Systematic Student [Search results for Newbery Award] 

In my about me page, I mentioned that I love working my way through book lists. I have several that I am actively working through and many others on the side that would be nice to get to, one day. I thought I would spend a moment and introduce those lists that are an active part of my reading patterns.

THE NEWBERY AWARD

In 1922, the American Library Association (ALA) began awarding The John Newbery Medal to what they determined to be the most distinguished contribution to children's literature for that year. Because of the multitude of amazing books written each year, the committee is also allowed to acknowledge those books which did not make the final cut but are still worthy of recognition. These are given The Newbery Honor Medal. While not a exact system, and each year there are and will be people who disagree with the novel chosen as the recipient, I appreciate the effort made to recognize these books and make them more accessible to children. If you are a recipient of the Newbery Award, your book will likely never go out of print (and it's kept some doozys around) and most libraries and bookstores will carry a copy. As of today — 6/28 — I have read 67 out of the 89 winners. I'm almost there! I intend to read and own every Newbery Winner. I'm not as committed to reading every honor (there are almost 300) but I'd like to read many, if not all of them at some point.
THE PRINTZ AWARD

In 2000, the ALA added the Michael L. Printz Award to recognize those books which exemplify literary excellence in young adult literature. Like the John Newbery Award, each year a committee chooses which book most fits this criteria as well as recognizing the 'runners-up', which are awarded a Printz Honor. Because it's a newer award, I am aiming to read all of the winners and honors. I'd like to own many of them, but am not as committed to owning every one the way I am with the Newberys. So far, out of 11 winners I've read 3 and I've read 8 out of 41 honors. I've got a long way to go on this award, but I'm enjoying the process.

THE BBC'S THE BIG READ
In 2003, The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) conducted a survey to determine the nation's favorite books. The list is in 3 parts — The top 100 favorites, top 200 favorites and the top 21. The top 21 books were ranked by popularity, with the understanding that each author could only be represented once among the top 21 favorites. My focus is on the top 100 books, although it may shift to include the top 200 once I complete the first bunch. So far I've read 29 1/2 (got stuck getting all the way through The Lord of the Rings trilogy) but I've got several more on my immediate to-read list.

The Story of Mankind by Hendrik van Loon was awarded the very first Newbery Medal in 1922. I decided a few years ago that I wanted to read and own every Newbery Award Winner. Given that this won the first Newbery, I was excited to read it, even though I had heard some less than favorable things about the writing.

Let me first admit that I skimmed a vast majority of this book. I started the book with the full intention of reading everything as normal, but it didn't take long for me to realize that I would never get through the book if I tried to read without skimming.

The one positive thing I can say about this book is that Hendrik van Loon took on an impossibly difficult topic. He tried to fit the entire history of mankind into one book. This must have taken huge amounts of time and research, and I give the man props for that. However, that is about the positive thing I can say about the book.

While reading, it is painfully obvious that van Loon thinks himself to be terribly witty and clever, but he's not. At all. He's dry and dull and tries too hard to be entertaining, instead of just letting the history tell itself.

I was also rather confused at the way he broke up history, and what time periods he gave more weight to. In a book that only has 485 pages to talk about the entire history of mankind from when we were amoebas until the 1920s, there are only a few pages to talk about different parts of history. But why would you spend 4 pages on Ancient Egypt and 13 on chivalry in the Medieval Era?! This feels a bit backwards to me.

Overall, this is not a book I'd recommend. The only reason I read it was so that I could complete the Newbery list, and I admit to feeling a huge sense of accomplishment now that it's done. But man, was it a struggle to get through.

Although I do really enjoy reading book lists, and various award winners, you can't always trust the committees who pick the books. Sometimes, you get a 'bad' on in the bunch. Gay-Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji is one such book.

While not a horrid book, Gay-Neck is also not a book I would recommend or reread. I picked it up because it is on the Newbery list, and it is one of only two books thus far that I truly disliked. (The other being Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field.) It's been a little while since I read this one, so my memory of specific details, but the way the book made me feel is still pretty fresh. I was reorganizing my books for storage (sad, I know) and I saw this one, and decided to write my review now and get it over with while I was thinking about it...

