Echo / Pam Munoz Ryan / 587 pgs

This book was beautiful. This book may end up being the best book I read all year. I don't know if anything can top the greatness that is this book. It's equal parts fantasy and historical fiction and it didn't read too young for me, more like one of the later Harry Potter books.

The story of a magical harmonica and three sisters tasked with finding someone to save is gorgeous and haunting and I can't even come up with enough words to describe it. The harmonica in question goes from person to person. First it shows up in the hands of a boy living in Germany in the early 1930s, as Hitler is rising in power and those who don't agree with Nazism are carted away to work in prison camps. Second, it finds its way to an orphan boy living in Philadelphia just a couple of years later. Lastly, it finds its way to a Hispanic girl living in California in 1942, after the U.S. has entered World War II. The way the story ties up in the end is perfect.

I can't recommend this book enough. I read it to fulfill the 2019 Read Harder Challenge category "A children’s or middle grade book (not YA) that has won a diversity award since 2009." If you're doing the Read Harder challenge, you should definitely read the book.

I both read and listened to the book. The parts of the audio book I listened to were wonderful because the harmonica music is incorporated into the story. It was really neat to hear the harmonica played so beautifully and emotionally.

The Graveyard Book / Neil Gaiman/ 307 p./ scary story for October

     This Newbery Award Book is about as scary a book as I read.  Story is about a boy who's family was murdered when he was one year old.  He is raised in a graveyard by ghosts and has a mysterious guardian who can pass into the world to bring him food.  The author introduced the entire spectrum of creatures that have to do with death.  The story continues until the boy becomes "of age" and is ready for the world and the murderer is gone.  I'm sure it would have quite scared me as a child, but while each new set of characters or incidents were unique and a complete story in themselves, I was quite okay reading it at night.  
That being said, I just didn't care for the book, but I am sure kids love it.

Hundred Dress / Eleanor Estes 80 p.

Wanda Petronski is different from all the other girls in her class.  When they joke and carry on, she just smiles from the sidelines.  She never has much to say.  She wears the same old blue dress every day.  It is always clean, but it's the same dress every day.  When she tells about the 100 dresses hanging in her closet at home, her classmates laugh at her.  They ask her about the dresses.  They carry on about all these 100 dresses.  Wanda describes them in great detail.  But the classmates scoff-- till they learn Wanda's secret.  A wonderful story that tackles the subject of bullies and those who don't actually participate...but let it happen.

Miracles on Maple Hill / Virginia Sorensen / 180 pages

     This is a Newbery winner from the 1950's about the transformation within the family after the father returns from war (probably WWII).  It sounds like PTSD before that was identified.  The father is angry and wants to be alone.  The family moves to the mother's grandmother's farm in rural Pennsylvania from Pittsburgh.     They arrive at sugaring time.  The story continues until after the next year's sugaring time.
     Marly, the daughter, is the main character and her interactions with her brother and family and the neighbor, Mr. Chris, form the story.  Her love of nature is the basis of the story.  It has the transformative power of nature as a theme similar to the book The Secret Garden.  The father mellows out and returns to his former self.  The descriptions of the flowers and plants make you wish you were on these adventures.  Marly's love of animals is a great addition as it points up the conundrums of man vs. animal ethics.  (I see her as a future animal rights activist).
     Very interesting in this book are the male/female roles.  Marly many times "lets' her brother be the first to see or do something because he is a boy and boys "need" to be first.  She is not allowed to roam while her brother can go anywhere he wants without even saying where he is going.  She also does the "women" chores while her brother does the "men" chores.  I love how she has glimmers of the future when she questions some of these things.  I see a budding feminist.  Good book.

The One and Only Ivan / Katherine Applegate / 300 p.

Sweet, sweet story that tugs at the heart strings. Ivan is a silverback gorilla who has lived a sad and solitary existence for decades in a cage in a mall. But he has a few other animal friends with whom he has bonded. The introduction of a new baby elephant to the mall's odd menagerie spurs Ivan to a bold move to work toward a better life for them all. This would be a great read-aloud--a couple of chapters at a time--for children around 7-10 years old. 2013 Newbery winner.

Flora and Ulysses / Kate DiCamillo / 231 pages

Newbery Winner.  What else should I say?
     Very engaging book about a girl, Flora, a squirrel, Ulysses, a neighbor boy, William Spiver, and other assorted people, including her divorce parents.
     At first it seems like an entertaining fantasy about a squirrel that can type poetry, but there are many more layers to the story.  This book has the relationships questions and shifting feelings about parents, divorce, and how kids feel about it.  William Spiver has his own issues beyond Flora's and while unresolved, he is at least heard.
     The vocabulary is a big part of this book.  kids will definitely know what "malfeasance" is by the time they are through with the book.  It is rather like her Tales of Despereaux.
     The ending is awesome, but no spoiler alert here!

