Systematic Student:
Newbery Honor

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larsen is the story of 16 year old Hattie, who has never felt like she has a home of her own. She's been moved around her whole life, and desperately wants a place of her own. Her uncle leaves her his Montana claim, if she is willing to move there to work it in time to meet the deadlines/guidelines for staking a free claim. Hattie gets her affairs in order and moves to Montana, without knowing anyone or anything about what she's really getting herself into.

There is a wonderful family that lives close to Hattie, and they do all they can to make her feel welcome, help her get settled in and survive. But, it's the middle of WWI, and the husband is German. It's a small town, and the people can't see past his German heritage to the good man they've known for so long. Hattie's never seen anything like it, and it, among other things, forces her to change her view of the world. The story also uses a series of letters Hattie is writing to a friend overseas fighting the war, and articles she sends back to her hometown newspaper about her life in Montana to earn a little money.

I thought this book was stunning. The writing is beautiful and engaging. Hattie is a wonderful narrator. She has a strong, independent voice, spoken, internal and written, and she knows who she is, but she also recognizes that she has room to grow, and she welcomes the help other people can bring to her. She is friendly to all the neighbors, and develops a really solid relationship with all of them, except the stories main antagonist, and even then, Hattie goes out of her way to be nice, and friendly. Chase and Mattie are the older children of the family mentioned above. Their father died, and it's their step-father who is German. These children were a wonderful part of the story. They reminded me of why I really do just love kids. They have a freshness and innocence to them as well as a firm pride in themselves and the man they call their father that you can't help but love them. Some of the most emotional, hopeful and heart-rending scenes involve those children.

Larsen is also a wonderful writer. I live in Idaho, which shares a border with Montana, and I've spent my fair share of time up in Montana and Wyoming both. Larsen nailed it. The area is beautiful, but wild and that feeling is really captured here with Hattie. Larsen's descriptions were so awe-inspiring that I found myself tempted to be a homesteader, and I know what it feels like to be so cold mere minutes outside freezes your blood in your veins, and you think if you close your eyes you'll never be able to open them again. It doesn't get to negative 65 degrees here anymore, but it sure gets cold. The terrain is majestic. When you stand at the edge of a huge expanse of open terrain, it makes you feel like you are a part of the land, like the earth is filling you completely. I can't imagine how much more powerful that feeling would be if you knew that you owned that land.

This is a book I think it would be a shame to miss. This book is one to break the heart. It's rough. Living on your own in the wilds of the Montana prairie would not be easy for anyone, but Hattie handles her trials admirably. Although the story is not always a happy one, it is always a hopeful one.

Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephanie Hemphill received a Printz Honor award in 2008, and Carver: A Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson won a Newbery Honor in 2002.

Both books are biographies written in verse. When I first heard about this idea, I was intrigued. Although I don't always love it, I do enjoy poetry and I've found that I really, really enjoy novels written in free verse (like Ellen Hopkins). I was very interested to see how reading a poetic biography would turn out, and I'm sorry to say that I was quite disappointed.

I read Carver first and I really expected to enjoy myself. By the time I got around to Sylvia, I was no longer expecting much. Some of the poems were thoughtful and insightful and made for interesting reading, but I never felt like I was really gaining that much knowledge about the lives of either GW Carver or Sylvia Plath. I would have much read an actual biography of each individual that then had these poems interspersed throughout the pages. In each book, there were brief notes offering a little additional insight into the person or time period the poem addressed, and I feel like I learned more about their lives, thoughts, and emotions from these tiny blurbs than from the poems, which I doubt was how I'm supposed to feel.

I feel like I'm missing a lot of essential information that is important for a biography to offer. I don't really feel like I know much more about these two people than I did before picking up the books.

Although I didn't particularly enjoy reading either 'biography' I believe I can understand why both the Printz board and the Newbery board decided to award these books an Honor. It is a unique idea that changes the way we view and understand historical figures. But, I don't think they did their subjects justice. Instead of being more interested in the story of their lives, or coming away more knowledgeable than I was before, I merely felt annoyed.

I don't know of any other biographies written in this style, but I believe I'm safe in saying, I won't be reading them.

The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights by Russell Freedman is an in depth look at the life and career of Marian Anderson, and what impact her career had on the 1960s Civil Rights movement.

Before picking this book up, I didn't really know who Marian Anderson was. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn't have told you who she was. When I think of the Civil Rights movement, I think of the main people associated with that — the ones you learn about in school — Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and the Montgomery, AL bus boycotters, the lunch counter sit in crew and Malcom X. I'd never thought much about performers and the impact they might have.

Marian Anderson was a young black woman who loved to sing. She sang in her church choir, and after a series of sacrifices made by both her and the members of her community and congregation, she was able to begin a successful singing career in the time when very few people who weren't ethnically Caucasian had a chance. Her abilities as a vocalist and her wide international fame made it possible for her to take a stance on equal rights and have people listen.

