Book Review: Newbery 2012 Honors Winner A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd

I finally got to read this book, which I had requested from the library about a month ago, but the copies were all booked up until now.  And I can definitely get behind the Newbery Committee for honoring this book.  It was the book that my son's Mock Newbery Book Club chose as their nominee for the Newbery Winner, and I could see that as well.  It really is an extraordinary book.

It is a very unique take on an unfortunately all-too-common problem.  The protagonist is a young adolescent boy whose single mother is dealing with some kind of illness (I assumed it was cancer).  A monster appears to him at night to tell him stories, in exchange for which the boy is to tell him the truth.  However, as the book proceeds, the whole monster thing remains mysterious.  Is it a dream?  Is it the boy's imagination?  Is it his fears made manifest?  Is it real?  It captures that great quality of confusion that you have right when you wake from an intense dream and can't remember where you are and aren't sure what is real and what isn't.

In the meantime, the boy must deal with the challenges of his daytime life.  Those include a father who has remarried and moved abroad with his new family, school bullies, a perceived betrayal by a friend, and handling the overly-solicitious pity of his teachers.  Ness' portrayal of a young teen in these circumstances is very authentic.

The stories that the monster tells are very thought provoking.  You think they are taking you one place, but you end up in another.  The whole thing is quite unpredictable, which I love in a book.  So as you go along, you are wondering, Is this monster the boy's worst nightmare, or could it be his salvation?

You'll have to answer that question for yourself when you read it.

The excellent text is accompanied by some wonderful illustrations by Jim Kay.  They are more evocative and atmospheric than explaining what is going on, which is perfect for the tone of the book.

All in all, this is just a wonderful read.  It deals with some tough subjects, so it may not be appropriate for sensitive readers at the younger age range of the Newbery book audience.  It is an emotional book, so be prepared for that.  It may be a tough journey, but it's worth it.

Book Review: Newbery 2012 Honors Winner Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin

I had not read this prior to the announcement of the Newbery 2012 Awards, but I immediately requested it from the library (along with the winner, Dead End in Norvelt, which I also hadn't read).  So this review is looking at the book not only on its own, but as one of the Honor winners of this year's Newbery Awards.

Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin

I'm much more torn about this book, having read it knowing it was a Newbery Honors winner, than I think I would have been had I just read it straight.  It is definitely a good book on a really important topic that I don't believe is covered much in American children's literature--namely, the Great Purge, Joseph Stalin's campaign of terror and repression of the Soviet people during the years of 1936-1938.

It is estimated that over 20 million people were killed, imprisoned, or exiled during Stalin's reign, and almost no one could rest confidently in the knowledge that he or she would not be next.   Even the low estimates of actual deaths during that period believe that Stalin's purges killed at least as many people as the Nazis did in the holocaust (not even including the six to seven million who starved to death in the Ukraine from a famine that Stalin basically created).  Yet few students are aware of the fact that Stalin was on par with Hitler in terms of genocide.

So it is definitely an important subject to be covered, and one that is difficult to cover in a way appropriate to early adolescents.  I sympathicize with the author on how difficult it must be to try to walk that narrow path.  Yelchin, who was born and raised in the Soviet Union and whose father survived Stalin's regime, tells the story from the point of view of a young boy who idolizes Stalin and is a true believer in communism.  It is a tale of a dramatic 24 hour period in which several people he knows get caught up in the betrayal, bigotry, denunciation, and disappearance that was so common at that time, and he must figure out what path is right for him.   It is a powerful and affective way for students who are learning about the Stalin purges to experience them through the eyes of someone their own age.

My issue about the book, though, is whether students reading it on their own can really "get"a lot of the messages that are packed into the story.   Since we are studying 20th century history this year, and have been reading about Lenin and Stalin and such, it is a perfect adjunct to the histories and biographies my son has been reading.  But without that context, I don't know that students would understand some of the things that are implied, but not stated.

The problem is enhanced, I think, by Yelchin's writing style.  It is a short book--only 160 pages--and they are little pages, many of which are actually illustrations (Yelchin is a children's book illustrator).  Plus it is pretty simple vocabulary, without a lot of exposition or interior dialogue and such.  This makes it a very quick read.  I read it in under an hour; my son said it took him 20 minutes.  So I think there is a tendency to read through it quickly and to not really consider what the book is suggesting about the Soviet system at that time.  The simple style makes it seem like it is geared to the younger end of the Newbery spectrum--nine or ten year olds--but I don't think many children study anything about Stalin until at least middle school, and sometimes not until high school.    But without some background, I just don't think students are going to pick up on what I think the book is really saying.

