Jonathan Hunt
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Looking Back: 2007
Last year, we began a retrospective series where we revisited the 2005 Newbery crop. This year, we’re going to turn our attention to the 2007 Newbery picks. WHAT WON Susan Patron won for THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY. You’ll remember there was a big fuss made in some quarters about the use of the word [...]
Whither Fantasy?
If you’ve read the blog long enough, you probably know that when push comes to shove, I’m going to advocate for nonfiction and fantasy if there are viable contenders from those genres. We’ve already covered the various possibilities in the former genre, and while Nina recently brought up EGG & SPOON as the most likely [...]
Nonfiction Contenders
If Nina and I have anointed THE PORT CHICAGO 50 and THE FAMILY ROMANOV as the most likely Newbery nonfiction candidates there is a bevy of wonderfully written books that may also get a look from the committee. ANGEL ISLAND by Russell Freedman has four starred reviews and while it dovetails nicely with the fourth [...]
The Family Romanov
First of all, you need to know something about me as a reader to understand why I find this one quite possibly the most distinguished contribution of American literature for children this year. I like biography, but it can often feel too claustrophobic for me to inhabit a single viewpoint with a very linear narrative [...]
Spring Contenders
Earlier Nina asked us to glance ahead and talk about some of our Fall Favorites, but we’re not done with the spring season yet either. What about this trio of contenders? ABSOLUTELY ALMOST by Lisa Graff I haven’t read this anywhere, but does anybody else get a slightly WONDER-ish vibe from this one? New York [...]
Nuts to You
Of course I’m biased, but I happen to think that CRISS CROSS is one of the best Medal winners in the canon. To be sure, it’s a polarizing kind of winner, but there’s no question that–like THE WESTING GAME–it’s individually distinct. One was made and then the mold was broken. If AS EASY AS FALLING [...]
Mystery/Thriller
The mystery/thriller category is a popular one with children, and I keep waiting for that special book that will lead to a pop culture phenomenon like Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Nevertheless, we have a good crop of books this year. We’ve already discussed THE GHOSTS OF TUPELO [...]
Freedom Summer
This is the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer, and we’ve already discussed one book depicts that time, REVOLUTION by Deborah Wiles. Like its predecessor, COUNTDOWN, it’s a work of fiction that borrows heavily from the conventions of nonfiction, namely the incorporation of numerous primary source materials, both textual and visual. There also happen to be [...]
Present Tense
Now that we’ve got Southern Girl and her cousin Country Girl out of the way, there’s another pet peeve–present tense–I’ve got to tackle before we get deeper into discussions of major Newbery contenders. While present tense will probably have no bearing on whether a book receives Newbery consideration, it is nevertheless bad writing, and 90% [...]
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