As her fame grew, she refused to sing for segregated audiences, and when Constitution Hall, owned by the Daughter's of the American Revolution in Washington D.C. refused her the chance to preform because she was black, she and her good friend, Elanor Roosevelt (the first lady) staged a free concert on the steps of The Lincoln Memorial.

She was an incredible woman, who didn't apologize to anyone for who or what she was. She had a firm sense of self, and a strong character. Reading this book, I was amazed at the impact she had on moving the Civil Rights Movement forward.

This isn't the first Freedman biography I've read, and I have to say that I like his style. It's easily accessible for younger kids, but contains enough information that they are a great starting place for adults as well. He uses a lot of photos to illustrate his points, and they really help to bring the subject of the biography (or photobiography) alive.

I read this book because it won the 2005 Newbery Honor Award, but it's a great book to read if you are interested in her life, classical singers, or the impact of some of the lesser known, but still influential, members of the Civil Rights Movement.

This clip is a video of Marian Anderson singing Ave Maria in German.

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner is the first book of The Queen's Theif series. In this book, we meet Gen, short for Eugenides, named for the God Eugenides, the patron God of theives. When we meet him, Gen has been locked in the King's prison for an unknown length of time, although it's clear he's been there a while. We don't know much about Gen, and he doesn't bother to tell anyone too much about himself beyond the boast that is responsible for his current predicament; "I can steal anything".
He is taken from the prison by a man close to the King, and told that he is going to help him as a theif, or... else (cue omnious music). With no other choices, Gen leave the King's City with a small group of travelers on a journey with an as yet undisclosed destination. We know what Gen knows, which is simply that his expertise as a theif will be required.
The book is narrated by Gen, and we learn about him as the novel progresses. I loved his internal dialouge, and the way he speaks and interacts with the people taking him on the quest. Although he's a theif, just 'realeased' from prison, Gen has a strong moral compass, and seems very genuine, and very sincere. It is clear from the beginning that there is more to Gen than meets the eye, but very little information is given to us. Most of it we are left to wonder about, puzzle over, and wait until Gen sees fit to let people know more about him.
The book is very well written. We are given enough information throughout the story that I never felt frustrated by what I didn't know. I knew enough to be comfortable with the story, and I trusted that everything would be clear in due time. This is not one of those series that leaves you guessing about important details and facts for two or three books at a time. I thought Turner handled it brilliantly.
The characters are also fairly vibrant, even the supporting characters. But, my favorite part of the book was learning about their myths and legends. There are several occasions, as Gen's group is traveling where they sit beside the fire and tell legends and stories of the God's and the creation of the world. I've always been fascinated by mythology, and I loved Turner's versions of those myths. Most were similar to the Greek legends, and it's clear that Turner borrowed from them, but the myths do not feel stolen. They feel created. I could easily believe that these were genuine legends believed and honored by people thousands of years old.
I'm anxious to read the next books in the series. Not because I'm desperate to know what happens next because the author left us with a huge cliffhanger, because there isn't one. The Thief could easily be a story all it's own. This storyline is finished and although it is clear there is more to life for these characters than that which we have seen, this story is finished, and could easily be read on it's own and then left. But, I'm eager to read the remaining books in the series because the writing was beautiful, the characters engaging and the world is a treat to be in. I'd definitely recommend picking up this book. It's probably right close to the border between MG and YA, so it's just fine for younger readers, but there's enough to the story that older teens and even adults can enjoy it too.

Figgs and Phantoms by Ellen Raskin won the Nebery Honor in 1975. Four years later, she won the Newbery Award for The Westing Game. I read The Westing Game several years ago, and I really enjoyed it. It was wonderfully complex and the characters were simply delightful. (More on that later). So, I was actually quite excited to read Figgs and Phantoms.

Alas... Figgs just didn't work for me.. It was quite the disappointment. I started this book, not really knowing what to expect about the story itself, but looking forward to it, because I had so enjoyed The Westing Game. Sigh.

Figgs and Phantoms is about a family, The Figgs, who are all wildy quirky, except the youngest daughter/niece, Mona. She is decidedly normal, hates her family's weirdness, and is terribly embarrassed by what she believes the people of her town, Pineapple say about all those crazy Figgs.

I thought that Raskin was trying too hard with this novel, and as a result she missed the mark just about everywhere. Every single character has something weird, wacky, crazy, or unbelievable about them. All of them, except Mona. (She's just bitter about life and everything in it. Rather than make her quirky, I'd say she's just a teenager.) It got to be a little bit too much for me. Her mom, Sister Figg Newton (Newton being her married name) tap dances. All the time. Everywhere. Her uncle Truman, the human pretzel and sign maker (but horrible speller). And the list goes on and on and on. There was too much for me to believe it. Sometimes I'd look at the book and want to shout at the author — Enough already! I get it! They are weird. Can we move on please?! — Or something like that anyway...