The book is about a young boy in India who trains pigeons around the time of World War I. Gay-Neck happens to be one of his prized pigeons. Initially, our narrator is the young boy. Through him, we learn about the training procedures for carrier pigeons and what his life is like. Later in the story however, we get to hear from Gay-Neck himself as he goes off to war and a few other places as well. I have never been a big fan of animals being the ones to tell a story. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, I rather dislike that.

There wasn't much that I liked about this book. The writing never grabbed me, the story never interested me, and the characters never moved me. I don't know what I'm supposed to feel when a pigeon starts making eyes at this pretty lady pigeon, but I definitely missed that one.

I respect this as an award winner, because there are very few award winners that are so obviously set in, or about other cultures beyond America. Not to say that the book has no merit on its own, but I believe the glimpse into another culture played a large role in earning this book the golden sticker. I can't think of another Newbery book set in India or written by an Indian author right off hand, and it's always nice to be able to add a bit of culture.

Although I wasn't a fan of this book, I can understand why some view it as a distinguished contribution to children's literature, and I've even been told that there are people out there who truly enjoyed this book. I haven't met any yet, but I'll let you know if I do! I think that this is a book with a very limited audience, and sadly, one of the Newbery winners that has not stood the test of time well.

Tales from Silver Lands by Charles J. Finger won the John Newbery Award in 1925. I didn't know anything about the book when I picked it up other than it's Newbery, but I must say, I was quite pleasantly surprised by what I found.

I have always loved Fairy Tales. Like, a lot. If you remember, a few weeks ago I talked about my first experience reading Grimm's Fairy Tales, which helped cement my love for reading them as well. (If you are really interested, in my blog, and you can go back and read it.) So, imagine my delight when I realized this was a collection of 19 fairy tales recorded by Finger from South America. Although I'm not nearly as knowledgeable about other countries and their rich cultural histories as I'd like to be, I'm always open to learning more. And I think you can learn a lot about a society from their fairy tales and children's stories.

This was a real treat for me to read, and one I'm definitely looking forward to adding to my shelves and rereading, not only for myself but also to read to kids. I used to read some of the Grimm's fairy tales to my little brothers as a bedtime story, and I'd love to be able to add these tales to stories I can read/tell to young kids.

Although some of these stories might be classified as more mythology than fairy tale, I felt the same way reading these as I did reading the classic fairy tales. There's that sense of magic and possibility, where you know anything can happen, and although things might get a little rough along the way, and there probably won't be super happy ending, the good guys do win in the end.

I also noticed that the emphasis of each tale was placed on the struggles of each character rather than the resolution. The ending is always over so quickly. Normally, this is something that is a major no-no in writing, I mean, seriously. Who wants to read a 400 pg. build up to a 4 paragraph resolution?! But it seems to work in fairy tales. The stories aren't about what happens, it's about learning how to get there. We see their struggles, know their challenges and then we get to know they end up relatively alright in the end.

This is definitely a book I would recommend. The writing is a little older, but to anyone who is a fan of fairy tales in their original setting (or people who want to write a fairy tale retelling but are wanting new material) this is a great book to read and one that I strongly recommend.

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!

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick won the Caldecott Medal in 2008. As I'm sure most of you are aware, the Caldecott Medal is awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American Picture Book for Children. It's akin to receiving the Newbery Award for children's books, or the Printz Award for young adult.

Hugo Cabret was an especially interesting win for the Caldecott, because although it does contain a lot of beautiful illustrations (284 in a 533 pg. book) it's a 533 page novel. The front jacket describes this as a book "combining elements of picture book, graphic novel, and film" which "breaks open the novel form to create an entirely new reading experience."

