You Choose the Next Newbery at KCLS!

Bekka @ Des Moines

Jake and Lily by Jerry Spinelli

Wouldn't it be amazing to live with your best friend during your entire childhood?  Jake and Lily are special twins.  They've been inseparable best friends for eleven years.  Unfortunately, there is a shift in their relationship once they turn 11 years old.  They start to drift apart and it's more than just separate bedrooms.  Jake wants to hang out with some of his new guy friends.  Lily is distraught!  She is used to being able to rely on her brother for everything.  She is devastated and initially whines and mourns the loss of their treasured relationship.  Thank goodness that even though Jake is absent, her hippie grandfather starts to have an increasingly prominent role in Lily's life.  She tries out a few hobbies and a few potential new best friends before finding the ideal fit for her.  Her grandpa understands what it feels like to lose a special someone as he describes how he felt after losing his wife. 

Throughout the book Jake and Lily take turns writing from their different perspectives.  During the first half it was easy to get confused about who was telling the story.  However, Lily gradually comes into her own person by the halfway point.   Jake and Lily are challenged in different ways and Spinelli captures their insight with his writing style. 

Spinelli smoothly blends Jake and Lily's stories together for a harmonious piece of work.  You'll love the twins' powerful connection from reading each other's thoughts to sleepwalking destinations to feeling each other's presence.  You'll embrace Spinelli's storytelling ability and grandfather's wise words to Lily. 

To recommend other titles to the committee, please email newberysuggestions@kcls.org.

 Rating:3.50 out of 5.0

Child of the Mountains by Marilyn Sue Shank

Growing up in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, Lydia's life is secluded until the growing severity of her younger brother's illness forces her family to seek outside medical help. The conservative medical community of the big city dismisses the folk remedies that have served her brother BJ well throughout his youth. During his hospital trips, BJ is subjected to prejudiced hospital staff and a forced hospice stay. Lydia's mom is sentenced to jail for taking BJ from the hospital so that he could die at home, near his family.

The entire family values knowledge, both scientific and artistic. Lydia's Gran takes her on nature walks in order to identify plants and their many uses, while BJ's experiment with fermentation is a well-loved family yarn. Music is a part of daily life, as is creating objects of decorative art such as BJ's and Gran's memory quilts.

Initially unschooled at Standard English, Lydia's Appalachian way of speaking is, according to her teacher Mr. Hinkle, a preservation of an earlier way of communicating that should be valued. Mr. Hinkle realizes that her ability to code switch between Standard English and her Appalachian dialect shows a high level of literacy and intelligence. Indeed, Lydia's love of literature allows her to draw comforting parallels between her life and that of Anne Shirley, heroine of the Anne of Green Gables books.

This book really shines in its ability to showcase culture in isolation. As Lydia realizes, "[t]hem mountains is always and forever inside of me, making me who I be" (237).

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

To recommend other titles to the committee, please email newberysuggestions@kcls.org.

Cold Cereal by Adam Rex

A Black Hole Is NOT a Hole by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano

How many books about scientific concepts are funny and fun to read? The informative and entertaining science book is a rare find that should be celebrated.

In A Black Hole Is NOT a Hole DeCristofano explains black holes clearly and with a great sense of humor. She uses excellent analogies (a singularity is like a peanut with the mass of a trillion elephants!), thought experiments (imagine you approach the event horizon of a black hole and your foot stretches in front on you like a spaghetti noodle!), and great flow from one topic to the next (start with Newtonian gravity--that's pretty easy to get--and wait until the end to have your mind blown by Einsteinian gravity!).

The illustrations (though we're not to take them into account in terms of Newbery criteria) are also excellent, both in terms of elucidating concepts and capturing readers' imaginations with the beauty of space.

More non-fiction books should be written with this much wit and verve, especially when it comes to books about math and science.

Rating: 4 out of 5

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Folks that grew up in the Tacoma area might remember stopping at an animal themed mall to see a gorilla. This touching novel is inspired by the real Ivan who now lives at Zoo Atlanta.

Told in short prose, every word has been carefully chosen. Gorillas don't chatter incessantly, they aren't chimps after all.

Ivan slowly reveals his life at the Big Top Mall, his friendship with Stella the elephant who spent most of her life in a traveling circus and Bob the stray dog at the mall who loves to sleep on Ivan's stomach. But as Ivan gets older the mall sees less and less business. His owner Mack brings in a new baby elephant to draw the people in again, and it is the introduction of a baby elephant to their group that changes everything for Ivan.

