MarysLibrary

The 2009 Newbery Winner

The ALA has announced this year's winner of the Newbery and it's Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book (Harper Collins, 2008.)

I didn't make a prediction this year because I haven't had time to read enough children's books, but I do have half a dozen books out of the library, making them a sort of shortlist. And Gaiman's book is among them.

I haven't read it yet. Obviously it will now go to the top of my reading list.

I'm getting closer to predicting the winner. This year the book's on my short list; last year the book I chose for the Newbery, Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugh Cabret, won the Caldecott. Maybe next year's the year I'll ace it.

Newbery Winner Is Announced

Laura Amy Schlitz has won the Newbery for Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!, a book that wasn't even on my radar. However, Brian Selznick won the Caldecott for The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the book I predicted would win the Newbery.

I didn't see this coming. I have retained my perfect record for failing to predict the Newbery.

You didn't know about my Newbery prediction because we have been having serious and prolonged wireless router problems here at Mary's Library and I've been unable to post for a couple of days.

How to Steal a Dog

How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Connor (2007) 170 pages. Grades 3-7, ages 8-12. Starred review in School Library Journal

"The day I decided to steal a dog was the same day my best friend, Luanne Godfrey, found out I lived in a car." As first lines go that one isn't bad.

In this poignant book, Georgina and her little brother, Toby, are reduced to living in their old Chevy after their father runs off and leaves them destitute. Their mother works two jobs to try to get together the money for a deposit so that they can find an apartment but between car trouble and getting fired from her job in a dry cleaners things aren't progressing very rapidly.

Georgina spots a poster for a lost dog, zooming in on the part that says "Reward $500." With that much money the family could move out of the smelly old car and into a real home, with beds and a bathroom, and Georgina could sleep at night and wash her hair and do her homework by a lamp instead of by the light of a flashlight.

And so she hatches a plot to steal a dog and collect the reward. Unfortunately she chooses a dog whose owner is not wealthy and it isn't long before Georgina is feeling sorry for the victim, sorry for the dog, and sorry for herself. Contributing to these conflicting emotions is a character who wanders into the story - her brother calls him a bum - who is rather like the man of wisdom in classic myth. He feeds the dog, repairs the car, and warns Georgina that the trail you leave behind is sometimes more important than the path ahead.

This book is unlikely to win the Newbery with competition like The Invention of Hugo Cabret and the many other fine books published in the last year. But it's a book with a good deal to offer and I would recommend it to girls about eight to ten years old. In fact, I'm about to send a recommendation to my eight-year-old grand-niece that she look it up.

Reaching for Sun

Reaching for Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer (2007) 181 pages. Grade 7 and up.

When the Mock Newbery lists sprout like dandelions each year at this time, there are usually a handful of books that appear on more than one list and those are the books I read first.

Reaching for Sun is on only one of the half dozen lists I consulted, that of the State of Rhode Island Office of Library & Information Services. Newbery contenders often have something unusual about them and this one is unusual in that it's written in blank verse by the young narrator/protagonist. I chose it because I wanted to see how well the author had handled that challenge.

Well enough, I think. Aside from a few expected comparisons and lukewarm adjectives, the metaphors, often related to gardening, are fresh, including the title. A neighbor's yard has a "lawn buzzed down like a Marine recruit's cut." A hammock in the yard is "stretched over the unfurling face of hostas and fingers of ferns." The heroine says: "I want this summer to be a wildflower-seed mix. And me, surprised by what blooms."

In Reaching for Sun Josie, who has cerebral palsy, lives with her overworked mother and grandmother. She meets a nerdy new neighbor who teaches her about biology as she teaches him about growing flowers. The other kids at school (rich kids) persecute these two, who become friends. But when Josie's neighbor goes off to science camp for the summer she fears she has lost his friendship. The rest of the story is somewhat predictable and you can guess how it resolves.

I was disappointed with this book for reasons I can't articulate. I suggest you look at School Library Journal for an objective review of the Reaching for Sun. I give it a three lukewarm stars.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

A librarian friend told me last Sunday about Brian Selznick's book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. I immediately requested it from the library.

The book is intended for children in grades 4 to 9, so I was startled to discover that it's 533 pages long. A bit thick for your typical 9 year old. But I found that the thickness comes from the intriguing use of many detailed charcoal drawings along with the text, with an occasional movie still thrown in.

In 1931 Hugo Cabret lives in a tiny room behind the air ducts of a Paris railroad station. He repairs the station clocks and in his spare time he tries to recreate an automaton that his father, a clockmaker, found in the attic of a museum. Hugo runs into trouble when he tries to steal a mechanical mouse from a mysterious toy shop owner.

He meets the toy store owner's god-daughter who is fascinated with photography and with her he sneaks into a movie theater to watch a film. And he continues to work on his mechanical man. The second half of the story moves on to the early history of French film.

This is a story with hidden identities, secret messages, and the fundamental mystery of the automaton. The alternating text and pictures move the story quickly along. I am stunned at the creativity of Selznick's conception -- a blending of a conventional book with a graphic novel. The book is unlike anything I've ever seen and it's superb.

The Wall

I've begun reading books from the Mock Newbery lists that libraries and bookstores create every year at this time.

The first book I read is The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis, a book for children aged 8 and up.

Born just after World War II, Sis was raised in Communist-controlled Cold-War Czechoslovakia, being indoctrinated at the state school, joining the Commnist youth organization, and not thinking much about the way the world around him worked. He spent his time and creative energy drawing.

The book shows some of the things Sis drew as a small child and then as a young man. There are brief quotes from his journal. He tells us what life was like in his country. Slowly over the years Western culture filtered through to Prague and he learned about blue jeans and the Beatles and rock music. He realized there were many things that the Czech people weren't being told by the government.

Sis devoted himself to his drawing. He grew increasingly skilled and eventually had a chance to travel in the West. He was in London when the Prague Spring, as the easing of Communist control was called, came to a sudden halt as the Russians sent tanks into Czechoslovakia and again the iron curtain rang down.

I was excited about this book and about to declare it, a bit prematurely, my choice for the medal. But then I picked up another book, and suddenly my perspective changed. More about that tomorrow.

The Higher Power of Lucky

This year's winner of the Newbery medal is The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron. I read it last night in one gulp and re-read it today more slowly.

It's a quirky book, with a leading lady of great charm, Lucky Trimble. This 10-year old, not allowed to wear makeup, carries mineral oil around to put on her eyebrows to make them shine. I wish I'd thought of that.

Lucky lives in Hard Pan, population 43, in the high desert of California with her guardian, Brigitte, who came from France to care for her after her mother died. Fearing that Brigitte is going to go back to France, Lucky makes a bid for attention by running away.

But of course problems ensue. A sandstorm that she thought was going to help her makes it difficult to know where she's going. Her dog, HMS Beagle, makes an unwelcome discovery that complicates her escapade.

I loved this story and admired the budding scientist, Lucky, her knot-tying friend Lincoln, and five-year old Miles, who lives on cookies, makes very strange noises, and asks everyone to read his favorite book to him again and again.

But I wonder if the intended audience for this book, children in grades four to six, will find it as captivating as adults do. Will boys want to read a book with a girl as the main character? I wish I knew a 10-year-old boy who could review it for me.