The dust jacket does not lie. Reading this book was unlike anything else I've ever read and it was wonderful. I was hooked from the first page, "A Brief Introduction by Professor H. Alcofrisbas" to the last page as we visually watch the moon as it disappears from the sky. The illustrations are... beyond brilliant. Designed to look like sketches, they are surprisingly complex and deceptively simple. As I mentioned in my review of American Born Chinese I am increasingly shocked by what you can portray and how much story you can tell with just one picture.

The story itself was wonderful. Hugo Cabret is a wonderful character just trying to find his place in life. He is a young boy living alone in the middle of Paris in the 1930s, trying desperately to survive. He has no money, but he feels bad every time he is forced to steal something to survive. He is such a good character. He is so confused and desperately searching for something tangible to bring him hope. I loved the secondary characters as well. Questioning and spunky Isabelle, hurting and bitter old Georges, and loving and protective Jeanne. Each of the characters are incredibly well developed. Even the minor characters are given more depth than we normally see.

This book was marvelous. It's definitely one that I am going to want on my own shelf sometime soon. It's beautifully illustrated and wonderfully written. This is a book that can be enjoyed by people of any age, at any stage of their life. I'm enjoyed reading this one so much, that I am definitely looking forward to seeing what else Mr. Selznick has to offer the literary world.

I love book lists. And reading books from those lists. It's part of why I like challenges so much. I love being able to cross a book off my list. It makes me feel like I'm definitely accomplishing something. I love them! Whether it's a list I put together myself, like the Fill-in-the-Gaps reading challenge, a prize list, like the Newbery Award, or the Printz Award, or a list that someone else compiled, like the BBC's Big Read, I love them.

But, my sister mocks me. Especially when I find a book I didn't particularly like because I was reading from a list. (Gay-Neck, I'm looking at you!) It hasn't changed my reading preference — I simply point out the books to her that I read and loved because of lists, especially the ones I then recommend to her.

But, it does make me wonder. Am I the only person who loves reading lists? Does anyone else search for great book lists to add to their to-read piles, and gleefully highlight/cross-out the books from said list once they've been read?

So, I'm asking you, because that's what book blogs are for, right? Communication and the sharing of brilliance? So, who out there is like me, and loves them some reading lists? And, who is like my sister, laughing at the rest of us as we stumble through that (hopefully rare) bad addition? And, why? What makes them attractive, or repulsive to you?

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.

John Lennon: All I Want is the Truth, a Photobiography by Elizabeth Partridge is not a book I would have chosen to read on my own. I read it because I want to read every Printz Honor and Award, and this book won the Honor in 2006.

I've never been interested in the personal lives of celebrities. I just don't care. So, I wasn't expecting to love this book. And I didn't. But, that was probably more because I wasn't particularly fond of the subject matter than because of the writing or presentation of Partridge. The book is presented as a photobiography, which I generally enjoy. But, John Lennon was not really a person to admire, and I find it hard to enjoy reading any biography if I don't much care for the subject.

I really enjoy the music of The Beatles. I grew up listening to their music with my dad, and my favorites are always able to bring a smile to my face or call up a fond memory. And, there is no doubt about the fact that they changed the face and future of music. But, liking their music doesn't mean I'm terribly interested in their personal histories.

And really, John Lennon is not a person who made it easy to like him. I felt like most of the information related about Lennon was negative. He was moody, felt a huge sense of entitlement, just knew he was so misunderstood, and felt that he was above normal standards of conduct, even before they became super famous. It just got worse after. He wasn't terribly loyal, and turned away from the people who loved him most. He's not a person to look up to or aspire to be like. I find that I respect his music, but have very little, if any, respect for who he was.

Maybe that makes me a bad person, or maybe I'm just another one of those who misunderstands, but I don't really care. He wasn't a nice person, and I don't feel like I have to respect that.

I've decided that awards committees really like the photobiography. There are several photobiographies on the Newbery list, both winners and honors, and then this. The book is well written, well researched, and the information was presented well, but I don't know why it would be widely read, unless you are a huge Beatles or Lennon fan, or are like me and trying to read the whole list.

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.