Hitty: Her First Hundred Years

Title: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years

Author: Rachel Field

Illustrator: Dorothy Lathrop

Newbery 1930

Ah, books of a certain era – I recommend this one with a ‘but…’ similar to Dr. Dolittle – there is rampant American/European superiority throughout this book, which is not surprising, but needs to be addressed nonetheless.  Hitty is an engaging character, and her story is also a nice gloss over American history from the early 1800s to early 1900s.  The conceit of a doll who is able to control her limbs enough to write is nice – as a child, you always suspect that your toys are able to do things when you’re not looking.  A sweet, if odd, story.

The Twenty-One Balloons

Title: The Twenty-One Balloons

Author: William Pène du Bois

Newbery 1948

I ended this book with a very large question mark over my head.  It made very little sense, and was not even a good enough ‘rollicking adventure’ to make its nonsensical nature okay.  An American ex-pat community on Krakatoa is based on a socialist restaurant system whose premier technology is hydrogen balloons and steam engines?  This community is saved from the eruption via balloon?  You see my problem.  If you like imagined cultural systems with strange provenances, read The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder – his is pretty strange, but a lot more fun and a lot better thought out.

The Door in the Wall

Title: The Door in the Wall

Author/Illustrator: Marguerite de Angeli

Newbery 1950

This is a sweet story, but doesn’t have very much meat to it.  It follows a sort of classic ‘disabled people have something to contribute to society’ format, with the slight twist that it takes place in the Middle Ages.  However, I don’t get the sense that the author did very much research before placing her story in that time period – there are details that don’t ring true with better-researched books I’ve read.  The ambient religiosity may be uncomfortable for some readers, though it is historically accurate.  There are better historical fiction books with more accurate representations of this time.

The Higher Power of Lucky

Title: The Higher Power of Lucky

Author: Susan Patron

Illustrator: Matt Phelan

Newbery 2007

This book is significantly more heartbreaking to read as an adult than it would be as a child.  Lucky’s fears are those of a ten-year-old – an orphan in uncertain circumstances, but a child nonetheless.  To an adult, her clear poverty, abandonment, and other hard times are well-written and therefore hard to read.  I recommend this book, but with caution for some children, because losing one’s parents is one of the largest fears out there.  On the other hand, the life of her tiny town and the beauty of the desert around her is woven with care and gentleness.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Title: The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Author: Elizabeth George Speare

Newbery 1959

Given my review of The Bronze Bow, I approached this one with some trepidation.  This story, however, has all of the good points and none of the religious heavy-handedness of its successor.  Kit is a relatively well-developed character, and the Puritans are not flat caricatures of themselves.  They are real people, just a little over-straight-laced.  The ending is a little too pat, but it’s nice to have a book that ends well for everyone every once in a while.   This book would be great, as it is often used, as a fictional introduction to a unit on early American history.

The Bronze Bow

Title: The Bronze Bow

Author: Elizabeth George Speare

Newbery 1962

This is a well-constructed and well-told story, but I am not sure that I can bring myself to recommend it without reservations.  I know that many Newbery winners are used in middle school English programs, but I would hope never to find this on a required reading list in a public school.  It starts out simply as historical fiction, but any historical fiction in which Jesus is a character becomes quickly unsimplified.  He is portrayed as the son of God, miracles and all.  A well-rounded and human son of God, but holy nonetheless, and the emotional focus of the book.

The House in the Night

Title: The House in the Night

Illustrator: Beth Krommes

Author: Susan Marie Swanson

Caldecott 2009

What a beautiful book.  Somewhat like Goodnight Moon in its repetition, but simpler and with more focus on the joy of home and hearth (and less existential).  The illustrations balance simplicity of style with complexity of content – a great book for seeking and finding with a small child.  The choice of black and white with hints of yellow makes it stand out from other goodnight books, as well.  The scratchboard illustrations are almost woodcut-like in appearance, but with more delicate detail than you might expect.  This could easily become a child’s favorite bedtime book – luckily for the adults involved.

Criss Cross

Title: Criss Cross

Author: Lynne Rae Perkins

Newbery 2006

This is a really great book about what it’s like to be 14 going on 15 – the first ideas about romance, first forays into defining oneself and others.  It is interestingly placed sometime in the 1960s or 1970s, so while the general experience is probably fairly universal, modern teens could be confused by the cultural references and the freedom of movement of the characters.  Also, since the time period is not defined, I was frequently “popped out” of the story by trying to figure it out.  Be that as it may, this read very poetically and very truly.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Title: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Franweiler

Author/Illustrator: E.L. Konigsburg

Newbery 1968

I evidently had never read this the first time around.  What a great find!  Similar to The View from Saturday, her kids are spot-on and Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is a fabulous character.  The constant discussions of how much things cost and the lack of security at the museum are a bit dated, but I think most kids could get past that pretty easily.  It could be a great lead-in book to a unit on art history and the forensic process of proving artworks’ provenance, or to a trip to an art museum (preferably a very large, impressive one.)

Tuesday

Title: Tuesday

Illustrator/Author: David Wiesner

Caldecott 1992

While I loved this book, as usual, I have to wonder a bit at why Wiesner has gotten so many Caldecotts.  Granted, the story is funny, scientifically accurate (except for the flying), and beautifully rendered, but so was Flotsam.  At least The Three Pigs (review to come) has a distinctively different illustration and storytelling style from the other two.  This one, however, is very similar to some of his other work.  Nothing against the book – I love it – but one wonders who else could have gotten the recognition one of those years. Regardless, the book is gorgeous and the frogs fabulous.