This was a lovely little fairy tale that had just enough familiar pieces that I thought I knew where everything was going, but just enough originality that I was intrigued throughout and couldn’t put it down, even though I was pretty sure there was sad stuff coming. Plus, two truly excellent secondary characters (I want a Glerk and a Fyrian of my very own – this book should come with a swamp monster and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon). Once upon a time, there was a […]
People don’t want to listen to their thoughts, so they fill the world with noise.
In my ongoing quest to read all the Newbery Award Winners, I decided to read the most recent addition to the list. Hello, Universe won the Newbery Award in 2018, and boy am I under the impression that 2017 was a bad year for children’s books. It’s not a bad book, per se, it’s just not great in the way I’ve come to expect Newbery winners to be. It was a very fast read, even for a children’s novel, and it contained about a short […]
Then they don’t have to depend on the wind anymore.
When You Reach Me won the Newbery Medal in 2010, and it kind of let me wondering if 2009 was just a bad year for published children’s novels. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine novel but I don’t think it holds up the way other Newbery winners have in the past. It is very strong on the nostalgia factor though, which makes me wonder if that is one of the reasons it won. Nostalgia for the Medal awarders obviously, not the children who read […]
Dolittle the Animal Lover
In my quest to read all the Newbery Medal winners, I decided to tackle one of the oldest books given this award and The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle. I had a hard time getting through this, and I need to be honest here, I skimmed a lot of this book. A LOT. If it weren’t for my stated goal of reading all the Newbery Medal Winners, I don’t think would have done finished the book. The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle won the Newbery Medal in […]