They do not live in a domain, they live in a cage.

Ivan is an artist, as is the night janitor's daughter Julia, who shares her crayons and finger paints with him. It is Julia who can see what Ivan is trying to draw in his pictures - available for purchase in gift shop. Ivan promises Stella that he will protect baby Ruby, and he decides to communicate his plan to Julia through pictures so that she understands that they need help to get to a real home.

Applegate tackles some very sensitive issues and makes them accessible to young readers - how humans can both treasure and harm animals, questioning the care of animals and being willing to stand up to make a difference and the quietness of friendship and death. 

While the prose is sparse, it is incredibly powerful and focuses the reader on what Ivan is experiencing.

Score 5 out of 5

To suggest other 2012 titles to the committee, please email newberysuggestions@kcls.org.

The Humming Room by Ellen Potter

Last month this book was reviewed over on our Book Talk blog, and I completely agree with reviewer Gaye (so you should follow the link and read her excellent review). Instead of re-reviewing it, I'm going to talk about my love for author Ellen Potter.

Ellen Potter is an author I've long admired. You may be familiar with her Olivia Kidney series, SLOB, and (my favorite of her books) The Kneebone Boy. She writes stories with distinct voices and unpredictable plots. So The Humming Room is a departure for her because the plot is totally unoriginal--it's almost identical to the plot of the classic The Secret Garden.

But in Ellen Potter's hands, this 100-year-old old tale is made new. Though the plots are very similar, The Humming Room is certainly not just a re-telling of The Secret Garden. The setting is different, the characters are different, many details are different, and the tone is different. What shines through both is the theme of redemption and recovery through gardening and love. And that's a theme I don't mind reading about again and again.

Rating: 4 out of 5

The Shadow Collector's Apprentice by Amy Gordon
This title will be published in April, and is not yet available through the KCLS catalog.

All is not all it appears to be when 12 year old Cully Pennyacre applies for a part time job at the local antique store. The odd proprietor, Batty, has a "harmless" hobby of collecting people's shadows. Which is not as harmless at all. Interestingly, after his shadow is collected Cully's shadow returns to him which Batty find to be quite unique.

Cully is hired to work in the shop and one by one he watches folks talked into selling a collection or trinket. After that deal is done Batty convinces them to have their shadow's  collected, and Cully notices they are very different afterwards. In his attempt to find out what is going on, Cully stumbles onto something much bigger that is connected to his father's disappearance.

Why is Batty collection shadows? What is he going to do with them? And can you get your shadow back?

The novel has a good setting, Gordan sets up exciting scenes in various locations. The plot is interesting and moves the novel forward as Cully tries to figure out what is going on. The supporting characters are  one dimensional, and the solution for making the secret formula fell flat.

All in all, a good novel for adventure/fantasy fans, but reader's will need to be willing to stretch their imaginations to accept some of the premises.

Score: 3 out of 5

To suggest 2012 titles to the committee, please email newberysuggestions@kcls.org.

Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood

It is the summer of 1964, Freedom Summer it will be called in the history books. All throughout the South busloads of volunteers from the North came to help register African-American's to vote. This tended to not go over well.

In one Mississippi town, all Glory wants is to go to the pool for her birthday. So when her friend Frankie comes over and says the pool is closing, she doesn't believe it, there is nothing wrong with the community pool! And where is everyone supposed to go to stay cool? But Frankie's daddy is right, in an effort to keep the pool segregated, Glory's pool is closed for some made up "repairs".

Miss Bloom, the town librarian, introduces Glory to Laura, whose mother is a volunteer at the new free clinic in town. Frankie's daddy says that she and her mother are trouble and Frankie tries to convince Glory to stay away from Laura.

But Glory is a feisty gal who isn't going to let other people bully her thoughts. She has a memorable summer figuring out who and what she believes in, and the importance of treating everyone the same.

While this is a touching historical fiction, the ending wraps up a bit too nicely and Glory's rousing letter to the editor sounds like the letter of a much older teen.  The characters are interesting, if a bit one dimensional. We know who is bad, who is good, and who is good that is going to get run out of town. The author's note was well written, and explained the liberties taken with condensing historical events.

This is a solid introduction to Freedom Summer for younger readers.

Score: 3.5 out of 5

To suggest other 2012 titles to the committee, please email newberysuggestions@kcls.org.