The Great Gilly Hopkins / Katherine Paterson / 148 pages

This is a 1978 Newbery Honor book about an angry foster girl named Galadrial and called "Gilly".  She is very angry and the author is able to maintain her hostile tone throughout the first half of the book.  She has an unrealistic dream that her wonderful mother will come to claim her and they will live happily ever after.  Discovering reality and adjusting to it is a theme of the book.  She lives with "Trotter" an overweight, but loving foster mother and a fragile boy W.E.  The ending where she finally meets her real mother is realistic and the story stops without saying too much of what will happen next.  The reader can speculate on that.  While this is a pretty interesting book, it is dated and I knew it was from the late '70's.
Not a lot of kids will choose this book today.

Until She Comes Home/Lori Roy/338 pages

A lot is changing on Alder Avenue in Detroit, 1958, and it's not just that Grace is having a baby. The working class white neighborhood is changing with new neighbors moving in, men losing their jobs at the local factory, and vandalism becoming a daily occurrence. The recent murder of a black woman near the factory where their husbands work put on the women on edge, but then the disappearance of Elizabeth, a young woman with a child's mind, pushes everyone over the edge.

There's a lot going on in this novel of secrets and lies in suburbia. Most of it is tied up in the end, and overall, it's an engrossing book.

Three Times Lucky/Sheila Turnage/312 pages

Rising sixth grader Miss Moses LoBeau lives in the small town of Tupelo Landing, NC, where everyone's business is fair game and no secret is sacred. She washed ashore in a hurricane eleven years ago, and she's been making waves ever since. Although Mo hopes someday to find her "upstream mother," she's found a home with the Colonel--a café owner with a forgotten past of his own--and Miss Lana, the fabulous café hostess. She will protect those she loves with every bit of her strong will and tough attitude. So when a lawman comes to town asking about a murder, Mo and her best friend, Dale Earnhardt Johnson III, set out to uncover the truth in hopes of saving the only family Mo has ever known.

Three Times Lucky was a great quick read.  It was named one of the Newbery Honor books for 2013 and was a contestant in the 2013 SLJ Battle of the Books.

The Graveyard Book / Neil Gaiman / 312 pages

This is a smart, dark, and consistently fun "re-telling" of The Jungle Book which replaces the jungle with a graveyard and the animals with ghosts, ghouls, and other creatures. It really deserves all the awards it won, and I really appreciate that, for what is supposedly a YA book, it doesn't pull any punches (in either content or vocabulary). It's a great book that I highly recommend - I'm sure it would've been one of my favorites if I'd read it as a kid.   *Added bonus: Gaiman narrates the audio version and he sounds a lot like Alan Rickman from Harry Potter/Die Hard! Makes for a very entertaining listen. 

 

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler/E. L. Konigsburg/169 pages

Claudia has decided that she is going to runaway from home; but she is going to do so in style.  She is running away to the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.  She has decided that of all her siblings, her brother Jamie would be the best companion to go with her.  While waiting until her parents realize that she is being treated unfairly at home, Claudia and her brother have many adventures and learn new things including the  mystery of a marble angel statue exhibit that may or may not be a Michelanglo.  Claudia decides that she must discover the answer before she and Jamie return home, a journey that leads them to Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the former owner of the statue.  This book was written in 1967 and won the Newbery in 1968, but you would never know it.  It has withstood the test of time to become the classic that it is. 

E. L. Konigsburg is the only author to have won the Newbery Medal and be runner-up in the same year. In 1968 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the Newbery Medal and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was named Newbery Honor Book.

The Snow Empress / Laura Joh Rowland / 293 pgs. / Asia

It is 1699 and in the northern-most region of Japan on the island of Ezogashima the mistress of a powerful, but crazed ruler is murdered.  In order to "persuade" famous detective Sano Ichiro to investigate the crime, Sano's son is kidnapped and held hostage.  It is a race against time as Sano, his wife Reiko, and his band of loyal detectives to uncover the murder without boiling over the tensions that are already bubbling in the region. 

This is book # 12 in Rowland's 17th Century feudal Japan mystery series featuring Samurai and detective, Sano Ichiro.  Even though I have not read any of the other titles in the series I was still able to jump right in and enjoy the story.  It is a great "who-done-it" mystery, with the added bonus that the detective work is based more on guesswork and interviewing the suspects instead of hard forensic evidence.

A Season of Gifts / Richard Peck / 164 pages

This book is a companion book to "A Year Down Yonder" and is a Christmas book as all the stories lead up to the Christmas finale. The story is about the indomitable Mrs. Dowdell, an old woman who can wield an axe, shoot her shotgun, can food, and everything else. This is the story about how she helps the new family next door as well as the whole town. It isn't as good as the first book, but all the incidents are interesting and amusing. I think the reader should read the other book first.

