This year’s Newbery winner was When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. I was not that impressed when I finished the book, but following my discussion in class, I developed a greater appreciation for the book and can see why it was chosen.

Summary (without giving too much away):

A twelve year old girl in 1970s New York City is helping her single mom prepare for the gameshow $20,000 Pyramid. She deals with losing friends and making friends, but the mystery that will grab the reader from the beginning is Miranda begins to receive mysterious and desperate notes asking for her help.

Why did this book win the Newbery?

According to Newbery’s criteria, “The book should display respect for children’s understandings, abilities, and appreciations.”

I think the voice of Miranda was both accurate and credible. Her views of New York, adults, friendship are all typical of a child her age and voiced in such a way that you believe everything she says. The book showed a lot of progression in how Miranda views the world, particularly through her relationships with her friends and where she fits into the world. Many of the ways and words in which Miranda expresses herself are distinctly child views, but not childish. Just a first understanding of how things work. For example, the chapter about the dentist. Miranda expresses that it’s weird to go to the dentist in school, is lectured by Wheelie, and then thinks about what her mother would do if she knew about a free dentist at school. Miranda reveals her innocence, learns a lesson, and then uses her parent as reference to frame the information, which is typical of a child. Miranda also has a fantastic sense of humor, and makes countless wry statements that will have you smiling to yourself, if not laughing out loud.

The well-knit ending probably earned this book the quality of being “individually distinct.” I don’t want to ruin anything, but the ending brings the whole book together, and you see that EVERY SINGLE MOMENT had a specific purpose within the story.

Why I didn’t like the book initially:

It irked me that we, the readers, were purposely left out of the loop when it was clear the narrator knew the whole story at points. I realize this would have ruined the surprise ending, but I don’t like that the author withheld information known to the narrator. I think this is a cheap suspense technique that only confuses and frustrates your reader.

My favorite part of the book:

The similes. The author created some really fresh and original images through the use of similes. This book had some really memorable images that will stick with you after you finish. For example: There was one description of a girl who needed to use the restroom in class: “Alice Evans was squirming in her chair like she was doing the hula dance.” That part made me giggle!

I’d love to hear what other people thought of this book!

The sequel to this book is coming out in about a month, and I’m hoping I can get it on my Kindle like I did the first one.

The book is a cool twist on werewolves. When you’re bit, you have a certain number of years that you’ll be able to change back to human. Transformations are caused by cold temperatures, so you are human in the summer and change back to wolf when it gets cold again. It was a fantastic way to create tension because you wanted Sam to stay human and the author constantly put him in situations that threatened him with cold.

Cute love story. Wanted to recommend it to my middle school kids who love Twilight, but then there was sex and I couldn’t justify recommending a book to a class of 12 year olds with teen sex. Oh well.

Maggie Stiefvater is a new fav and I’ll be looking for the sequel Linger next. Her blog is super cute and I read it often. Check it out here: http://m-stiefvater.livejournal.com/

This was fantastic. I would recommend it to anyone, a great summer read. Probably my favorite Shannon Hale book, which is saying a lot as I enjoyed both Princess Academy and Goose Girl.

This Mongolian/Chinese fairy tale is a cross between Rapunzel and Cinderella. The story is told in diary form by a maid named Dashti who agrees to be locked in a tower for seven years with the Lady she serves. Dashti became such a real character through the diary and is a heroine that is worthy of respect and admiration. Shannon Hale always has strong female characters, but Dashti now has a special place in my heart.

The story is told beautifully. The characters are memorable. The setting is thoroughly unique and believable. (In fact, I thought the story was based on real legends/mythology and was shocked to discover Hale made most of it up!) The plot is seamless. The resolution is satisfying.

I highly recommend this book to girls both young and old. Wonderful book!

Inspired by my last post, here’s a bit about the Atherton series by Patrick Carman!

In the future, Earth is too dirty to support human life. A genius scientist created a satellite world that orbits Earth called Atherton. However, the people of Atherton don’t realize they are part of an experiment. Chaos breaks loose when the center of Atherton begins to sink into the core of the satellite.

Atherton: House of Power

Read on the recommendation of two students and I’m very glad I did! An exciting story in a fascinating world. In fact, the world steals the show! The setting is a character in itself, and while completely unfamiliar, Carman has masterfully crafted a world that anyone can picture, smell, and taste. Characters were memorable and spunky. Great science fiction for kids!

This was the first book I read on my Kindle! 🙂

Atherton: Rivers of Fire

The author has a clever imagination, and the worlds he creates are unique a vivid. The sequel to “House of Power” was well-done and satisfying. I sometimes get a little annoyed by the 3rd person omniscient point-of-view, and would prefer a 3rd person limited. Perhaps it bothers me because not many authors write in that point-of-view for children/YA, and sometimes it felt like Carman was “telling not showing.” This series was supposedly inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which I am starting to see, though it makes me want to do a fresh read of Frankenstein to see if there are closer similarities.

I think these books would be fantastic to use in schools…

Can’t wait to read the last one!