The majority of the book focuses on Mona and her angst. I think it's supposed to be about her struggle to find her place in life, and accept her family as they are but it always just felt like angst to me, and not the good, realistic kind. Just the really annoying, get over yourself already type. Raskin makes hints about what she is supposed to be learning, and she gives us subtle clues here and there, but by that point, I was so fed up with Mona's whining and general annoying-ness that I didn't care. I just wanted the book to end. The only person Mona feels close to is her Uncle Florence. Everyone else is ridiculous, embarrassing and needs to just stop so that Mona can stop feeling embarrassed to go out in public. But, Uncle Florence is sick, and getting sicker.

The Figgs believe that when you die, you go to a place they call Capri. It's been written about in a journal passed down the family. The family meets together periodically for a night of reading from the family journals about Capri, a ritual they call 'Caprification'. Mona, or course, barely participates but when her uncle Florence dies (not really a spoiler, because it gives strong and obvious hints on the back cover) Mona knows she must find Capri so she can either bring her uncle back, or live with him in Capri. Even more weirdness ensues.

Nothing in this book was very believable to me. I had a hard time believing that much of what happened, and in the order or way they happened would be possible. Very often we were taken from point A to point F and just expected to believe that this was the natural progression of events, never mind the fact that we missed points B-E in the process.

On a positive note, I did enjoy several of the characters and their quirks, especially in the beginning. The secondary characters are often delightfully fun and I actually really enjoyed their time on the page. Truman's misspellings were fun (even one sign where he misspells his own name) and I especially liked the idea of Romulus and Remus Figg, the Walking Book of Knowledge and the Talking Adding Machine, respectively. I did wish the secondary characters had been more a part of the novel, and had been more fleshed out. I don't think I would have been as annoyed by the amount of quirks these characters had it they had also had more personality. But no. They were written as if their unique trait was all there was too them. It was how they were defined, described, and we didn't get to see any more than that. I do recognize that much of this is probably because that is how Mona sees them, but knowing why doesn't make it any less annoying.

All in all, I'd probably say this is one to skip. I don't know that I would really recommend it to very many people. I read it because I enjoyed The Westing Game, and because, as you (should) know, I'm trying to read the Newbery list. But, it's one I feel I could probably have done with out. There wasn't anything really special about it. The rating came really easy too. I finished the book, looked at it a moment, and then said — Meh.

If you've read it, I'd love to hear what you thought about it! Let me know!

When Shlemiel went to Warsaw and Zlateh the Goat are both collections of short stories awarded a Newbery Honor in 1969 and 1967 respectively. They were written by Isaac Bashevis Singer, a Jewish author well known for his short stories, who received the 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature.

These two collections included several stories that I really enjoyed and many that I didn't much like. Several stories in each book took place in the city of Chelm and mentioned the 7 City Elders (described by the author as fools). One of the residents of that city is Shlemiel, who appears in several stories and is also, undeniably, a fool. Although I like to think I have a sense of humor, and I enjoy a good taste of the ridiculous every now and again, sometimes, it's just a little too much. The two collections contained just a few too many stories dealing with the utter foolishness of these people for me to truly enjoy the reading. To give a quick example, a short story from Zlateh the Goat entitled The Snow in Chelm begins like this:

Chelm was a village of fools, fools young and old. One night someone spied the moon reflected in a barrel of water. The people of Chelm imagined it had fallen in. They sealed the barrel so that the moon would not escape. When the barrel was opened in the morning and the moon wasn't there, the villagers decided it had been stolen. They sent for the police, and when the thief couldn't be found, the fools of Chelm cried and moaned.

For some, I'm sure these stories would be very enjoyable and amusing tales. However, reading story after story involving more and more absurdities became just a little too much for me. Between the two books, almost half the stories dealt in some way with the preposterous happenings of the residents of Chelm.

However, I generally found the stories that did not mention Shlemiel or the Elders (and people) of Chelm to be very entertaining, and often delightful. I especially enjoyed the stories, Rabbi Leib & the Witch Cunegunde, and Shrewd Todie & Lyzer the Miser and the message of Utzel & His Daughter Poverty from Warsaw. My favorites from Zlateh were the stories Fool's Paradise, and Zlateh the Goat. These stories are all clever and well written, often with a warm moral, subtly teaching the reader ways to improve and become better without beating you over the head with the moral.

For the most part, I enjoyed reading these stories. It's always nice to get a new look at a culture I know very little about. In the foreward to Warsaw, Singer mentions that while each are retold using his own language and ideas, several of the stories within came from legends and stories told by his mother and grandmother. I love the different folk tales from various cultures, so that was fun. I did enjoy reading these short stories, and am glad I picked them up.