Richard Peck captures 1958 pretty well and it is set in a rural Illinois town. I think an older child would get more out of this book. Actually, I think seniors would quite enjoy this as well since they remember 1958.

Crossed / Ally Condie / 367p

 In this sequel to Matched, we find Ky fighting and Cassia farming in different areas of the Outer Provinces.  Ky is just trying to survive while Cassia is biding her time to escape and look for Ky.  Cassia and Ky both make a run for it (both with a new friend in tow) and eventually meet up.  But are Ky's and Cassia's plans the same?  And what is the secret about Xander that only Ky knows?  An excellent follow up to the original story - it keeps you on the edge of your seat just like the first and will make you anxiously await the third installment!  Give to fans of, of course, Matched.  But introduce the series to fans of any dystopian literature.  (It's like a less violent Hunger Games.)

Sarah, Plain and Tall/Patricia MacLachlan/64 Pages

I have always enjoyed this book, as well as the movie that was made along the same storyline.  It's a fast book to read, and will keep a child's attention.  It's the story of a mail-order bride who moves far away from the ocean to be a mother and wife for a family who has seen tragedy.  With her in their life, they're able to move forward.

Adapted into a movie, it is also the winner of a Newbery Award.

Moon Over Manifest / Clare Vanderpool / 351 pages

This is the 2011 Newbery Award winner and it certainly deserves the award. So many times I cringe when the Newbery is announced and wonder...Is it a book that kids will want to read? Is it a book that helps readers to grow? Is it a book that will retain its appeal over the years? My answer for Moon Over Manifest is yes, yes, yes! This is truly a wonderful book. Perfect for reading aloud....a dreambook for any discussion group. Abilene Tucker, an 11 year old girl, daughter of a wandering dad, is not a character you can easily forget. Manifest, Kansas is the type of town you might know. The people of Manifest are not what they seem. The book is set in 1936 in the hardtimes of the Depression but it also flashes back to 1917-1918 and what was happening during that time. It is about stories and how stories are part of all of our lives and help us to understand who we are. Well, you just have to read this. You will not be sorry and you will want to share it. Read every single word...even the author's note and the acknowlegements. This is a book that is carefully woven and makes your heart feel full.

Hatchet / Gary Paulsen 195 p.

Flying to spend his summer with his divorced father, 13 year old Brian Robeson's pilot dies from a massive heart attack. Brian's attempts at radioing for help before the plane runs out of gas fail. As the hours pass, he devises a plan to crash into a lake. Trees would carve the single engine plane to pieces. Thus starts Paulsen's story of survival in the Canadian mountains. Brian's life is stripped down to the barest essentials. He discovers truths about survival in the wilderness both mental and physical. A read-alike for this may be My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George.

Newbery Honor Book
ALA Notable Children's Book

Moon Over Manifest/ by Clare Vanderpool/ 351 pages/ Newbery Award

This year's Newbery winner is a historical fiction story set in a small Kansas town during 1936. It centers around young Abilene Tucker, who arrives new to the town of Manifest right as summer is starting.

The story alternates between Abilene's current time in Manifest (in 1936) and what she hopes is her father's time in the town (in 1918). As she pieces together parts of the town's past and learns more about her own, she comes to some personal understandings about people in the town and about her own family.

The story was a slower read for me, but I did find the back and forth format between past and present helped keep me interested in finding out what happened next. Overall, I'd recommend it to upper-elementary school kids already into historical fiction.

The Midwife's Apprentice/Karen Cushman/122 pages/ Newbery Award, Notable Children's Book (ALA) , Best Book for Young Adults (ALA)

This is the story of a girl without a place or a name, who happens upon a village with one midwife.  Hungry for food and with no place to go, she become's the midwife's apprentice, helping her to gather and prepare the herbs needed for her practice, though never allowed to be present for a baby's birth, for fear the midwife would have competition if the girl were to learn all her secrets.  The girl befriends a cat, who she feeds scraps of her own meager food, and also a young boy named Edward.  After suffering bouts of feelings of inadequacy and running away, she returns to the midwife to be the apprentice once again, and in the end finding herself a place and a name.

The last chapter has facts about the age-old practice of midwifery for those who know little of the subject.

Winner of the 1996 Newbery Award, 1996 Notable Children's Book (ALA), 1996 Best Book for Young Adults (ALA), New York Public Library 1995 List of Recommended Books, Booklist Book for Youth Editor's Choice, School Library Journal Best Books of the Year 1995, and An American Bookseller Association Pick of the Lists