authentic.  They have happened not once but a hundred times in this particular locality, and have been experienced by the children as well as the adults.  To leave them out and to pretend that such things never happen would be to present a false picture" (page 284).

Lenski spent two winters in Lakeland, Florida, meeting the people who would become characters in her book, and experiencing their lives.  She also did extensive research, as she did with her earlier historical fiction, including Newbery Honor Books Phebe Fairchild (1937) and Indian Captive (1942).  Much like the "lightning artist" in her story, Lenski carried her sketchbook with her in Florida.  "Always a crowd of children gathered, eager to watch a drawing grow on a sheet of paper - and eager to tell me many things I wanted to know...My drawing helped, as nothing else could, to break down the barriers of suspicion.  Drawing is a universal language which everybody understands" (page 281).

Lenski used local dialects in her American Regionals books, to provide authenticity.  Some reviewers, past and present, have criticized this.  In her acceptance speech, Lenski said, "Speech is so much more than words--it is poetry, beauty, character, emotion.  To give the flavor of a region, to suggest the moods of the people, the atmosphere of the place, speech cannot be overlooked...In the simplest of words, with only a minimum of distortions in spelling, this is what I have tried to convey.  There may be some children who will find it difficult reading.  But I am willing to make that sacrifice, because of all that those who do read it will gain, in the way of understanding 'the feel' of a different people, and the 'flavor' of a life different from their own" (pages 286-287).

An audiobook is an excellent way to experience this story.  Narrator Natalie Ross was outstanding with the dialect, and even did a little singing.   In the foreword of The Life I Live, Collected Poems, dated December 1964, Lenski said, "During the writing of the early Regionals, 1943-1949, I made a special study of American folksongs, in which I had long been interested, as well as a study of local dialects, and quoted some of these songs in my books."

The audiobook has two other positive features. At the end, Kathleen Horning, director of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, "talks about the context in which Strawberry Girl was written, and how the problems and conflicts we see in the book relate to our world today." Also, the audiobook clearly indicates the beginning and end of each disc with banjo music, and even has some overlapping text at each end.

The dialect might be hard for younger children to handle on their own, so for most elementary students, I'd recommend this book as an audiobook or a read-aloud.  Lenski's descriptions are so good that I felt I did not need her illustrations to picture the action and setting in my mind.    

I really enjoyed this book.  I learned a lot about life in central Florida in the early twentieth century, with its underground lakes, sinkholes, and artesian wells, scrub oaks and pines, and palmettos.  Not to mention the variety of critters they eat (like cooters, a soft-shelled water turtle) and encounter (alligators on the road, grasshoppers on the flowers, robins in the strawberries). Daily life on the farm (and the range) is described, as well as life in town - I loved Miss Liddy noting (on page 61) that "the millinery business shore is lively - you got to lend money, tend babies, make wax flowers, and stop dog fights!" And "quarrels did not keep people away from frolics" (page 82) - cane grinding led to candy pulling, while a drunk Sam Slater's shooting off his chickens' heads led to a chicken pilau feast.

The only thing I didn't like was the ending--but I won't spoil it here!  Nevertheless, I would like to read more of Lenski's American Regionals.  We have Cotton in My Sack and Shoo-Fly Girl in the Dick Smith Library, and I'd like to get a copy of Texas Tomboy, set in nearby San Angelo.

I can certainly see why Strawberry Girl won the Newbery.  Anne Scott MacLeod, in Twentieth-Century Children's Writers (1989), said, "Unusual, particularly for the 1940's and 1950's, is her focus on the poorer levels of American society. In all of [her regional works] Lenski presents patterns of life often invisible in children's books. For the most part, she does so with neither condescension nor sentimentality."  Taimi M. Ranta, in Dictionary of Literary Biography (1983), stated, "In the development of realism in children's literature, Lenski's work is an important point of departure on the way to the stark realism of the late twentieth century."

© Amanda Pape - 2012

[*Lois Lenski, "Seeing Others as Ourselves," in Newbery Medal Books: 1922-1955, edited by Bertha Mahoney Miller and Elinor Whitney Field, The Horn Book, Inc, 1955, pages 278-287, available in the Dick Smith Library Curriculum Collection Reference section.  Strawberry Girl can be found in the Curriculum Collection on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library, call number EDUC PZ7.L54 ST 1973.  A variation of this review appears on my blog, Bookin' It.]