The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman

I enjoyed The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman, a Newbery-winning novel. Cushman believably created a 1300s scene, and I liked learning about midwifery and superstition in the middle ages. While modern girls won’t face trials as extreme as the girl’s in the novel, they still must develop self-confidence and determine what their own dreams are. The story is therefore highly relevant to pre-teens today, and I only wished it had been longer and more fully developed. Continue reading »

Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman

I was going to read Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin for the US Presidents Reading Project. But then I started to be intimidated by its 800+ pages; I’m currently reading a 700+ page book and I have been for three months. So, while I do plan on reading Goodwin’s book at some point, I thought I’d start a little easier with President Lincoln by going for some of the children’s books about our 16^th president that have won the Caldecott or Newbery awards or honors.

Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman, the Newbery Award winner for 1988, is absolutely fantastic. I learned a lot as I read the short 150 pages about the life Abraham Lincoln, complete with a brief introduction to the political turmoil surrounding him in the 1840s, 1850s and 1860s. I forgot I was reading a children’s book. Continue reading »

Death and War in Children’s Literature: Two Newberys about the Revolution

There was no doubt that John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (reviewed here) was written to teach both children and adults lesson about Christianity and life; there was little attempt to veil the message behind the story.

While the message in modern children’s literature may not be so thinly veiled, to me it seems obvious that authors still impart their subtle messages into a text that is otherwise a story. This is all the more obvious in stories for children.

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (a Newbery Award winner) and My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier (a Newbery Honor book) both tell the story of a 12- to 16-year-old boy during the American Revolution of the 1770s. Both books were written by both accomplished children’s authors and historians; both are accurate portrayals of war. And yet, each story has a distinct message about war. What that message is should be obvious to adults when they realize that Johnny Tremain was written in the 1940s and My Brother Sam was written in the 1970s.

Note: While the following review and analysis may provide “spoilers,” these “spoilers” seem pretty obvious given the subject matter of the books: The American Revolutionary War. Therefore, I don’t believe they would actually “spoil” the book for an interested adult reader. Continue reading »

Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji

I was putting together the list of Newbery Medal winners a few weeks ago, and I saw Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji on the list as winner in the 1920s. A novel about a pigeon? I pictured New York City, Central Park. I pictured the “Feed the Birds” scene in the movie Mary Poppins. I was curious.

Then, the next week, as I looked at Christmas books in the separate “Christmas section” of the library, I saw Gay-Neck perched on the edge of the Juvenile fiction shelf. Could a novel about a pigeon really be interesting? Does a Newbery Medal winner from 1928 stack up to modern children’s literature? I decided to read it. Continue reading »

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlitz

When I heard the concept of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlitz (monologues given by  medieval children), I thought it would be horribly boring. Monologues? I thought. What is fun about monologues? I thought children would be bored by these “Voices from a Medieval Village.”

To my delight, I found Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! to be easy and fun to read. I loved meeting the youth of Schlitz’s created medieval village and I would love to see a group of children perform this collection of monologues: it is a collection of personalities, and it shows how every person in a village has a role, be they rich or poor. I think children would like this book as well! Continue reading »

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

I don’t usually reread children’s fantasy, but as I read one of Madeleine L’Engle’s memoirs, I decided to reread her most well-known novel, A Wrinkle in Time. Continue reading »