In short, I think it is a wonderful resource to have on hand when studying this awful period of history.  But I'm not sure it works as a stand-alone book for this age.  I think it suffers in comparison to a book like Words in the Dust, which did such a masterful job of conveying an alien world that most middle schoolers know nothing about, but feel they understand after completing the book.  I don't think middle schoolers feel that way about Stalin's USSR after reading this book.  So, personally, I don't think I would have given this book a Newbery Honor award.

But I do honor Yelchin for trying to write a book on such a difficult topic for this age, but one that definitely needs more visibility.  And I do think it is a marvelous novel to read in conjunction with studying this period.  With some historical knowledge, it can help students understand what that time must have felt like for kids their age, without it becoming too depressing or overwhelming for this stage of development.

Book Review: Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night (2011 Newbery Honor Winner)

After the fairly surprising 2011 Newbery winners announcement, I'm trying to read the 4-out-of-5 Newbery winners that I hadn't even read.  So I started with the easiest of the four:  a book of poetry entitled Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman.

I have to say that I just don't get this book as a Newbery winner.  Don't get me wrong--it's a lovely book.  It contains a poem about some denizen of the night on the left page, with a beautiful block printed and then hand colored picture on the right page, along with a column of some scientific facts about that creature on the right-hand side of the page.  The poetry is quite good and evokes a lot of senses, particularly sound and feeling (as is appropriate for a book about the night).  The scientific information is interesting if not extensive.  The pictures are gorgeous; in fact, I could more easily see this as a Caldecott winner than as a Newbery.

I guess my real issue is that the writing doesn't seem THAT phenomenal to me, and the concept isn't that much different than other books I've read.  And it also seems rather slight to me, as the entire book only contains 12 poems.  However, because it contains several different forms of poetry, including rhymed couplets, free verse, and a beautiful owl-shaped concrete poem that the animal lovers in my fall poetry class would have loved, it is a great curriculum resource for an introductory poetry class.  I would classify it as an upper elementary level book, rather than middle school, although it is sophisticated enough that middle schoolers and above can also appreciate it.

So I don't know...obviously, the Newbery Committee sees something that I missed.  I certainly enjoyed it, but I would not have given this book one of these highly-coveted award.  But I'm open to education!  If anyone else really loves this book, please let us know why in the comments section below.

My 2011 Newbery Award Winners

Last night my son's mock Newbery Book Club made their selections for what book they thought should win the 2011 Newbery Award.  I didn't want to influence his decision, so I've been keeping my opinions to myself.  However, since the actual awards will be announced Monday morning, I thought I would share my choices for this prestigious award for the best American book for middle school children published in 2010.

There are so many good books that it is hard to chose, but I finally came up with the following decision:

1.  Countdown by Deborah Wiles
This book gets my nod for the best book of the year because it does such a wonderful job of not only helping young readers experience a particular moment in American history (the Cuban Missile Crisis), but it explores a number of other societal issues (the aftermath of war, civil rights, individuality versus conformity) as well as the typical questions worrying the average middle schooler (Does he/she like me?  Is he/she really my best friend?  Can I fit in with the popular crowd?).  The characters are well drawn and interesting, the author does a great job of juggling and eventually tying together the multiple plot threads, and the conclusions of the different threads are satisfying and not predictable.  I also loved the pictures and quotes scattered through the book that also try to give the reader a better picture of life in the 1960's.  This book has stuck with me, and gets my vote for top book of the year.  (Click here to read my original review of the book.)