Chomp by Carl Hiaasen

As he did in Hoot, Flush and Scat, bestselling author Carl Hiaasen delivers a funny Florida fable filled with wacky wildlife adventures. This time our hero is a teenage boy named Wahoo whose dad is a professional animal wrangler. When Wahoo's family has money trouble, his dad is forced to take a job working for a "reality" show called Expedition Survival! in which the pampered star "survives" extreme wilderness scenarios. It's clear from the beginning that the star of Expedition Survival! is nothing but a big fat fake. But the dangers presented by filming in the Florida swamps, where giant snakes and alligators roam, are very real.

This is an enjoyable book, but you can criticize Hiaasen for relying on the same formula again and again. What was an original story in Hoot (which won a Newbery Honor in 2003) now seems a bit stale after Flush and Scat and now Chomp. All of these books feature plucky kids pitted against greedy villains who don't respect nature. The formula is fun, but is it Newbery worthy?

Rating: 3 out of 5

Mr. And Mrs. Bunny- Detectives Extraordinaire!

Translated from the Rabbit by Polly Horvath

 

Madeline is used to taking care of the practical aspects of life for her hippie parents, Mildred and Flo.  Once they migrated from San Francisco to settle "not one hundred percent legally" in the Vancouver Islands, "...they came into their own by discovering that with very little effort they could both play the marimba and make jewelry out of sand dollars.  There was no stopping them after that."

And so when Mildred and Flo are kidnapped by foxes (yes, foxes) because they can't remember where their uncle the codebreaker lives (it's a long story), it falls to Madeline to rescue them.  Luckily, Mr. and Mrs. Bunny have recently relocated to her area, even more luckily, they have decided to become detectives, and perhaps most lucky of all, Madeline is naturally fluent in Bunny.  Thus begins a hilarious caper filled with twists and turns, and jam-packed with unforgettable characters, including the nefarious foxes (led by the Grand Poobah, replete with his own signature cackle), The Marmot (known as The, whose love of garlic bread may be his downfall), and Mr. & Mrs. Bunny themselves, the stars of the show.  Will Madeline and the Bunnies rescue Madeline's parents?  Will the Foxes break the code?  Will Madeline get white shoes in time to meet the Prince?  Will Mrs. Bunny be accepted in the hat club?  Will Flo and Mildred ever manage to learn Fox? These are just a few of the mysteries that will be solved in the course of this tightly written book. 

The strength of Horvath's newest book are characters and lanaguage. There is no character development, which is precisely what drives the story forward- the characters all play their parts to a T, never straying from their single, if varied, focus.  It brings to mind improv exercises where each actor is given an objective in the scene, and with single-minded focus must try to achieve that objective by the end of the scene, all the while interacting with actors with their own objectives.  Mr. & Mrs. Bunny are the resourceful detectives (they find ways around such insurmountable issues as Madeline's "enormous bottom"), The is the fairly useless, time-wasting Marmot, Flo & Mildred are the even more useless, clueless hippie kidnappees ("Hey," Flo called to the guard fox. "You think you could get Midlred, like, a salad or something? You got union lettuce, right?"), the Grand Poobah is the classic bad guy (he signs his notes "The Enemy") who can't seem to get his kidnappees to realize they're in danger, much less get them to give him the information he needs (much less understand that Fox and French are not interchangeable).  And the entire cast of characters is held together by Madeline, the responsible human driving the plot forward in her goal to rescue her parents.

Does a fun, well-written book that lacks a deeper message have a shot at the Newbery?  Decide for yourself, and have a few laughs while you're at it.  

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

To recommend other titles to the committee, please email newberysuggestions@kcls.org. 

Promise the Night by Michaela MacColl

Beryl is a willful girl, brash and headstrong. And it is young Beryl Markham to whom the reader is first introduced, although intercalary chapters give brief glimpses of her adult days as an aviatrix.  Growing up in the part of Africa that is now Kenya, Beryl learns warrior skills from the Nandi tribesmen who are her neighbors. Experiences she has with the indigenous Africans include wrestling, lion hunting, and jumping as high as her head.

Beryl values the freedom, bravery, and strength she develops while working with the Nandi; her father, however, is concerned that she will be ostracized from proper British society. His solution is to send her to a boarding  school in Nairobi, where Beryl learns that girls, like lions, are dangerous creatures. She stays at the institution for a year before declaring her independence in a spectacular fashion, quitting the school moments before the headmistress declares her expelled.