Then, in no particular order, my choices for Newbery Honor awards are:

• The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger (Click here to read my original review of the book)
• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (Click here to read my original review of the book)
• The Cardturner by Louis Sachar (Click here to read my original review of the book)
• They Called Themselves the K.K.K: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti  (Click here to read my original review of the book)

You can see the reasons I liked these books in my original reviews, so I won't repeat them here.  Most of these are on many of the short lists of Mock Newbery clubs and others who are trying to predict the Newbery winner.  The one that isn't usually mentioned is The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger.  I chose it over two other books that most people see as top Newbery contenders--Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine (see my review here) and  Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper (see my review here).  Both of those are also great books; Mockingbird won the National Book Club best children's book award for 2010, and Out of My Mind was the favorite of both of the two area library Mock Newbery clubs.  However, I felt Mockingbird was really a teen read, but is a superior book to Out of My Mind.  But Origami Yoda contains a similar message, but delivers it in a lighter, humorous, much more accessible way.  Especially if you are trying to reach boys who aren't great readers...I just don't see them picking up books about dealing with the grief of a school shooting or trying to get into the head of a girl with Asperger's or quadriplegia.  And the concept is so original and appealing--I mean, who doesn't like Yoda?  And who ever imagined a talking origami puppet?  I think middle school students can really appeal to the situation of the kids in the book, and even the casual reader will be drawn in by the style and humor and stick around to the end for a great lesson.  Origami Yoda isn't the lengthy, serious tome that apparently is generally preferred by the Newbery Committee, but I think it is a terrific little book and deserves some recognition.  The other thing that sticks out is that I seem to have a thing going with the 1960's, since three of my five books deal with that time period.

Other than Origami Yoda, my top picks and my son's don't overlap (OY was one of his top five, but you can see his top three by clicking here to see his blog post).  He had a tougher job than I did, because he read three times as many Newbery possibilities as I did.  I have to say that I am really proud of him, because he read 42 potential Newbery books in his 8 months in the Newbery Club (which works out to about 1 1/4 Newbery book every week).

Now we just have to wait until Monday, when the official winners will be announced.

Celebrating the Freedom To Read

Today one of our local libraries had "Freedom To Read" events all day long in honor of Banned Books Week, a program spearheaded by the American Library Association to fight censorship of books in public libraries.  At our local event, people from the community read passages from their favorite books that have been challenged or banned from either school or community libraries.

This was an eye-opening event for me because while we hear occasionally about such things as families trying to remove the Harry Potter series from libraries because it promotes the occult, I thought that we had grown beyond quite so much focus on censorship.  However, the BBW produced a booklet of the books that, in 2009-2010,  people had challenged and, in many cases, have been successful in either restricting or banning completely from schools and libraries, and I was amazed to see how many books are still being disputed.  Some I'm not familiar with, but from the title alone, I could see how some people might have concerns (although they all seemed to be appropriate to me for an audience above the elementary level).  Some, however, I found unbelievable.   In Texas, one father objects to the Newbery Honors award winner The Egypt Game because it features "evil gods and black magic."  While libraries across the country are doing special programs in honor of the 50th anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird, a school in Ontario removed the book because it uses "the N word."  A school in California has pulled The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary because it contains definitions of sexual activities.  But the worst of all to my mind--the schools in Virginia that agreed to drop The Diary of Anne Frank from their curriculum because it contained "sexual material and homosexual themes."

The library also had a book of the 100 most-frequently challenged, restricted, or banned books of all times.  Many of them I had heard complaints about, such as Catcher in the Rye, Fahrenheit 451, and the like.  But some of the most popular middle school writers and books were on the list, including Newbery winner A Wrinkle in Time ("can confuse children about good and evil and lists Jesus Christ in the same category as premier artists, philosophers, and scientists"), Junie B. Jones ("sassy behavior"), and Are You There, God?  It's Me, Margaret ("frank treatment of adolescent sexuality and religion").  More predictably, the Twilight series also made the list for its sexual content.  The one that really knocked me for a loop, though, was the attempt to ban Draw Me a Star by Eric Carle.  ERIC CARLE?  He of the torn painted tissue paper?  And the reason listed for the challenge was "sexual content and nude illustration."  ERIC CARLE???  It took me two libraries, but I finally tracked down a copy of the book.  There is one illustration of two naked people by a tree that I assume are supposed to be Adam and Eve, although the book does not say that.  And there are vague suggestions of male and female anatomy, although I doubt it is anything that the target audience (which should be around 3-6, given the simplicity of the language and story) would notice.

Anyway, it was all a great reminder for me of how much I take our libraries, our relatively open-minded community, and our American freedoms of expression for granted.

If you want to check out the list of book challenges over the past year for yourself, visit the ALA site.