This biographical narrative tracks the upbringing of a strong adventuress, with enough quick looks into her flying exploits to elicit interest in reading more about her.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5

To recommend other titles to the committee, please email newberysuggestions@kcls.org.

A Diamond in the Desert by Kathryn Fitzmaurice.

To give up your favorite sport would be hard; to give up your home, too, would be nearly impossible. Based on actual events, Kathryn Fitzmaurice's new title A Diamond in the Desert records the difficulties twelve-year old Tetsu endures when his Japanese-American family is relocated from their California farm to the Gila River Relocation Center in Rivers, Arizona, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Due to the lack of privacy in the open stall latrines, Tetsu's little sister Kimi has trouble using them without hiding beneath a pillow case. Tetsu is eager to return to the impromptu baseball diamond he and fellow prisoners have built behind their barracks; he'd rather be practicing for the inter-camp baseball competition than babysitting Kimi while she uses the toilet. Angry and resentful, she runs away, and once rescued, succumbs to 'desert fever'. Burdened by the responsiblity he feels for his sister's debilitating illness, Tetsu gives up his favorite (and only) activity: baseball.

This book is an excellent read for children ages 10 and up, especially those with an interest in World War II history and its grim treatment of Japanese-Americans. Fitzmaurice makes tangible the restless energy and boredom felt by Tetsu and the other boys in camp; at first they turn against each other, but when a former coach gathers the boys, a healthy rivalry forms. Together they build both the team and playing field which help the families endure the long, hot days of prison camp life, culminating in games against the Arizona State champions. A quick read, sources are included for further research on Japanese Relocation Camps and the history of Japanese Americans in baseball.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 points.

To recommend other titles to the committee, please email newberysuggestions@kcls.org. 

Little Dog, Lost by Marion Dane Bauer

Buddy is a dog who is looking for a new family and home.  Her previous owner moved to the city and could not take the lovable canine with him.  Mark is a boy who dreams of being a dog owner.  For example, he longs for a pet so much that he pats the edge of his bed so that his imaginary dog can leap up onto his bed and sleep next to him each night.  He cannot convince his mother to allow him to have a dog.  His numerous failed attempts lead him to figure out an alternative to owning a dog.  Mark and his friends form "The Dog Pack-Park" with Mark as their leader.  There is a town meeting and Mark is responsible to give a speech to city council and convince them that their sleepy town needs to have a dog park . There's only one catch-- his mother is the mayor.
Will Mark be able to make an argument that will have the mayor aka his mother and the rest of the town in support of building a new dog park?   

This is a charming, heartwarming story that will bring a smile to any animal lover.  The reader will be rooting for Buddy, Mark, and Mr. Larue to have positive events come their way.  The narrator captures the reader in a thoughtful, engaging tone.  The chase scene that involves the entire town is absolutely hilarious!  With that being stated, the pace is a bit slow at the beginning and I wish that the author did not try to quickly wrap up all of the pieces in the last few pages.  Without giving too much away, there is an unrealistic change of heart towards one of main characters that needs to have more of an explanation behind it.   It's a predictable plot but if you're looking for a sweet book, then Little Dog, Lost is a perfect fit.  Rating: 3.0 out of 5.0

To recommend other titles to the committee, please email newberysuggestions@kcls.org.

 

Prairie Evers by Ellen Airgood

Publication Date: August 2nd, 2012

Prairie was perfectly content living in North Carolina and being homeschooled by her grandmother.  Her sheltered life starts to crumble when her parents move to New York.  Not only does Prairie have to deal with regional differences but her parents decide that she should go to public school.  Prairie is not used to relating to peers on a daily basis and it takes a toll on her.  She is grateful to meet Ivy, who is her first true friend.  Prairie and Ivy can relate to each other but Ivy reveals a rough part of her childhood that still haunts and impacts her.  There are uplifting aspects of the story that balance out the hardships. The dynamic duo are great business partners as they figure out the best method to sell Prairie's hen's eggs.   Although Prairie resists public schools, the reader quickly realizes that the protagonist learns more about herself than if she would have stayed in her safe, little bubble in North Carolina.   

This is an outstanding book that highlights the importance of friendship.  The reader will embrace Ivy and Prairie's precious relationship but it will also show the strong connection that is between Prairie and her grandmother.  It's no wonder that Prairie values her grandmother's wise words whether it be in person or in her letters.  Airgood allows us to learn along with Priairie without it having a condescending tone.  

Rating: 3.25 out of 5.0

To recommend other titles to the committee, please email newberysuggestions@kcls.org.